Latest Contributions by CharlieFitzpatrick

T3G 2011 participant and science teacher Suzie Flentie runs a GIS Club at Lewistown (MT) Junior High School. The team won Montana's "Samsung Solve for Tomorrow" challenge, creating a survey with Survey123 and an app with Web AppBuilder, to help people report on emergencies and less dire situations where help is needed. (See entry movie.) They earned for the school $25k in tech from Samsung, and then went to the state GIS conference and presented there, and earned a cash award there. (Cool!) The local news picked up on the story and you can see it here: http://www.ktvh.com/2018/04/lewistown-junior-high-school-club-creates-natural-disasters-condition-app GREAT JOB, Suzie and team!! We ALWAYS want to know about these situations where students (or educators) get some recognition because of the use of GIS. Please be sure to let us know about these episodes! ... View more

"Insights" is a cool new product. It will be added to education site licenses, but is not there yet. It is available in the T3G Org, but will not be added automatically to everyone's login. If you want it added to yours, email [email protected] and let me know. If you just want to learn more about it, or go thru an exercise, see these: http://www.esri.com/insights http://learn.arcgis.com ... View more

Some people are natural teachers. Kids (and even adults) flock to them because they are friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, hard workers, and effective communicators who deal with the people first and tasks second. They stand out like neon lights, and are found in all grade bands and subject areas. Science teacher Erika Klose, of Winfield (WV) Middle School, is one of those. But Friday was Erika's last day teaching her cherished kids. She is stepping up. As a middle school student, Erika became obsessed with the just-rediscovered Titanic, helped her father restore old houses, and expected to study art in college. After a geology course captivated her during first semester of college, she got a BA in earth science, then an MS in geology and geophysics … which included a class in GIS. That one GIS class (1999, command line ArcInfo) got her an internship at USGS Woods Hole. It was a "trial by fire" project on coastal vulnerability for the whole US, managing huge amounts of inconsistent data, with a presentation to give at a big international conference in just six weeks. It led to six years of seafloor mapping and data crunching. "I had two Macs, two PCs, and two Linux machines running constantly in my office … just me and six computers," she laughs. "But one of my tasks was outreach, and I began going into middle schools … and LOVED it. I knew I had to make a change. I went to West Virginia, got my Masters in teaching, and the day I finished student teaching, my cooperating teacher resigned." She took over in January 2008, and has spent the last decade teaching science to students in grades 6-8, mostly 7th grade. "I have kids for a semester, about 160 per year. And last Thursday, I stood in the hall, and 147 kids got in a line one by one and hugged me. It was great, and awful, and I just came back in the room and cried." Because Erika is stepping up, for teachers across the state. At an "Intro to ArcMap" training in 2010 for teachers exploring GIS, reluctant participant Erika was discovered in the back row quietly building the periodic table atop a map of West Virginia, in GIS. One of the leaders looked at her and asked "Who ARE you?" Since then, Erika has attended Esri's Teachers Teaching Teachers GIS Institute and led GIS instruction of teachers across WV (and other states), first in desktop and then online GIS. She has helped update some state standards to include use of GIS. She earned certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, is incoming president of the West Virginia Science Teachers Association, earned a $10,000 prize for her school via the Day of Code challenge, and was Esri Teacher Video Challenge awardee in September 2017. Then, in October 2017, she was a Milken Family Foundation award winner, one of 47 nationally (with a great surprise video). So now? "Starting Monday, I am 'Coordinator for STEM and Computer Science' for the WV Dept of Education." She has to work on redesigning standards, upgrading current teaching, growing the pipeline of well-trained teachers, and bridging diverse communities. "I think my ability to solve problems is one of my greatest strengths. I'm not afraid of things, like breaking software (just uninstall it if you kill it), or building stuff, or getting dirty. My parents gave me that. They let me DO a lot of things … and, I'll have a lot to do here." So what of teachers and kids and GIS? "They are different as learners. Teachers come in with the idea they need to be expert to present it in their class, and that's a barrier that is really hard to break thru, because teachers are also coming at it from the logistical side … software, controls, data, institutional barriers. Really, they just have to learn just this much" [cupping her hands together as if to enclose a baseball] "and just let kids go. Kids just do it. They're not afraid. They focus on the contents and yell 'Look at this!', and don't care about the software. They just do it, and LOVE GIS!" Will this new job be a challenge? "I'm ready for the challenge. I've said 'I'm a teacher' for so long that that's what I still am. My heart hurts leaving, but one of my friends said 'You're the one that should go and do this, for us, and for the kids.' So I'm ready. I'm there to make a difference, for all of 'em out there." ... View more

Across USA, a committed crew is making waves. In 2009, Esri launched Teachers Teaching Teachers GIS (or "T3G"), an Institute for educators anxious to help other educators use GIS for instruction. In T3G, exploring the latest tools goes hand-in-hand with investigating classroom content, modeling instructional strategies, discussing professional development, and sharing stories of problem-solving. Participants commit to spreading to others the power of GIS and Esri's free tools and materials, through workshops, presentations, mentoring, and beyond. 2017 launched the "synchronous online instruction" era for T3G (above). The 2018 event will be similar, with eight hours of activity spread over two consecutive Saturdays (July 28 and August 4). Participants need foundational comfort with using ArcGIS Online, teaching with technology, and providing professional development. T3G 2018 will boost participants' capacity to meld the three. The information page links to key resources for building those critical foundations in advance. T3G 2018 registration opens March 1, with 60 slots available. Participation is free, and expects commitment to share with others during the coming years. T3G grads have taught educators across the country, amplifying the rising tide of users visible on the map of "ArcGIS School Bundles," building a collection of teacher videos, and encouraging students to engage in local projects and competitions. If you're anxious to help other teachers use GIS to transform education and improve the world, join us in T3G 2018! ... View more

Various writings present how to collaborate (or not) with ArcGIS Online. This page links to several. Fun With GIS 227: Collaboration in ArcGIS Online, Jan 2 2018 How can students collaborate on a map?, Oct 12 2016 Making a Group Map, July 31 2016 ... View more

ArcGIS Online presentations rock! They present viewers with an interactive set of content, in a linear fashion, all in a single map or scene, with minimal tools. Story Maps have taken the world by storm, but anything beyond the very simplest take significant time and "another app" to build. Presentations, however, are just customized views of a single map or scene, and a total novice with a saved map can build a reasonable presentation in just a few minutes. See this simple 2D presentation about earthquakes (from Row 5 of the ArcGIS Online Skillbuilder). Note the navigation tools, top left and bottom center: pan/zoom or choose your slide, and that's it ("identify feature" works too). Header text doubles as slide name. The creator gets to emphasize his/her info, sequencing the exposed and highlighted content, and the viewer gets to follow or explore but only as the creator permits. To build a presentation, one must be logged in (both Organization-based and public logins work) and have a saved map to work with. Let's try an example, using a specific GeoInquiry. Go to http://www.esri.com/geoinquiries and click the "Elementary" icon. Scroll down to "08 - Where does the water go?" and click the lesson icon. Open the Map URL: http://esriurl.com/fourgeoinquiry8. (it's OK to use the current tab.) Notice that you cannot create a presentation until you own the map. Sign in, and then immediately choose to save the map in your contents. Once signed in and with map saved, "Create Presentation" appears next to your login. Click it. Click the green "+" button to begin creating a slide. From here on, it just takes deciding what you want to show, in what sequence. In the title box near the top, type some text, such as "My Watershed Presentation;" it shows atop the map. Pan & zoom to adjust the map extent as desired, then click the green "SET TO CURRENT" button to lock in the current map extent as the starting point for this slide. Turn layers on/off, and/or change the basemap as desired. Open a popup, and click the checkbox if you want it to open with the slide. You've completed a slide! Now just repeat steps 6-10 as desired. You can shuffle the slide sequence, and edit existing slides. Remember to SAVE your presentation, and hit the PLAY button to test it. It takes some experience to get good at building just the right presentation in the 2D Map Viewer, and the 3D Scene Viewer takes more, but they are very powerful for instruction. Using just a single map, a presentation forces the map creator to think critically about the design of their map, and about the user experience. There's no option for external media to complicate things. This is crucial, focusing the learner on the contents, how they are represented, and what are the most significant lessons … making presentations a nice little performance task for teachers who crave these. Consider having your students build presentations using a GeoInquiry. In a 40-minute period, you could spend 15 minutes going through the lesson, then ask students to spend 15 minutes creating a 3-slide presentation, then have them spend 10 minutes sharing their creation with someone else, before wrapping up. The "tedious and time-consuming part" (creating the map) is already done, so teachers and students can focus on the most critical part -- what does it all mean? -- in the precious few minutes available in class. ... View more

[[Updated at bottom, Sept.30, 2018]] [[Updated again at bottom, April 28, 2020, recommending https://esriurl.com/appsinschools]] Can you make sense of this table? Student,envir,item,state,condition,height_m,dbh_cm,attchmt,locmethod 123,boulevard,NLE_tree,alive,stressed,11,18.5,img_123.jpg,map_tap Fieldwork is a crucial student experience. Students need to gather data about situations with which they have personal experience, and explore that data in some depth, to understand issues of data quality: relevance, accuracy, precision, fidelity, resolution, currency, and so on. When students design the collection process, gather the data, analyze it, interpret it, and present it, they build the data literacy so essential today. But with instructional time limited, teachers sometimes shortcut the design/discovery and collection/assembly phases, at the cost of student comprehension. The ArcGIS School Bundle includes tools that can help students experience the full range of data work with nothing more than a web browser. Using multiple tools shows how technology can multiply (rather than just add) capacity. Various technologies help educators and students design surveys to gather data (including photos or other attached files), but Survey123 adds the great power of geography: What is the location about which the user is gathering data? Then, what patterns differ between here and there? The data collector can rely on a mobile device’s GPS or choose the location on a map. However, K12 student data collection often needs to be done offline (out of wifi coverage, without consuming cell data; think “airplane mode”), and Survey123 does not currently include an easy, browser-only mechanism for acquiring and using a high resolution basemap offline ... but Collector does! Survey123 and Collector are not identical in the data they handle and ways they do it, so a survey being planned for use with Collector needs careful attention to design. Collector handles well the most critical field types for surveys in schools: text fields, numbers (both integer and floating point), single choice (radio button or pull-down), file attachments, and point location. Any ArcGIS Org login with publishing privilege may use Survey123 to design a survey with these components, publish it (which creates an editable feature service offering attachments), set the layer permissions for syncing, create a map with that service as a layer, and share the layer and map with a group. Group members with Collector on their mobile devices can access the map, download a relevant basemap, and be ready to use the survey offline. Afterward, the collected data can be a layer in any number of maps in ArcGIS . Single choice and numeric items can be labeled, inspected, classified, filtered, symbolized, and analyzed, while open text items provide essential context. Important considerations for schools in this workflow include: Only the survey creator needs to be a publisher and familiar with Survey123, but building the survey with students as a group process helps them see why and how choices get made All survey users need the Collector app on their mobile device The map with the editable feature service must be shared to a group in the ArcGIS  Org, and all survey users must use a login that is a member of that group The survey form should focus on the basic question types noted above, and flow through all questions from beginning to end without “branching”, so “required” questions and question sequence need to be considered and designed carefully Question formats, hints, and defaults need to be planned and tested carefully so each question operates as expected Downloading the basemap in Collector requires attention to map extent and zoom scale, to optimize utility while minimizing bandwidth consumed and storage space required Uploading from Collector the collected data needs planning to minimize network strain (lots of people uploading lots of points with lots of high res images can tax even strong networks) Careful testing and piloting of the entire process (even going through a complete but very small practice activity with students) is advised before embarking on a large project. Best-laid plans can be tripped up by a tiny mistake or overlooked element. For examples of exploring data skills and the power of geography, see the ArcGIS Skillbuilder (row46) The process above can begin in Survey123 with just a browser on a laptop or tablet, for use in the Collector app on tablet or smartphone. Using ArcGIS Desktop to build a high quality data collection form for use with Collector is the focus of Teaching with GIS: Field Data Collection Using ArcGIS, an excellent course designed for educators, on Esri’s Training site. That course is free to anyone with a maintained Esri license, such as the ArcGIS School Bundle. The workflow in this blog is a more “minimalist” approach for the educator who wants to stay just within a web browser and mobile apps. [[Update Sept.30, 2018: See also http://esriurl.com/survey123collector for more detailed descriptions, key updates, critical links, pre-built activities, and discussion.]] [[Update April 28, 2020: The above shortURL 'survey123collector' has been redirected to http://esriurl.com/appsinschools. This is a storymap that updates and improves on information from the original document.]] ... View more

"How can my class collaborate in ArcGIS Online?" This is an inspiringly frequent question. The good news is that there are several key ways, but they need careful attention to process to work well. The number one wrong expectation by ArcGIS Online novices is that the basic Map Viewer works just like a "collaborative word processor," with many people editing a single document at once. It doesn't, for good reason. So, just know that, if ten users log in and open the same map, each is working on his/her own version of that map, and saving happens only when a given user clicks "save," and saves a user-specific document in that user's contents. Now, here's how good collaboration can happen. [1] Users can share documents they have created. OK, sharing is not the same as collaborating, unless thought of in sequential terms. User A can create a map and share with her Org, and/or Group(s) in the Org, and/or the Public. Others can use that as a starting point for their own custom work. (Caution: users planning to save modifications should keep good metadata.) [2] "Ownership of an item" can be reassigned from one user to another, by an Org admin (or "custom helper" with the privilege to reassign). The admin can go into A's contents, and reassign ownership to B, and so on. (Caution: it passes in the condition last saved, so be sure all saving is completed, including metadata updates, and the current owner has closed the doc before reassigning.) [2.1] A "shared public login" (Row 3 of http://esri.box.com/agousestrategies) allows users not in an Org to simulate the process above, but extreme caution and self-control must be exercised here, since everyone using the login has equal access to all items at all times. Strictly following a sequence (A starts a map, makes changes, saves it, then closes it; B opens the map, makes changes, saves it, then closes it; more users follow B's strict sequence) in which only one user at a time has the map open, and it is saved and exited before another person opens it, can work. (Having each user quit their browser immediately after saving will ensure there is no "residual version." Alert: Be sure to update and save the metadata before considering it ready to be passed to another user.) [3] Users in an Org can create and share data layers as components for others to use in building their own map. User A can make a layer of neighborhood parks, B can do stores, C can do bus stops and bike racks, and so on, for sharing with the Group/Org/Public. Each user can then create their own maps. (Alert: If the layer owner changes the layer, those changes will be visible in every map using the layer, which can be in ways other map creator/s might not anticipate.) [3.1] Even Map Note layers can be shared this way, if the creator of a given layer accesses the layer properties while in the map, and chooses "Save the layer," and then navigates to "My Content" and shares the layer with the Group/Org/Public. (In a "shared public account," since everyone is logged in as the same user, formal sharing is not required. See this document for a step-by-step process description.) Map Note layers shared this way are a "feature collection" (essentially "ad hoc geolocated graphics, each with custom attributes") and not a true "hosted feature service," so no filtering is possible. [4] Users can collaborate on generating data, such as field data collection activities, via Survey123 or Collector creations. Here, process leaders can decide to share with only certain people (Group or Org) or open it up to the world. Data contributors in this process work according to the parameters set by the creator. This is a hugely powerful opportunity (explore the map app in Fun with GIS 223), which demands much forethought to capture the proper content easily, and to imagine all the conditions under which someone might contribute. The "farther" the contributor is from the collection instrument designer, the greater the chance for misperceptions, hiccups, and errors. [4.1] Survey123 creators can also share the permission to analyze results from within the Survey123 dashboard. [4.2] Survey123 creators can even share an entire survey form with someone else in the Org by doing "SAVE AS" in design, then having the admin reassign ownership of the newly created folder and contents. [4.3] Collector requires an Org login and membership in a group which includes the specific Collector map. [5] Multiple people can collaborate on a Story Map if, for instance, the group plans out a project, and each person or sub-group is responsible for some of the "raw materials" to be used in different portions of the content, and someone is responsible for pulling the disparate creations into a tidy and sensible whole. For instance, users A,B,C,D,E can collaborate if A,B,C,D each generate independent components and E assembles the final product. (In this case A,B,C,D need to set appropriate sharing, and recognize that any changes made in their contents will appear in E's final product.) ArcGIS Online software evolves periodically, and collaboration options may change in the future. Be sure to examine the documentation for options. But, for now, focus on the powerful options above. Collaboration is possible, but groups must think through the workflow carefully, understand what is technically possible, and focus on what is good practice under a given situation. Emphasize the steps that will lead to a good result, not necessarily doing everything that is technically possible. ... View more