Latest Contributions by CharlieFitzpatrick

In 1995,  I worked with a handful of teachers once a week, two hours per time, for a month. These were motivated teachers from one district, spending their own time, spanning grades, with diverse interests, but all keen to use ArcView. On my third visit, one teacher arrived with two students in tow, who just needed to be somewhere after school, and whom she later described as "a typical 5th grader and a typical 3rd grader." They were invited to work at a spare computer. In the first 30 minutes, we reviewed highlights from my two previous visits. At the 15-minute mark, a teacher asked a question which we had covered in both sessions and already mentioned in the review, and, without hesitation, the 5th grader answered. As we reviewed a skill from late in session two, the 5th grader watched and immediately explored outward. At the 30-minute mark, as we turned to new tasks, the 5th grader started assisting the neighboring teacher. As I talked about why and how we were going to change symbols, the 5th grader clicked the button we would soon use together. I congratulated him, and paused. The teacher asked "What did you do?" The boy replied "I clicked the button." Puzzled, the teacher said "Why?" Confused by the question, the boy said "It's ... it's what you do with a button." Still baffled, the teacher asked "But how did you know to click it?" Exasperated, the boy pointed at the screen and exclaimed "It's just a button! I just clicked it!" Over the years, I have been flummoxed that many teachers hesitate to explore while aching to use GIS. They typically have in mind a specific project, often involving what would be advanced techniques. Most want to know everything, instantly, and many say "I won't teach this until I know how to do everything, and can solve any problem a student might have." Their hope seems to be a strict protocol to follow, covering every situation. One bright friend begged me for "a simple flow chart to cover all situations." I replied "Think of GIS tools and capacities like musical instruments, and the geographic inquiry process like the music in your mind. It takes exploring and practice to get close to generating the desired result." I encourage teachers to try something simple first. Don't begin expecting immediate mastery, any more than you would in music, cooking, or parallel parking. While it helps to have a goal -- a vision of what could happen -- one needs to build experience with which to pursue that goal. Test drive! Try something you can conceive, design, do, and assess in __ minute/s. I start with 1 minute, then 2, 5, 10, and 60. That first project has to be small, so you can isolate steps, and quickly see cause and effect. Then, go a little bigger. Want a 10-second project? Right now, with one finger, point and air-draw the outline of the ceiling where you are ... Go! ... Done! Ready for the next? On a computer, go to ArcGIS.com, click Map, click Search/Find ... "Whoa, wait a second! New Map Viewer or Map Viewer Classic?" Oh, come on now ... Try the one with which you are least familiar ... Click Search/Find and type your postal code, or city. Success? Find that of a friend ... then a place you want to visit. Three times is key. Believe it or not, it can be hard to get teachers to do these initial test drives. Do it once, twice, a third time ... it gets easier. Same with clicking a button, changing a symbol, saving a map, creating a survey, designing a StoryMap. Don't expect immediate perfection ... Try whatever it is ... once ... twice ... a third time ... it's what students naturally want to do ... unless their spirit of exploration has been drilled or starved into submission. Maybe we can even bring that back, too. Try it, okay? ... View more

At Esri's 2010 User Conference, two high school seniors -- Tia Bakker and Ernie Cottle -- shared a story of caves. These recent grads of Bigfork (Montana) High School were the student leaders of the Cave Club. They had recently returned from Washington DC with teacher and club leader Hans Bodenhamer, having received the President's Environmental Youth Award, on behalf of the club. (See also the profile of Cottle.) Some people just know early in life their future path and never deviate; others seem always exploring new dimensions. Similarly among fans of GIS, some love how its fractal nature lets one zoom in and focus ever more deeply in a single realm, while others look outward to the expanding universe of related content. The first is a specialist, the second a generalist; both are good, valuable, and remarkable. Bakker is a generalist, with an insatiable capacity for personal discovery. "Tenth grade biology with Hans was my favorite class. We were out on a field trip, collecting minnows. Hans talked with me later and had noticed that I was the only girl not splashing and screaming and falling down, and thought I might be interested in this club. I've always been outdoorsy but when he introduced me to caves, that became a passion that just grew. He taught us about cleaning and preserving and monitoring. It was like going through a door I didn't even know was there. I didn't know these beautiful places were being destroyed. And, I could also expand my biology skills … it was a very multi-faceted experience." But caves are not uniform spaces. "The mapping was an intricate process, very step-by-step, drawing and surveying. And then when you come out you see the big picture. We all did some GIS for the club. I liked it and got into it, but it just takes me longer to learn the technical side. Ernie just picked it up really fast, he's just a wizard. I haven't been able to do any GIS after high school, but I really want to, especially with what I'm doing now -- health." Bakker's path after high school was unusual. "I have to work hard to get good grades. I was always perfectionistic (which, I've learned, isn't always that great). In college, I still needed to work hard to get good grades, but it has been easier to have that passion when going for something you love. I'm a first generation college student, and so made mistakes, but that's ok, you just keep moving forward." When a first step toward college didn't work, "I returned home and did some underwater logging. Then I worked on railroads as a conductor for three years, earning for college, and picked up a holistic health coach cert while on the railroad. The health field took me by surprise. I always loved exploring, and biology, and learning basic systems. I started college in Colorado because there was this mountain rescue team I wanted to work on. I loved caving and hiking and exploring, so, that's where I'll go! But then I was thinking 'Here's this elaborate system to get people off the mountain, but I don't know how to treat them.' So I got my Emergency Medical Technician cert. And worked on a ranch. I came back home and volunteered for fire and EMS. And became a personal trainer for a couple years, to understand about nutrition and fitness as part of medicine. And got my Certified Nursing Assistant certificate, before becoming a mobile phlebotomist for Red Cross, finishing my degree while working. And now I'm heading toward a Physician's Assistant." For students who love exploring, much of the allure of GIS is in seeing how disparate information links up. Others revel in the patterns and relationships at ever more fine grain down a single channel. Across this spectrum of learning from generalist to specialist, those who engage GIS and learn consciously to view things from multiple perspectives build essential habits of mind that will influence them for decades. The Bigfork Cave Club still works at bringing caves to light, mapping the extraordinarily complex 3-D spaces, to help preserve these fragile environments. And, for a second time, Bigfork Cave Club members have earned the President's Environmental Youth Award for US EPA Region 8 … first for 2009, awarded in 2010, and again for 2019, awarded in 2020. And across the globe, schools and youth clubs can engage K12 students with GIS, for free, from specialists to generalists. ... View more

Want a rich synopsis of Esri Training? See this Esri Community post by Laura Bowden https://community.esri.com/t5/education-blog/the-higher-ed-planning-guide-to-esri-e-learning-is-fully-updated/ba-p/1042042 ... View more

On opening day of Esri's 2010 User Conference, two high school seniors stepped on stage to present … sporting helmets with headlamps. Ernie Cottle and Tia Bakker, recent graduates from Bigfork High School in Montana, told the story of the Bigfork High School Cave Club. They had recently returned from Washington DC with teacher and club leader Hans Bodenhamer, having received the President's Environmental Youth Award. (See also the profile of Bakker.) Cave Club had started a few years before Cottle joined in 10th grade. "Recruited for my writing skills," he laughed. Facing inner turbulence of teen years, this quiet, hard worker joined many clubs, where experiences helped him ask questions and seek answers. "I hoped I would find the one club that's going to be the thing that would identify me for the rest of my life … I never expected it to be the Cave Club." The club worked with a lot of maps, gathering data by hand underground, and making it digital with ArcMap back at school. "All of us found something we needed in Cave Club. In high school, my dream job was journalism. People can say 'This is just a rock,' but to me it's a really exciting rock and you can see its life journey. The thing that did it for me was when we did the survey for Kicking Woman Cave, the first cave Tia and I had surveyed for cave resources. It had a 6-foot deep pile of Wood Rat feces; someone came with us there on a later trip and took a core sample and carbon dated the very bottom to 3000 years ago. There were samples from extinct tree species. This was the moment I thought 'Understanding this is more important than I could ever imagine about being a journalist.' That was the turning point in my life. Being the person who 'did the thing' rather than writing about the person who 'did the thing;' that's what changed for me. I owe a lot of that to Hans; he inspired that." After high school came a swirl of college experiences, internships, jobs, and changes. GIS tugged at him. "I started doing GIS coursework as a junior, with no training beyond my work with Hans. My first course was for PhD students, and I was the youngest, but got the highest grade, and felt I was well prepared. I ended up getting three separate bachelors degrees, in Physical Geography, Anthropology, and Geology, plus an Applied GIS certificate. I used a lot of my high school experiences in college; everything I learned with Cave Club and GIS made it easy to feel comfy in the degrees I chose. In my GIS classes, I hit the ground running and could knock out in 20 minutes a lab that was supposed to take hours. My foundation was so solid going in, I kind of became a tutor in a lot of my courses. I enjoy being a coach … that's how Hans taught us, not standing at the front and lecturing. For my entire life, I will be indebted to him." Those experiences still influence how Cottle sees the world, at work or play. Having worked at Starbucks since high school, he reached the level of a supervisor. "Understanding space the way GIS teaches it, I see that space every time I look at anything. I see everything that way -- the store, the people, the neighborhood. I've worked in five stores and can identify the good things and bad things of how each is laid out. Lots of polygons in my world. I do that when I go hiking, and I'm up high and look down, this would be a layer, and that would be a layer…" just like he started doing a dozen years earlier, underground. And now, with COVID changing lives so dramatically? "I got offered a position as a logistics technician with the county, to orchestrate the flow of traffic and people at different mass vaccination clinics in the county." But change happens fast, and Cottle is now "a Logistics Technician Site Lead, and help make sure my site runs smoothly for patients and employees from start to finish. It's honestly been the most rewarding job I have had." Seeing patterns and relationships, mapping flows and gaps, documenting with detail to preserve the fragile … such skills have staying power. The Bigfork Cave Club still works at bringing caves to light, mapping the extraordinarily complex 3-D spaces, to help preserve these fragile environments. And, for a second time, Bigfork Cave Club members have earned the President's Environmental Youth Award for US EPA Region 8 … first for 2009, awarded in 2010, and again for 2019, awarded in 2020. All schools and youth clubs can engage K12 students with GIS, for free, with or without headlamps. ... View more

A year ago, on my way to the first of two education conferences, COVID forced each closed. I headed home, and haven't left my community since. In this difficult year, I have seen some lessons anew. 1. Maps have enormous power. The Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus maps, particularly the dashboard (at JHU, click Tracking, then Global Map) of graduated red dots atop a black canvas, and surrounded by related tables and charts, helped many grasp the problem. I have seen it time and again over decades: interactivity adds orders of magnitude to the power of each map, dashboard, and storymap. One can watch viewers scan, zoom in, click their home region, read, zoom out, change tables, click the region of a loved one, study, and repeat. If a picture is worth a thousand words, an interactive map presents galaxies of patterns and relationships. 2. Science is a process. It is a conscious journey, with meanders, occasional waypoints, likely a formal direction, perhaps even an identified goal, but an end only when one stops seeking. This includes geography, "the science of where." Humans have immense capacity for learning. We have devised powerful ways to gather, explore, manage, analyze, display, and distribute data. Science depends on data, carefully sought, honestly treated, holistically viewed … about a virus, a vaccine, testing, treating, communities facing unusual threat, and so on. 3. Some people are not interested in learning. This one is painful. Learning is a process of recognizing and accepting new information, new ideas, new ways of thinking. Not everyone wants or accepts those. Some will work to impede the progress of others. Some will even deny facts, not just their interpretation but the facts themselves; there are some who deny the Coronavirus is real, can be deadly, and can mutate, just as some do not believe racial bias exists, or accept the world as a sphere. Faced with competing visions -- reality of facts or of fancy -- each of us must choose. One of my teachers once asked "Is he wrong to say 'Blood flows up one leg and down the other'? It is not factually erroneous, but is factually incomplete, a lie of omission." True learners always seek the most complete picture, not just the most convenient one. 4. Humans don't control the world, but can change the world, and have. This one is painful too. People have built cities, dammed rivers, wiped out species, and engaged in unjust campaigns to dominate or eliminate other peoples. For some, "progress is a 'zero sum game' -- my advancement depends upon someone else paying the price." Short-term egocentric, ethnocentric, or "present-centric" action yields imbalance, intolerance, and abuse, with feedback cycles that can destroy entire systems in short order. The "tragedy of the commons" happens. And seers who warn of threats, as in the poem "A Fence or an Ambulance," may be vilified, or worse. 5. Nature does not pick sides. This one also is painful. Nature's rules play out in ways trivial to titanic, and do not play favorites, though humans can and do. It is good to be lucky, but relying on hope alone is not adaptive (something that improves family survival). Humans are pressuring more of earth's systems more severely than ever. We are witnessing unprecedented impact from centuries of humans violating nature and each other. We need to prepare for more cases of collision and collapse (more ambulances) but also better constraints (better fences). We can survive, but only with better learning. We must emphasize #1 and #2 above, starting with kids in school. ... View more

Write an occasional blog long enough and you'll want to point people to past items. Looking over the last few years of "Fun with GIS" blogs, I decided to highlight some favorites by theme, and link them.   Oldies but Goodies YYYYMMDD Fun with GIS# Title/Topic 20171030 FWG 223: It's Elementary 20130422 FWG 143: Mapping Field Data 20110926 FWG 090: Table Time   License Management YYYYMMDD Fun with GIS# Title/Topic 20210228 FWG 283: Student Data Privacy 20210201 FWG 282: Esri Access 20200608 FWG 270: ArcGIS School Bundle 2020 20200518 FWG 268: GIS Club Kit 20200315 FWG 263: School Disruption 2 20190422 FWG 246: ArcGIS Online Admins 20180102 FWG 227: Collaboration in ArcGIS Online 20161017 FWG 204: Troubleshooting   In Support of Teaching YYYYMMDD Fun with GIS# Title/Topic 20210308 FWG 284: Learning Without a Login 20210118 FWG 281: US HS + MS Competition 20210111 FWG 280: Teachers Teaching Teachers GIS (T3G) 20200928 FWG 276: PolicyMaps for All 20200914 FWG 275: Teaching with StoryMaps and Dashboards 20200831 FWG 274: Minnesota Model 20200427 FWG 266: Educating for Uncertainty 20200323 FWG 264: Designing Learning Experiences 20200309 FWG 262: When School is Disrupted 20200106 FWG 257: The Power of Simplicity 20190715 FWG 250: Shared Differences 20190107 FWG 241: Do a Virtual Transect 20181203 FWG 240: Teaching with GeoInquiries 20180212 FWG 229: Presentation Power 20171019 FWG 220: Apportionment 20170212 FWG 209: Teaching with Story Maps Made by Others 20161114 FWG 206: Community Round Mile   Exemplars of Teaching and Learning with GIS YYYYMMDD Fun with GIS# Title/Topic 20201020 FWG 278: Remember Seventh Grade? (Nate Ebel) 20200511 FWG 267: From Watts to Washington (Roxana Ayala) 20190909 FWG 256: GIS Opened a Barn Door (Emma Long) 20190826 FWG 253: Teaching Underground (Hans Bodenhamer) 20190819 FWG 252: Integrating Science and CTE with GIS (D.Evans-Bye) 20190408 FWG 245: Scott Freburg: Wave-Maker 20190325 FWG 244: Student, Intern, Employee (Donovan) 20181126 FWG 239: Teacher Profile: Lyn Malone 20181119 FWG 238: Maptivists (MSTMA/RHS/LAUSD) 20180716 FWG 235: Making a Difference (Ramirez & Im) 20180507 FWG 233: Teacher Profile: Randy Raymond 20180409 FWG 231: Teacher Profile: Erika Klose 20171023 FWG 222: Innovate to Educate (Jason Smolinski, VGS)   Most of these are just as valuable today as when they were written. Evolution of conditions mean you will need to continue adapting, but it often helps to see with a longer timeline. ... View more

(Edited in view of software, data, and address updates, Sept 20, 2021; referenced in FWG296. Also, on July 1 of 2024, I released a later version, as FWG347.) The ArcGIS School Bundle provides K12 teachers and students logins to robust tools for free for instructional use, but sometimes (because of technology or policy) logging in just isn't possible. But there is still much that teachers and students can do, and learn. Some options are below, and learners can paste screenshots or video clips into a word processor document (being sure to record the source address as well and credit the author where possible). 1. https://www.esri.com/geoinquiries - Learn classroom content within ArcGIS.com See the Guide 'Getting to Know GeoInquiries' (StoryMap linked in the top of each collection), particularly the short embedded video near the bottom Pick one of the 10 collections, see a lesson, open the map, explore. Repeat. See the links at the bottom of the GeoInquiry StoryMap. Choose the Hub, and see Themes, States, and Student Worksheets Choose the Atlas, and dance between maps in a collection 2. https://storymaps-classic.arcgis.com - 'Gallery' (up top) holds pointers to years of content In Gallery, examine the left side, choose a 'Subject' and explore items Back in Gallery/Subjects, click 'Reset' to clear, scroll to 'Industry', click an industry (scroll down within it), explore items Back in Gallery/Industry, click 'Reset' to clear, scroll up to "Search" and type a desired topic or place 3. https://storymaps.arcgis.com - 'Resources' holds the new and rapidly growing archive Check out StoryMaps showing how to build a StoryMap See different and evolving collections, such as in the menu item 'Explore Stories,' where albums serve as individual collections 4. https://livingatlas.arcgis.com - Curated content, particularly layers and apps Click the 'Browse' tab for options for finding a focus layer, like 'world temperature', then click the thumbnail to read about the layer, and at right click 'Open in Map Viewer' for 2D or 'Open in Scene Viewer' for 3D Back in the 'Browse' tab, filter by content type, region, and more Click the 'Apps' tab for a variety of example applications, including the 'Living Atlas Indicators of the Planet', and click a content area of interest One of the best collections for data on people in USA is the Policy Maps series. See Fun with GIS 276 for a ready-made deep dive that you can personalize for your part of USA in 15 seconds. 5. https://www.arcgis.com - Click 'Map' ('Scene' does some of these, a bit differently; try it!) Explore the standard basemap, with pan, zoom; note scale-sensitive data; try different basemaps See the "ArcGIS Online 5x5" document to explore capacity in the new Map Viewer or in Map Viewer Classic. See the "ArcGIS Online SkillBuilder" to learn fundamentals while playing with capacity in Map Viewer Classic. 6. https://learn.arcgis.com/en/gallery/#?p=agol&c=mapping - The 'Learn ArcGIS' catalog of activities, filtered on ArcGIS Online and Mapping, has lessons, articles, 'paths' (sequences of resources), which can be explored, often begun, and sometimes even completed without login. 7. https://learn.arcgis.com/en/educators/#/library - The 'Teach with GIS' catalog of activities is all about working with ArcGIS Online, and includes lessons, readings, apps, and maps with which to build skills in tools relating to particular content. Similar to the Learn gallery, these are often scenario-driven projects. 8. https://esriurl.com/agoschoolcomp - The ArcGIS Online Competition for US High School and Middle School Students is an opportunity for students to do research projects and present their findings in a Story Map. It shows what students who have logins can do, when permitted. The ArcGIS Hub site linked here has intro and results from 2017 onward.  9. https://esriurl.com/agousestrategies - This document shows different modes of interaction with ArcGIS Online, and encourages teachers to understand the differences, including the option that teachers could log in to prepare content, which students could perhaps access without being logged in. 10. https://www.esri.com/schools - The site has links to stories, rich resources, and the form with which schools can request software, enabling students to do even more. ... View more

See "K12 Schools" blogs from the Education Blog. See "Informal Education" blogs from the Education Blog. See "Youth Programs" blogs from the Education Blog. ... View more

In the age of COVID, overseeing young people in person means ensuring masks, social distancing, hand washing, and teaching about the pandemic; these are sensible actions for keeping everyone safe. Similarly, overseeing young people online today also takes effort by adults. Generally, Esri believes students' personally identifiable information (or "PII") should not be shared with the public, by the students themselves, by their peers, or by adults. PII is info by which someone could specifically identify an individual, such as name, likeness, email, phone, or location. Can you spot instances of sharing PII? Imagine seeing an online post entitled "Missing: Student Privacy," with a closeup photo and caption that reads: 8th grader Pat Pupil stands in front of the Pupil residence in Center City's Anywhere Ave apartment building. Pat points to a ground floor window with a sign. "That's my sign, in my bedroom window." The sign reads "Privacy lost, somewhere between here and Lincoln Middle School just two blocks away! Contact 123-456-7890 or patpupil@email.com" For administrators of ArcGIS Online Organizations, protecting students means not using PII for first name, last name, username, or email. Esri shows admins [document link] how to avoid that in designing logins, whether using a single sign-on approach or spreadsheets, and identifies questions that admins must address to optimize security. These involve: Anonymous access: Is any Org content visible to people without login? Sharing: How widely can students and adults share -- groups? organization? public? "Showcase account:" Is there a generic account that can be the owner of any content approved for public sharing? Profile control: Any data in student profiles should appear generic to an outsider. Can students change any content in their profile? Are student profiles publicly visible? Groups beyond the Org: Can students join groups outside the Org? Even more, have students and teachers discussed issues of privacy? Do they understand what can be shared and what should not? There is no hard and fast rule that applies perfectly in all cases without exception, so it's important for students and adults to understand principles. Recording data at a student's home address or exact dot on the map is unwise, and teachers need to model and teach strategies such as choosing a nearby street intersection, or local public land, or ZIP Code centroid, as the situation warrants. At the same time, students, teachers, administrators, and parents should know that Esri works hard to maintain this privacy. Esri does not seek, want, or knowingly collect PII about minors. User sharing is controlled by the Org admin. A user's data belongs to the user; when a user deletes it, it is gone. The website trust.arcgis.com clarifies terms of use and issues around security, privacy, and compliance information. ... View more

One of the puzzles that new administrators of ArcGIS Online Organizations encounter is "Esri access." It's a simple power, but can indeed confuse people. It means that an ArcGIS Online username (i.e. a login to arcgis.com) is approved to log into esri.com websites. "Wait … what?" Esri technology involves two key domains: Esri.com = "about mapping": general Esri news; info about products, industries, and events; training and support; community; my institution's license details; etc Arcgis.com = "doing mapping": public ArcGIS Online (www.arcgis.com), ArcGIS Online Organizations (myschool.maps.arcgis.com), Hub sites (myhub-myorg.hub.arcgis.com), StoryMaps (storymaps.arcgis.com), Survey123 (survey123.arcgis.com), etc As a colleague described it, logins are kind of like passports. Not all passports get you into another country with fullest possible powers, and not all arcgis.com logins get you into esri.com with fullest possible access. Public account logins to arcgis.com that are fully configured have "Esri access" enabled. Users of these accounts can log in at esri.com sites and do things noted above, attached to that personal login. Some public accounts (e.g. those generated by social login) may not be fully configured, and may need to provide additional info (at accounts.esri.com) to have full access to things public accounts can do. Organization account logins by default do not have "Esri access" enabled, even for the Org admin. Since Organizations are designed for multiple people with different capabilities, and a single person might be working in multiple Orgs, the default is for this privilege to be automatically not enabled. (See Help documentation.) Why might schools want to enable certain logins to have access to esri.com for some activities? Training: Teachers and students might want to take courses at www.esri.com/training, and have their training history attached to their login. (Teachers might want to consider having this attached to their personal account login, which follows them even if they leave the school account.) Download software: Some individuals may need permission to download specific desktop software for installation. Events: Some teachers might need to register for an Esri Event using their login attached to their workplace. Community: To post questions on GeoNet or respond to items in blogs at esri.com sites, a user needs to log into a given zone with that permission. Why might schools NOT want to enable Esri access for certain logins? Typically, it boils down to security. Some administrators believe in providing access to privileges only on an as-needed basis, and are just happier having fewer things to check, like GeoNet comments, replies to blogposts, or requests to attend events. So what? I receive frequent emails from users and even admins in distress who, unsure of login or password, went to https://www.arcgis.com/home/troubleshoot.html and entered their email address, and received an indication like this generic presentation (I've boldfaced the key items): = = = Organizational Account : [their username]   Organization Name : [their Organization]   Organization Admin Contact(s): [admin's name (admin's email)]   Esri Access : disabled = = = Panicked, they want to know what happened, what they need to undo, and how they can get back in to make maps. I respond with this text: = = = "Esri access not enabled" or "Esri access disabled" does not mean a user is locked out from making maps. It only means that ArcGIS Online Org admins have not granted to that particular arcgis.com username the permission to sign into special places on esri.com, such as to converse on GeoNet (community.esri.com), or to take courses on Esri's Training site (esri.com/training), or to view the institution's license information (my.esri.com), or to reply to Esri blog posts. That arcgis.com username may still make maps, publish data, and share items, to the limit allowed by the Org admin. The default setting for any new arcgis.com username is "Esri access disabled" (even for the admin), and an admin must proactively change that if s/he wants to allow those special privileges. See "Managing Esri Access" (p.30) of https://esriurl.com/agoorgsforschools. See also https://doc.arcgis.com/en/arcgis-online/reference/faq.htm#anchor9 = = = Last, admins will find easy tools for handling bulk enable or disable of Esri access from the wonderful collection that is GEO Jobe's AdminTools. The free standard tools offer the easiest way to manage more than a handful of individuals. ... View more

Learning works best when students engage, when they get to do, not just receive. Designing their own adventure and digging in can be magical, liberating. Independent work may yield stumbles and bumps, but will also foster humble reflection, critical thinking, curiosity, and creativity. This is what the ArcGIS Online Competition for US High School and Middle School Students promises -- a chance for students to research, build, and present. Students in teams of one or two can research a project of their choosing about a geographic phenomenon in their state. They must investigate, build maps about their subject, document their work, craft a story, and present it as compellingly as they can. Students submit their project to their school, which chooses its five best to send to the state. Participating states will have funds to award $100 per project up to five projects from grades 9-12 and five projects from grades 4-8.   Depending on the national health situation, top state awardees at high school and middle school levels may be in a final judging for national awards. Regardless, participants will have built critical skills, attitudes, and perspectives that never expire. The projects may reflect an already long-simmering interest, or spark a new enduring passion. Even just examining results from previous years may open young eyes to stories and connections never before contemplated.   Blue = participating in 2021. Click to see info. Students in the states participating this year are eligible, and can work at school or remotely. Students need a login, which schools can provide for free, and projects get submitted through the school. See the full details for more info, and encourage students you know, of all backgrounds, to participate. Together, we can build understanding, perspective, and a better world. ... View more

My latest education blog is about T3G resources (T3G hub contents, T3G graphics, public webinar archives, and publicly shared content from the T3G Org) being open to anyone. We hope like-minded educators who are not yet members will join T3G. And we hope the January webinar will help many educators. Anyone can see the post, at https://community.esri.com/t5/education-blog/fun-with-gis-280-teachers-teaching-teachers-gis/ba-p/1015397 or, more simply, https://esriurl.com/funwithgis280. ... View more

For most educators, time is a "top three" resource. In this 24x7 connected but COVID-fractured world, a little time with a peer group can seem a vacation. Focusing on one's craft, hearing from others enduring familiar challenges, and discovering peers' secrets can bring a sprinkle of joy, a glimmer of hope, a touch of stability, even a pinch of self-worth, all oases to educators "alone in a desert." In 2009, Esri launched a week-long residential summer institute for educators. GIS technology was a challenge for educators to pick up on their own, so "Teachers Teaching Teachers GIS" (aka "T3G") was a professional development experience that introduced new visions, tools, strategies, and friendships. The T3G mission was to help more educators be able to use GIS in instruction, improve the educational experience for all, and thereby build a better world.   The blistering evolution in technology, GIS, and digital learning took us from disconnected desktop tools to online mapping to remote learning. The 2017, '18, and '19 institutes occurred on Zoom, after which the explosion of content meant teachers could learn on their own; fragmentation of time necessitated a "just in time" fashion. But the networking continued, by email, forum, webinar, and physical events. T3G was born a closed group but, with COVID, opened its doors to any interested educator. The requirement for membership remains as "a passion for helping other educators use GIS in instruction," but the fundamental resources we rely on to teach learners of all ages are publicly available, at https://esriurl.com/t3g. A listserv, forum, webinar, and hoped for in-person meetings still bind us together. January's "T3G Third Thursday Webinar," Thu Jan 21 at 5-6pmPT, will be a chance to share something that helped during the period from March-December of 2020. With time ever more precious, we invite educators to invest an hour and take a bit of solace, a tech hint, or a teaching strategy. See the webinar page, put your own entry in the survey, register to attend, and join us, at https://esriurl.com/t3g.   ... View more