Latest Contributions by TomBaker

We don't all see the same.  Some of us have varying degrees of visual impairment.  When thinking about the nearly 50 million students in the US K-12 system, that's also quite true. Lately, I've been tinkering with maps that produce sound to indicate what is otherwise expressed visually.  I'm using some open source 'speaking' tools that basically say whatever I can pass to it.  So in this example, when a student clicks on a biome, ArcGIS passes the biome name to a javascript tool. It's a crude first pass, but interesting I think. Thus far, this little experiment works in Chrome.   https://trbaker.github.io/edlab/hearTheMap/ If you are working on maps or map tools for those with visual impairments, include a description and URL in the comments below.  It would be great to see what others are doing to give ArcGIS a voice. Don't forget to explore the Esri Accessibility community. ... View more

Esri Higher Education listserv The Esri Higher Education listserv is open to faculty and staff of higher education learning institutions. English is the preferred language on the list – as most list members are only English speakers. Topics on the list are generally restricted to Esri products, licenses, and programs.   To join the list, send an email to [email protected]   In the body of the email, only include: subscribe highered-l   You may also unsubscribe, similar to the example above, exchanging 'subscribe' for 'unsubscribe'. Use your “.edu” email address for fastest acceptance to the list.  You will receive an automated welcome email, once you have been confirmed.   ***** A few technical notes:  - The listserv is hosted on https://Atlantis.esri.com   - An archive of past list posts is available on Atlantis, however you will need to create an account in order to access the content.     ... View more

Drone2Map is now included in the Esri Schools Mapping Bundle (Advanced)!  Want to map those beautiful images captured by your drone?  Use Drone2Map. Set-up Access and manage your Drone2Map licenses through your school’s ArcGIS Online account.   Enable the license (just as you do with ArcGIS Pro) for each student account.  Click: Organization -> Members -> (click ellipses to right of user) -> Manage Add-On Licenses -> (under Applications) -> ArcGIS Drone2Map.  While you're checking your account, make sure that any account downloading the software also has "Esri Access Enabled" using the menu under the ellipses. Download the Windows-only Drone2Map software. See the button link in the upper-right of the webpage at: https://doc.arcgis.com/en/drone2map/  Install the software. Learning the basics  In terms of guidance on learning to use it, see https://www.esri.com/training/Bookmark/P3WE7WG6T - These will say "requires maintenance," but once you have received your School Bundle, launched your ArcGIS Online Org, and made sure your login "has Esri access enabled," you'll be good to go.  https://learn.arcgis.com/en/gallery/#?p=drone2map After working through these, you should be ready to go with your own projects. ... View more

At the risk of offending many, do I dare ask, “Does a student really need a bachelor’s degree to enter the field of GIS”?  Is a bachelors, associates, or a slew of tech certs enough?  Will it be that way tomorrow – or by the time your students are job hunting? Can a CTE GIS education get a student an entry level position in GIS?   College enrollment is declining Recently, Education Week reports that 2020 college enrollment is down 6.8% in the United States.  Now before you think, “Yeah, but that’s all COVID-related” a downward trend in enrollment was expected, before COVID-19 became a pandemic.  That is to say, education experts were predicting a decline in college enrollment, largely due to cost.  The Education Week article also describes how the current trend is disproportionately affecting poor and minority students.  To be fair, COVID has at least accelerated this downward trend – that might have otherwise taken several years to be realized.  This decline doesn’t really address two other intervening challenges: the lack of undergraduate enrollment  in geography programs and the consolidation of US colleges, generally. With learning technologies advancing and tuition costs skyrocketing, college education is changing, and universities are closing. Experts have predicted a decline in the number of universities – especially those smaller, private, liberal arts colleges.    A trend toward tech training or certs We’ve witnessed the growth and specialization of GIS degree and certificate programs – face-to-face and online. We’ve seen a rapid growth of competitive virtual learning systems, arguably led by MOOCs.  Now we are seeing a tech education trend that amounts to ‘just-in-time’ learning with a program from Google and Coursera, Grow with Google.  The messaging seems to be don’t spend your time or money at college; get a tech cert and get a job now – then get another tech cert to advance.  This model seems to align well to traditional tech-based CTE preparation programs. There’s not really a “Grow with Google” (today) for GIS.  However, one could string together a proper learning plan with Esri Training, Esri Press books, and certifications. Couldn’t they?  High school CTE teachers should ask the question. Responses will vary, depending on many factors including geography and the role of the person you’re asking.  Call your local GIS offices and talk to their HR staff.   Ground truthing: A few entry-level jobs There may be an interesting, developing trend away from college-based, technology education. Tech fields seem particularly vulnerable to paradigm-shifting e-learning tools and techniques.  But what does “reality” look like today in the entry-level GIS technician/analyst/specialist job?  I sampled a over a dozen local, entry-level positions. Here’s what I found. I reviewed entry-level GIS jobs (in a Midwest city) listed by: a local water company, a national telephone company, county GIS offices, city offices, and consulting firms.  Of the organizations, one (a rural county GIS office) did not require a bachelor’s degree but still expected experience with ArcGIS.  All others required a BA/BS in GIS or a related field.  Several listings required some experience with AutoCAD and SAP.  Clearly, at this time, what appears to be a larger educational trend doesn’t seem to be aligning well with reality in GIS hiring.  Did I mention that EVERY position I saw required strong familiarity with ArcGIS, including ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Pro, and in many cases Portal (ArcGIS Enterprise)? Here is an example of minimum required qualifications for a “Junior GIS Specialist”: DOD Secret Clearance Bachelor's Degree from accredited University or College Knowledge or Experience with the following: ESRI ArcGIS ESRI Portal for ArcGIS Operating Systems (Windows Server) Internet Information Services (IIS) Citrix Xen Desktop How many recent college graduates could meet these requirements?  Forget about the secret clearance.  Can your college graduates meet the rest of the requirements?  Now, how close can a GIS CTE student get – and can one or more technical certifications bridge the gap?  See the case of Donovan Vitale, a high school student who went directly to working for his country GIS office.   Final notes It struck me that the minimum requirements of most of the entry-level GIS jobs included knowledge of specific GIS and non-GIS technologies. It seems likely that regardless of how a college messages a degree in GIS, companies are looking for serious technical skill sets in entry-level positions.  Does this too present a vulnerability that will contribute to changes in the college GIS landscape in the coming decade?  Do CTE programs offer enough technical education while providing support for those requisite “soft skills”? Of course, this doesn’t have to be an A or B decision.  Maybe the question is, “Can a GIS CTE education be enough to make students competitive for entry level GIS positions? “   What do you think?     Photo by Mike Swigunski on Unsplash ... View more

We've been exploring and experimenting with self-grading quizzes. The samples below draw on content from the Earth Science GeoInquiry collection. As a teacher,  read through the details on the quiz description but in short, there are a few things to know.  1. These are demonstrations only. Don't expect to see a quiz for each GeoInquiry and/or at least this type of workflow.  These are experimental. 2. Teachers need to have an ArcGIS Online login/username/id to retrieve student-submitted quiz data. 3. Students need to enter the teacher's ArcGIS Online username as a part of the quiz.  Students may been signed into ArcGIS Online or may take the quiz without signing in. Examples Topography and Our Natural Heritage North American Landforms We're certainly interested in feedback from educators.  Comments on the concept, the workflow, and content are especially welcome as we continue to explore.  In the meantime, you'll find our experimental assessments on the GeoInquiry hub.       - Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash ... View more

The use of Raspberry Pis are increasingly common in schools - especially in STEM, Maker, and field experience courses.  Raspberry Pis (version 4 at the time of this blog) hold the computing power of a laptop - at a fraction of the cost.  They can also run off of 5V battery power and have wifi built-in.  In short, they can useful for collecting data in and around school.  Oh, and did I mention there are dozens if not hundreds of cheap sensors that can be plugged directly into the device for data collection? This isn't a new technique at all, but we are seeing more sensors and increased computing capacity within the Pi platform - making it increasingly interesting.  I started writing on this about two years ago.  You can see how far we've come in that time. By way of a quick example, I created a Survey123 form with a grade (numeric) and short name (text) fields.  I set the permissions to allow anyone to contribute data (without logging in).  Survey123 creates some ArcGIS Online components for you when you create a new survey.  Here, I'm only going to focus on the "field_worker"  feature service it creates.  Using a little Python code and the point layer's "Add Feature" REST functionality, I can send data directly into my field_worker feature service with a few lines of code.  In this case, that code looks like: import requests import json url = 'https://services.arcgis.com/BG6nSlhZSAWtExvp/ArcGIS/rest/services/survey123_1570d91b042744f8af17caadbacace8e_fieldworker/FeatureServer/0/addFeatures' params={"f":"pjson","token":"","rollbackOnFailure":"false","features":'{"attributes" : {"shortname" : "test_user_name"}}'} x = requests.post(url, params=params) In the first two lines we import two basic Python libraries (json and requests). In the next line, we identify the URL of the "Add Feature" function associated with our feature service's REST endpoint. Parameters allow us to specify the data to pass.  You'll see a few non-attribute parameters like "f", "token", and "rollbackOnFailure".  For starting out, just keep these as-is and change the attribute "short name" to the attribute in your feature service. As my colleague, @Kylie has noted, this code can also be converted to run inside of a webhook tool like Microsoft Power Automate or Integromat (using the HTTP module).  In a webhook-based case, you may be using the script (with a different endpoint) to update a feature service's data rather than just adding it. If you or your students are into the STEM, Maker, coder, or IoT learning scenes, be sure to turn on your students' ArcGIS Online Notebook access and check out the Python API!   ... View more

  With over 150 maps and nearly 1,000 data layers, GeoInquiries can be a little intimidating to sort through.  That's why we created the GeoInquiries Atlas! The GeoInquiry Atlas lets you review all the GeoInquiries, by subject-collection, in a map-forward approach.  It makes scanning the collection fast - and for more people - fun!  Teachers will also find handy links to the teacher PDFs and student worksheets. Explore the atlas >> ... View more

  Learn the basics of survey design, data collection, and simple mapping to support your classroom or club project. Even during a pandemic, students can safely collect and map data to help address a problem or project. Learn the tools and methods to collecting data when most (or all) of your students are learning from home. This session will focus on ArcGIS Online and Survey123 in K-12 and informal education. All software and instructional resources used are offered at no-cost for youth instruction. Date: Tuesday, March 16th 7:00pm - 8:00pm Central Register Now >> ... View more

Join the Esri K12 Team this December at one (or more) of these webinar events! Online Maps for Ohio Schools December 10 with the Esri K-12 Team Learn about online mapping for classrooms with ArcGIS Online and other free tools and instructional materials from Esri. Boost Learning with Better Maps and Apps December 15 at Directions Magazine Interactive maps and apps engage learners, but presentation matters. Students, teachers, and parents-who-teach can boost the impact of their work by improving the display, adding custom data, using analysis, and more. Snag some tips for everything from quick maps to competition entries! Drones! December 17 with the Esri T3G Team (open to all) Learn the basics of drones, their use in educational settings, and starting points for integration with GIS in this fast-paced webinar. ... View more

With changing educational conditions come changing practices. Do you have a state or regional virtual K-12 event for teachers coming up? Are you interested in having an Esri K12 presentation? Let us know! Complete the form below (https://arcg.is/1C5uKK1) and we will follow up with you. ... View more

I have been able to judge the ArcGIS Online Competition for US High Schools and Middle Schoolssince it began.  I’d like to offer some tips to teachers and students as they consider creating competitive projects for the 2020-2021 school year. 1. Start with a clearly stated question. This isn’t a book report. It’s an investigation aided by maps. Tell readers what you want to know, learn, or are curious about. This frames the entire story map and may mention how you plan to tackle the question or problem. If most of your story map is telling about others’ data, stories, or information, then you may want to reconsider your question. 2. Storymaps have always been more competitive than apps. According to the competition rules, you can submit apps.  But one has yet to win.  They don’t compete well because they usually don’t tell a clear story without explanation. Regardless, all maps must be understandable. Include a legend or clear narrative to describe a map’s content. 3. The best projects involve collecting some data outdoors. The data might be environmental, historical, or social but there’s no mistaking the extra mile a student takes when collecting, mapping, and analyzing their own data in conjunction with other relevant GIS data.  If COVID-19 or similar is active during the 2020-2021 school year, judges’ expectations will respect public health guidelines. 4. Customize your map pop-ups. Few things are more disheartening than seeing beautiful data only to be let down by pop-ups that aren’t configured - or image links that are broken.  In fact, broken images in map markers are probably as common as unconfigured markers/pop-ups. 5. Fill out the metadata! The item details page contains the storymap’s metadata.  Fill it out. 6. Check the national rules from Esri about media inclusion. If the national competition limits storymaps to two non-student created images, don’t use more.  Check the number of videos and length allowed.  These limits are in place to ensure the final story map clearly shows student work - and not just a collection of media from around the web. Keep in mind that not all states judge based on the media limits, guidelines, and rules in the national contest.  A story map that does well in a state competition, may not do well in national judging. 7. Analyze some data I’ve seen a lot of maps containing markers with a bit of text and maybe an image.  The maps can be beautiful and stories compelling, but fundamentally, geographic data analysis (visually or with tools in ArcGIS Online) will always standout.   A buffer has a starting point - but don’t stop there.  Bonus tip: Optimize large datasets that you build.  If you post a map layer with many vertices and columns of unused data, consider optimizing the layer so that it loads quickly. Good luck! ... View more

New learning resources from Waters to the Sea®, include Story Map programs on the Mississippi River, Guadalupe River in Texas, and the island of Kauaʻi. See the links below for more info: Waters to the Sea® Mississippi River Adventure: waterstothesea.org/mississippi Waters to the Sea® Guadalupe: waterstothesea.org/guadalupe Waters to the Sea® Kaua'i Adventure: Waterstothesea.org/kauai ... View more

If you are having difficulties joining the Mapping Hour GROUP - and you are not using a temporary Mapping Hour account - see the linked YouTube video for help.  If you continue to struggle, email [email protected]  ... View more