Latest Contributions by TomBaker

We are excited to announce that we will be exhibiting at the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) Annual Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, on November 30 - December 2, 2023. The ACTE conference is the premier event for career and technical educators, administrators, counselors, and industry partners, featuring hundreds of sessions on the latest trends, best practices, and research in CTE. At our booth, you will have the opportunity to see a live demo of ArcGIS, which empowers educators to create engaging, personalized, and interactive spatial learning experiences for your  students. You will also be able to chat with our team of experts, who can answer your questions and show you how ArcGIS can help you achieve your goals and challenges in CTE. Don't miss this chance to discover how ArcGIS can revolutionize your CTE curriculum and instruction. See you soon in Phoenix! ... View more

In preparing for a recent presentation on Generative AI for GIS teachers, I experimented a bit with ChatGPT4 and the “Browse with Bing” plugin.  I have not yet been able to do this with the Bing ChatGPT tool, Bard, Claude, or others. ChatGPT can, with several rounds of code correction, generate the python code to run in an ArcGIS Online notebook, thereby creating an inline map in the Notebook or writing out a typical web map file to ArcGIS Online.  The process is still clumsy in my opinion, but it’s doable and maybe worth exploring for your future teaching or research. My initial prompt: create a map of Kansas City, Ks with a marker at 11900 Meadow Lane, Leawood, KS using the ArcGIS API for Python I returned error codes to ChatGPT about five times, creating an updated python script each time.  It is a more approachable workflow, if you have used the ArcGIS API for Python before. Watch the video below for more details on the process I used.   ... View more

The second GeoInquiries™ collection designed for use in the Atlas or MapMaker application is now available.  Each of the 15 Level 1 activities has been converted for use with the features of the Instant App template, Atlas – this includes the new MapMaker. The new collection follows the release of the Earth Science collection and preceeds work on the Human Geography GeoInquiry collection.  The new World Geography GeoInquiry collection includes: Teacher PDF Interactive map Activity vocabulary list Student worksheet Student self-check (uses Survey123) Word search puzzle Crossword puzzle Google Classroom integration Explore the new content today at https://esriurl.com/geoinquiries If you have questions or concerns, please email us at: [email protected]     ... View more

There are a handful of fun and engaging fantasy maps in ArcGIS Online.  And, while I probably didn’t get all of them, I assembled a group of maps and shared through the Instant App template, called Atlas. The intent of my atlas is to feature fantasy and literary fiction for the language arts classroom. It just so happens that Halloween is around the corner!   Launch The Fantasy and Literary Fiction Atlas To create my atlas, I followed these steps. Figure 2Log into my ArcGIS Online organization. Create a group in my ArcGIS Online organization. Share the group publicly (although you can restrict your group sharing). Save others’ (example) or share my (example) maps to the group. Launch the Instant App widget (Figure 2) Select the Atlas template. Select my group (from step 1). Change the title of my atlas to better describe my content. Publish my atlas (figure 3). Set the atlas share to everyone.   For school use beyond Halloween, my atlas will probably appeal most to language arts teachers.  So I’ll share my atlas through social media with those educators to see what traction I get. I'll also add to my atlas as new content becomes available to highlight.  Enjoy! ... View more

  Join the Esri K12 team as they lead a four-part webinar series, in partnership with the National Council for Geographic Education. Topics include MapMaker, Map Viewer, StoryMaps, and the 2024 student ArcGIS Online competition. All webinars are free. Register at: http://ncge.org/upcoming-events   WEBINAR 1: National Geographic MapMaker  September 14 (recording available soon) Presentation link: https://k12.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=5d462f7b100445a18302aa7a3f2c098f   WEBINAR 2: ArcGIS Map View  October 5 Are you creating storymaps? Engaging students in the Esri-NCGE student storymap competition? Then this webinar is for you! Part of a 3-part series by Esri designed to support educators who are looking to engage their students in the world of geography. In this webinar, Tom Baker and Charlie Fitzpatrick will discuss the map viewer as the cornerstone for visualizing map-based data. In this webinar, we will cover the basics of creating maps using data from ArcGIS Online or collected by students.   WEBINAR 3: Creating great ArcGIS Storymaps November 2 Do you want to teach with storymaps? Maybe you want to have students create them – even participate in competitions? Join us for this fast-paced introduction to ArcGIS Storymaps, including how to get started, the latest features, and tips and tricks. Learn how to quickly create immersive, multimedia stories with maps, narrative text, images, videos, and more.   Webinar 4: Getting ready for the 2024 ArcGIS Competition for US Students  November 16 Students are building skills in geographic exploration, mapping, analysis, and presentation! The ArcGIS Online Competition for US High School and Middle School Students is a good next step: students in grades 4-12 research a topic of interest in their state and craft a StoryMap about their findings. Students can dive into a personal, custom project, enter it into a state competition with $100 awards and national attention, and build for the future of their community and themselves. Teachers can use it as a capstone for all, launch a club, or just introduce this and let them go. Special: Webinar 4 will be hosted and co-presented with the Esri teacher community. Pre-register for this event at: https://t3ghub-esrit3g.hub.arcgis.com/pages/webinars ... View more

The original 15 earth science Geo inquiry activities from Esri are now available in the instant app, Atlas. Some specific Earth Science GeoInquiry maps are also available as a part of the National Geographic MapMaker. In addition to the teacher guide and map, we have also included student worksheets, vocabulary lists, and short self-check quizzes for students.  Resources for easily integrating these Maps and activities into your LMS are also available. The best way to access this updated content is through the URL https://esriurl.com/geoinquiries    You can use or share the content, today. More collections will be updated soon.   ... View more

  While we are still very early in the development of generative AI and use of large language models (LLMs), I thought it would be interesting to see just how close an LLM could get to correctly addressing a common GIS 101 project. I chose to start by using Google’s Bard as it is supposed to be able to access current data from the Internet. It’s unclear to me that this capacity helped. I gave this prompt to Google Bard: You are a city planner and GIS analyst. What are the two best locations to build a new McDonald's fast good restaurant in Leawood, Kansas I left the typo (“good” should have been “food”). Here is Bard’s full response. Bard gives us a reasonable sounding response. Unfortunately, both locations used as an answer either already have a fast food restaurant at the location or very close. However, the stated factors used in creating the analysis were on par with a typical undergraduate student response. ------ I then gave this prompt to OpenAI's ChatGPT 4 (no extensions): ChatGPT identified many of the same factors that Bard did and added a few additional, including market analysis.  ChatGPT returned these two suggested locations: Near Town Center Plaza (equivalent to Bard’s 119th & Roe recommendation)  : This area is a significant shopping district, with many retailers and dining options. Adding a McDonald's here might capture the shopping crowd. Along State Line Road: This road is a significant thoroughfare, with good visibility and accessibility. Finding a location with high traffic along this road might be a good option. ChatGPT’s second recommendation of State Line road is reasonable, however there are already McDonald’s at 79th, 104th, and 135th In Leawood. Several competitors are scattered between those existing McDonald’s locations. ----- For me, the take-away is that the LLMs are identifying factors to consider, but no supporting data sources, (geographic) analytical procedures, or useable responses.  As with my other AI "experiments" to date, the results while not great yet, are amazing considering what we had access to only a year ago.  The obvious question remains, where will this analysis be a year from now? ... View more

Punchline: Generative AI tools offer interesting possibilities, although be careful.  You won’t know what data are fictional and what data are real. In the blog that follows, I used generative AI commands to generate the following data.  You can send the AI a prompt (user input) and the AI will return "data".  Remember that generative AI can and will hallucinate from time to time.  Depending on your teaching needs, carefully review all output. Note: In some returned data below, I added the bulleted list to help with formatting of this blog.  The AI did not add the bullets. CSV  Can ChatGPT create a list of cities with a geographical query attached? Prompt to ChatGPT: can you provide a comma-delimited table of latitude, longitude, and city name for 10 cities in the northern hemisphere? ChatGPT returned: City,Latitude,Longitude Moscow,55.7558,37.6173 Toronto,43.651070,-79.347015 Reykjavik,64.1466,-21.9426 Tokyo,35.682839,139.759455 Stockholm,59.3293,18.0686 Seattle,47.6062,-122.3321 Oslo,59.9139,10.7522 Helsinki,60.1699,24.9384 Anchorage,61.2181,-149.9003 Edinburgh,55.9533,-3.1883   GeoJSON Can ChatGPT draw a polygon centered over a real area? Prompt to ChatGPT: create a geojson square polygon centered over New York City, New York. ChatGPT returned: {     "type": "FeatureCollection",     "features": [         {             "type": "Feature",             "properties": {},             "geometry": {                 "type": "Polygon",                 "coordinates": [                     [                         [-74.0110, 40.7178],                         [-74.0110, 40.7078],                         [-74.0010, 40.7078],                         [-74.0010, 40.7178],                         [-74.0110, 40.7178]                     ]                 ]             }         }     ] } CSV Can ChatGPT create a list of points in a bounded region? Prompt to ChatGPT: generate a comma-delimited table of 15 places within the geojson square above.  Include the latitude, longitude, and place name. ChatGPT returned latitude,longitude,place_name 40.7168,-74.0100,"Place 1" 40.7165,-74.0095,"Place 2" 40.7162,-74.0090,"Place 3" 40.7159,-74.0085,"Place 4" 40.7156,-74.0080,"Place 5" 40.7153,-74.0075,"Place 6" 40.7150,-74.0070,"Place 7" 40.7147,-74.0065,"Place 8" 40.7144,-74.0060,"Place 9" 40.7141,-74.0055,"Place 10" 40.7138,-74.0050,"Place 11" 40.7135,-74.0045,"Place 12" 40.7132,-74.0040,"Place 13" 40.7129,-74.0035,"Place 14" 40.7126,-74.0030,"Place 15"   KML Can Bard return near realtime data from the Internet? Prompt to ChatGPT: Use KML to create an approximate outline of the state of Kansas. ChatGPT returned: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <kml xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2">   <Document>     <name>Kansas Outline</name>     <Placemark>       <name>Outline</name>       <LinearRing>         <coordinates>           -101.906620,36.993076           -101.906620,39.993019           -94.616221,39.993019           -94.616221,36.993076           -101.906620,36.993076         </coordinates>       </LinearRing>     </Placemark>   </Document> </kml>  CSV Can much data can be returned by ChatGPT? Prompt to ChatGPT: create a comma-delimited table of all country capitals in the world. Include in the table the capital name, country name, latitude of the capital, longitude of the capital. ChatGPT 3.5 give a “sample” data structure with less than 10 results. ChatGPT 4 also returns a sample with 30 records (I only included the first three below). Capital Name, Country Name, Latitude, Longitude ----------------------------------------------- Kabul, Afghanistan, 34.6, 69.2 Tirana, Albania, 41.3, 19.8 Algiers, Algeria, 36.8, 3.2 Furthermore, ChatGPT 4 stated, “Unfortunately, due to the restrictions of this medium, I can only provide a sample list”.   AND THEN THINGS GOT WEIRD. I headed to Google Bard - to access “live” data from the Internet.  Prompted with: create a comma-delimited list of earthquakes from the last 24 hours that have a  magnitude 5 or greater.  Include latitude, longitude, magnitude, date, and nearest location. Bard returned: 19.42,-169.87,5.8,2023-07-28 11:07 PM,Kermadec Islands 34.36,-118.24,5.5,2023-07-28 10:32 PM,Los Angeles 14.54,-90.64,5.7,2023-07-28 10:18 PM,Guatemala -34.64,-70.68,5.6,2023-07-28 9:55 PM,Chile -17.20,-172.44,5.6,2023-07-28 9:39 PM,Tonga -17.31,-170.35,5.5,2023-07-28 9:24 PM,Samoa -57.00,-26.00,5.8,2023-07-28 9:12 PM,South Sandwich Islands 15.36,-95.33,5.6,2023-07-28 8:58 PM,Mexico -36.91,-73.11,5.6,2023-07-28 8:47 PM,Chile 19.35,-166.83,5.7,2023-07-28 8:33 PM,Kermadec Islands 17.77,-172.51,5.7,2023-07-28 8:19 PM,Tonga -35.67,-72.40,5.6,2023-07-28 8:05 PM,Chile -38.80,-72.90,5.6,2023-07-28 7:51 PM,Chile -34.36,-70.70,5.6,2023-07-28 7:37 PM,Chile -19.41,-169.94,5.7,2023-07-28 7:23 PM,Kermadec Islands -17.18,-172.46,5.6,2023-07-28 7:09 PM,Tonga -37.37,-72.53,5.6,2023-07-28 6:55 PM,Chile -54.77,-26.42,5.7,2023-07-28 6:41 PM,South Sandwich Islands -38.80,-72.90,5.6,2023-07-28 6:27 PM,Chile -35.70,-72.37,5.6,2023-07-28 6:13 PM,Chile -57.00,-26.00,5.7,2023-07-28 5:59 PM,South Sandwich Islands How many things in the above data make you pause?  My first thought was that maybe this is a subset of the data, so I headed over to the USGS site.  It gave a very different story. Admittedly, these are very small prompts. Perhaps more detailed prompts would return more accurate results.  Maybe include in the prompt a "do not make up data" statement - to improve work.  So many questions remain unanswered..... ... View more

If you teach GIS in school or college, especially in Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, a short walk-through of the Esri Expo will give students an idea of the range of technologies built on or supported by the ArcGIS platform. Click the image below to launch the YouTube-hosted 360 degree VR video.  Be sure to use the "Gear" icon in the YouTube player to set the Quality to 4K - otherwise the exhibits are too difficult to see. The video description includes a booth-by-booth listing at times when the camera passes it.   If you are an instructor, consider having each high school or college student experience the video on their own laptop, mobile device, or VR headset.  Some guiding questions may help focus the experience. Name five companies Identify at least three different types of companies Identify at least three Esri product booths/areas. Identify where the clusters of people are. Are there organizations that align with your current interests or work? Lastly, remember that while the expo hall is large, well over 350,000 organizations globally use ArcGIS.  The video shows less than 1% of organizations using GIS. .   ... View more

The National Geospatial Technology Center of Excellence (the “GeoTech Center”) is excited to offer a Geospatial Educator’s Certification Program (GeoEdC). The GeoEdC is designed for educators (middle school through college/university) who are seeking to increase their pedagogical skill-set and/or acquire a document certifying that they have the requisite technical skills, competencies, and knowledge to teach geospatial technologies (GST). GeoEdC is intended for educators with intermediate or above levels of GST experience who teach or are planning to teach GST. Example requisite skills include the ability to:  Identify data format types (e.g., Vector versus Raster). A working knowledge of geospatial software, such as ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Pro, QGIS, or other GST software. Describe coordinate systems. Change layer symbology and visualize data in a map, graph, or chart. Create or acquire geospatial data and add that data to a map frame. Create, update, and utilize attribute tables. Query, select, buffer, and other fundamental geoprocessing tasks. Identify and use different editing and geoprocessing tools. The benefits of the GeoEdC go beyond simply showing proof of expertise. Rather, the hands-on program provides educators with: Evidence of expertise to teach (or continue/begin to teach) workforce-aligned GST curriculum. Instruction regarding advances/changes in GST. A community of practice (CoP) in order to network, collaborate, and/or share content. Pedagogical techniques to effectively teach GST. Additional skills to create GTCM [careeronestop.org]-based (Geospatial Technology Competency Model) curriculum for real-world, work-related GST applications. Information to share with students regarding career opportunities in the GST industry. Notification to their respective administrators of the achievement. Accepted applicants (limited to no more than 20 participants) will complete the 8-week, virtual GeoEdC program starting on September 25 and ending on November 19, 2023. The GeoEdC curriculum consists of weekly learning modules, culminating with a weekly geospatial technology mini project and a weekly mini “capstone” project (where participants will design their own learning module). The goal of each mini project is to introduce participants to a variety of pedagogical techniques/tools for different geospatial technology applications. GeoEdC participants will work with GeoEdC mentors and other educators in a collaborative setting. All resources created by the participants will be available to educators via the GeoTech Center website. For further information (including how to apply), please visit: https://geoedc-kctcs.hub.arcgis.com/pages/home The program is presently free. Note, the application deadline for GeoEdC is August 18, 2023 (by 11:59 pm in your respective time zone). If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Ken Yanow (GeoTech Center Associate Director) at [email protected].   ... View more

I recently upgraded my free ChatGPT account to a paid version.  Paid versions include beta features like plugins and the Code Interpreter.  Using the GPT-4 model, I added a plugin designed to describe images in text.  It is a bit like “reverse engineering” an AI prompt that might be used in an AI image generator.  The plugin I used for this post is called SceneXplain. At the time of this post, the plugin was free to use.   Prompt: In ChatGPT 4, I provided this prompt: explain this image: http://images.mapsofworld.com/usa/thematic-maps/usa-population-map.jpg   Results: ChatGPT and SceneXplain returned the following response: "The image shows a map of the United States, which is displaying the population estimate for each state. At the top of the map, there is a caption that reads "USA POPULATION ESTIMATE BY STATE" in large letters. Below this caption, there is additional text that says "(As of July 1, 2016)". The map is divided into various sections, each representing a different state. The states and their corresponding abbreviations are labeled with text positioned within their boundaries. Some of the state abbreviations include "WA" for Washington, "MT" for Montana, "ME" for Maine, "ND" for North Dakota, and "OR" for Oregon. These abbreviations are scattered across the map, with each one appearing near its respective state's boundary. The map also includes labels for population ranges, symbolized by different colors. These labels are placed at the bottom of the map. They indicate the population ranges from "10,000,001-40,000,000" to "1,000,001-5,000,000" to "100,000-1,000,000". The corresponding scale for the range values is displayed as "1 82.5 125" on the right side." Reactions? At this time, the tools don’t describe the pattern in the map. It’s not clear the tools understand the linkage between the legend and map The tools do a reasonably decent job at describing the content of the image. The narrative could be helpful as context or for framing a map that a student is to interpret. This may be especially useful for students with visual or cognitive impairments. The tools don’t work well today for  complex JPG/PNG maps nor does this tool work on interactive maps. This is a first generation technology.  What could this look like in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years?         ... View more