Why should geographers care about data science?
By Canserina Kurnia, Esri Senior Solution Engineer for Education, and Joseph Kerski, , GISP, Esri Education Manager Data science is the study of data. Data science involves developing methods of recording, storing, and analyzing data to effectively extract useful information. The discipline of geography has always been focused on data science, because geographers have always been keen to…
Visualizing Racial Equity
Race and place come together in various ways that generate different outcomes for different people. Too often, this results in racial inequity and social injustice. And none of this happens solely at one moment in time. These outcomes are a consequence of decades, generations, and centuries of policies, practices, assumptions, and actions. Esri’s racial equity…
The Advancement of Location Analytics in Business Schools
by Joseph Kerski Education Manager, Esri, and Instructor, University of Denver A quiet geographic revolution is occurring on many university and college campuses around the world. Faculty and students in schools and colleges of business are increasingly turning to GIS tools and data in instruction and research. Given that business has always been about "location,…
Resilience in GIS Education
COVID-19 Cases across the United States. Bang. The spring semester was cut short, everyone was sent home, and the fall semester is still morphing. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a reset in the way we think about teaching and learning. Distance learning is not new, of course, but forced distance learning on a global scale—that's…
Geospatial Brain Power
Does learning GIS improve spatial reasoning capabilities in high schoolers? A team from six universities is studying the students—and their brains—to find out. A group of researchers from six American universities are studying what effect spatial education has on the development of the spatial thinking and reasoning skills of high school students. The research team…
Beyond Compactness: A New Measure to Evaluate Congressional Districts
Redrawing congressional district boundaries, an activity that happens every ten years following the decennial census, may be the most consequential application of geography in the United States. As congressional elections have become less competitive, many are raising questions about the current boundaries of congressional districts, often citing lack of geographical compactness as their rationale. Geographical…
AI and GIS: Finally Delivering on the promise
The field of artificial intelligence (AI) isn't new, and neither are its grand promises. AI as an academic pursuit has its roots in the 1950s. Early AI researchers were filled with optimism, but—despite some initial work that appeared groundbreaking, such as the first artificial neural networks—the field saw slow progress over the next several decades.…
Deoxygenation of the Ocean Affects Everyone, So Act Now
By Dawn J. Wright, Esri, and Sylvia A. Earle, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Did you know that more than half of the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean? This oxygen is produced in large part by the photosynthesis of billions and trillions of small plants in the ocean called phytoplankton, as well as the blending…
Stop Teaching GIS
Teach how to learn GIS instead. That was a guiding principle as I recently redesigned the gateway course to the Penn State Online certificate and master's degree programs in GIS. I began developing Nature of Geographic Information in 1998, at the outset of the Penn State Online ;I designed the course to serve adult students…
Exploring New Orleans and Beyond Using Web Mapping Tools, Maps, and Data
The evolution of geographic information system (GIS) technology to the web presents an excellent opportunity for the geography community to foster spatial thinking among colleagues, students, and administrators. The use of web maps, spatial data, and analysis tools to examine local to global issues has never been so powerful and easy to embrace. It also…
Teaching Modern GIS
As educators, we are always faced with challenges on how we structure our curriculum activities to ensure that we are in line with modern industry practices. This is easier said than done—for one, there is likely no consensus on what a "modern geographic information system (GIS)" means; and two, it takes a tremendous amount of…
Educational GIS Activities in Africa
Over the past decade, most universities and some secondary schools across Africa have been exposed to geographic information system (GIS) technology. Teaching about and with GIS on that continent has been both challenging and rewarding. On April 9, 2017, the panel session "Teaching GIS in Africa" was held at the Association of American Geographers (AAG)…