Feb 24 2013

Rhode Island Community Profiles

Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:

This is a simplified Census data map viewer specifically for Rhode Island. To see a simplified U.S. Census data at the national scale, see: http://sco.lt/7G5rur

Tags: statistics, Rhode Island, census, GIS, mapping, cartography.

See on profiles.provplan.org

Feb 23 2013

The Road Map Project

The Road Map Project brings together experts in geography, education, and research to chart a course for the large-scale improvement of K-12 geography education in the U.S.

Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:

Some great educators and geographers have collaborated to design a “road map” for the future of geography education. This is their report.

Tag: National Geographic, geography education.

See on education.nationalgeographic.com

Feb 21 2013

Maps and the Geospatial Revolution

“Learn how advances in geospatial technology and analytical methods have changed how we do everything, and discover how to make maps and analyze geographic patterns using the latest tools.”

When I was a graduate student at Penn State, I was introduced to some great people and programs and I’m glad to see that the institution has continued to excel and be a leader. You have probably heard of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) and been interested in seeing how this might change higher education in the future. This MOOC is a free 5-week course designed to be an introduction to mapping, GIS and geospatial technologies so you don’t need to be a specialists with a mapping background: it’s for beginners. I know that many geography teachers tell their students about GIS, but are afraid to teach with GIS because they are worried that it will be too hard. This is an easy on-ramp to 21st century geospatial tools and any geography teacher hoping to modernize their skillset would do well to take this summer course fromthe Program of Online Geospatial Education at Penn State, taught by Dr. Anthony Robinson. For more information on this, see this annoucement from Directions Magazine and from Penn State News.

Tags: GIS, teacher training, mapping, cartography, geospatial, edtech, geography education, unit 1 GeoPrinciples.

See on www.coursera.org

Feb 17 2013

NOVA: Earth From Space

Detailed satellite images reveal the web of connections that sustain life on Earth.

“Earth From Space is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. Produced in extensive consultation with NASA scientists, NOVA takes data from earth-observing satellites and transforms it into dazzling visual sequences, each one exposing the intricate and surprising web of forces that sustains life on earth.”

This documentary shows something interesting for the physical geographer, human geographers, and geospatial technology specialists. In other words, this touches on just about all things geographic (with cool images!). The overarching theme is that so many things in this world that we wouldn’t imagine are actually interconnected with excellent examples.

Tags: remote sensing, geospatial, unit 1 Geoprinciples, physical.

See on www.pbs.org

Feb 13 2013

Rich Blocks, Poor Blocks

Income maps of every neighborhood in the U.S. See wealth and poverty in places like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Miami, and more.

This is the most user-friendly website I’ve seen to map economic census data. This maps the average household income data on top of a Google Maps basemap that can be centered on any place in the United States. This is a great resource to share with students of just about any age.

Tags: statistics, census, GIS, mapping, cartography.

See on www.richblockspoorblocks.com