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UCGIS Newsletter Education Committee Report
3 August 2005
This report outlines Education Committee activities during and since the 2005 Summer Assembly, as well as priorities for the coming year. These include the GIScience Body of Knowledge (next deliverable of the Model Curricula project), activities related to certification, accreditation, and articulation between two- and four-year institutions, the Virtual Seminar on GIS Ethics, and the 2006 Educator of the Year award.
1. Education Activities at 2005 Summer Assembly Sunday June 26- June 27 Model Curricula editorial team workshop – prepare for panel discussion and workshop at Summer Assembly
Tuesday June 28 1.00 – 3.00 pm Education Committee meeting: Discuss education priorities for coming year, including delivery of complete draft of GIScience Body of Knowledge to Advisory Board reviewers in August 2005, and to publisher (to be identified soon) in February 2006.
Wednesday June 29
Downs, who heads Penn State’s department of geography, previewed the long-awaited NRC report to an attentive audience of about 50 Summer Assembly participants. The report’s authors--a panel of psychologists, cognitive scientists, education specialists, geographers, and others--define spatial thinking in terms of spatial concepts, representation, and processes of reasoning. As an example, Downs challenged the audience to deduce the shortest path (along walls, ceiling, or floor) between two points on opposite sides of a room. He then demonstrated how projecting the 3-D space to a 2-D representation is the key to revealing the optimal solution.
Spatial thinking, the NRC report argues, involves cognitive skills that are integral to everyday life. Such skills that can be learned, but age, cognitive development level, biological sex, and cultural gender, account for differences in performance between individuals and groups. Spatial reasoning skills are implicit in national science and math standards for K-12 education. Those standards do not currently specify when and how such skills are to be mastered, however. Spatial thinking, the report observes, is U.S. K-12 education’s “blind spot.”
The NRC report promotes a re-conceptualization of GIS as an environment that supports spatial thinking. It argues that GIS software needs to be redesigned to meet educational goals, to accommodate student needs, and to accommodate the limitations of educational settings. The report can be ordered at http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11019.html
10.30 – noon Certification and Accreditation 1. The U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) Sue Kalweit explained USGIF’s plan to establish an accrediting body for academic certificate programs in geospatial intelligence called the Geospatial Intelligence Academy. Academy panel members subsequently met Jul 12-15 to begin identifying learning objectives for university certificate programs. UCGIS delegates Todd Bacastow (Penn State), George Hepner (Utah), Steven Prager (Wyoming), and Bruce Ralston (Tennessee) are participating as panel members.
2. The Geographic Information Systems Certification Institute (GISCI) has conferred approximately 750 “GISP” certificates since it was established in January 2004. UCGIS delegates participated in the formulation of the GISCI plan; one delegate (Karen Kemp) serves on GISCI’s board of directors. GISCI has invited UCGIS to become a member organization with formal Board representation. The invitation is currently under consideration by the UCGIS Board. The Education Committee believes strongly that UCGIS should assert its leadership by actively engaging these and other similar initiatives.
Model Curricula project: the GIScience Body of Knowledge (BoK) 1.00 – 03.00 pm Panel discussion 1. Project status report (DiBiase, Buckley, Demers, Johnson, Kemp)
2. Audience contributions to BoK
3. Relationship to other initiatives
Thursday June 30 1.00-3.00 pm GIScience Body of Knowledge workshop: In consultation with twelve self-selected delegates, BoK editors revised and expanded the most problematic knowledge areas. By acclamation the editors invited Dr. Brandon Plewe (Brigham Young University) to join the core editorial team. In addition to Brandon, the team includes Michael DeMers, David DiBiase, Ann Johnson, Karen Kemp, and Libby Wentz.
1.00-3.00 pm Teaching and Learning Workshop for Graduate Students and New Faculty Members: Ann Luck, senior instructional design specialist at Penn State’s e-Education Institute, consulted with about ten students and others on how to implement the learning objectives in the Body of Knowledge as student activities and assessment tools. Luck also consulted with USGIF representative Kalweit on strategies for identifying learning objectives for the Geospatial Intelligence Academy.
Friday July 1 1.00-3.00 pm Virtual Seminar workshop: Penn State University, Oregon State University, Ohio State University, University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin (and perhaps others) plan to enrol students in a UCGIS Virtual Seminar on Ethics for GIS Professionals in the Fall of 2005. Seminar instructors will include Will Craig and Francis Harvey (Minnesota), Steve Ventura (Wisconsin), Jerome Dobson (Kansas), and Mark Gahegan and David DiBiase (Penn State). Students and instructors will interact with each other, and with a collection of readings and Web sites, through Penn State’s online course management and conferencing systems. Contact dibiase@psu.edu for more information about the Seminar.
2. Activities since Summer Assembly Friday July 22- Saturday July 23 ESRI Education Users Conference After a planning meeting on the 22nd, DiBiase, Kemp and Johnson represented the Model Curricula project was represented at the EdUC Exhibition on Saturday the 23rd. The Body of Knowledge initiative generated considerable interest, especially among 2-year institutions seeking an authoritative basis for development of articulation agreements with 4-year colleges and universities.
Wednesday July 27 ESRI International Users Conference GITA Department of Labor grant: Ann Johnson brokered a meeting including DiBiase, Kemp, GITA Executive Director Bob Samborski, and Roxanne Cox-Drake, GITA education committee chair. Group discussed the DoL grant and potential UCGIS contributions. GITA inherited the grant from STIA and is now developing an action plan. GITA's main deliverable to DoL will be an "industry definition" and an implementation plan for building awareness of geospatial job opportunities at the local level. AAG will contribute a "geospatial workforce information" Web site. UCGIS reps explained the GIScience Body of Knowledge and its current and potential application as an authoritative basis for professional certification, articulation agreements, and program accreditation. We expect UCGIS to be called upon to speak for the GIScience research community as this project moves forward.
3. UCGIS Education Award 2006 The UCGIS Education Committee is pleased to call for nominations for the 2006 UCGIS Education Award for an individual who has made outstanding contributions to GIScience education.
Contributions of national significance may include:
Nominations should include the following information:
Nominees not selected in previous years will be reconsidered in the following year’s deliberations. Old and new nominations shall be reviewed by a subcommittee of the Education Committee chaired by the previous Education Awardee. The Education Award Committee may identify additional nominees or may recommend that no award be given in a particular year. The name of the person selected for the award, if applicable, shall be forwarded to the UCGIS Board for final approval. All GIScience educators worldwide are eligible for the award, except for the current members of the Education Award Committee. However, only people affiliated with UCGIS member institutions may make official nominations or serve on the Award Committee.
Nominations should be forwarded to David DiBiase, Chairperson, UCGIS Education Committee, by electronic mail (dibiase@psu.edu) or regular mail (David DiBiase, Director, Dutton e-Education Institute, 2217 Earth-Engineering Sciences Building, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park PA 16802). The award will be presented at the 2006 UCGIS Summer Assembly.
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David DiBiase, chair
09.15 – 10.15 am Plenary address: Roger Downs: Briefing on forthcoming