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EVOLVING TECHNOLOGY, SHIFTING EXPECTATIONS

EVOLVING TECHNOLOGY, SHIFTING EXPECTATIONS

Cultivating pedagogy for a rapidly changing GIS landscape

Jim Thatcher & Britta Ricker
University of Washington - Tacoma

#nacis2015

Nathaniel V. KELSO

October 15, 2015
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  1. EVOLVING TECHNOLOGY,
    SHIFTING EXPECTATIONS
    Cultivating pedagogy for a rapidly changing
    GIS landscape
    Jim Thatcher & Britta Ricker
    University of Washington - Tacoma

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  2. Talk Outline
    •  The circumstances
    •  Master’s in Geospatial Technologies; CyberGIS Fellowship
    •  The problem
    •  What GIS education has been
    •  What it’s becoming
    •  Our solution (one amongst many)
    •  A CyberGIS informed pedagogical framework

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  3. UWT Master’s of Science
    • Geospatial
    Technologies
    •  Not GIS
    •  A wider purview, but
    also a less defined
    • Specifically South
    Sound Serving
    •  Urban Serving

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  4. What the heck is CyberGIS?
    •  CyberGIS is the application of GIS to
    CyberInfrastructure
    •  Cyberinfrastructure:
    •  Computational power
    •  Data storage and repositories
    •  Instruments and tools of analysis
    •  CyberGIS integrates:
    •  Spatial analysis and modelling
    •  GISystems
    •  GIScientific approaches
    •  CyberInfrastructure
    (Wang & Armstrong, 2009; Wang et al., 2013)

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  5. CYBER CYBER CYBER CYBER!
    •  CyberGIS is the CyberApplication of
    CyberGIS to CyberInfrastructure
    •  Cyberinfrastructure:
    •  CyberComputational Cyberpower
    •  CyberData storage and Cyberrepositories
    •  CyberInstruments and tools of CyberAnalysis
    •  CyberGIS integrates:
    •  CyberSpatial analysis and CyberModelling
    •  CyberGISystems
    •  GIScientific CyberApproaches
    •  CyberInfrastructure
    Words matter
    Skilled in steering or governing

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  6. GIS Education

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  7. GIS Education
    • GIS is something one
    does
    • A purported gateway
    to a secure, middle-
    income lifestyle
    • Learn GIS, work for
    the city, become an
    analyst, etc.

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  8. GIS Education – what it’s becoming…

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  9. GIS Education – what it’s becoming…
    •  Technologies constantly evolving
    •  Job space changing
    •  Constant pressure on teaching tools vs. concepts
    •  What concepts for what tools?
    •  What tools for what concepts?
    •  Teaching GISystems vs. teaching about GIScience

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  10. GIS Education – at UWT
    •  These changes play out unevenly across space
    •  Opportunities available in some areas, not the case in others
    •  Constant tension between:
    Where the job market will be in 5 to 10 years
    vs.
    The need for a job now
    •  “Open-source is great and all, but I need to know
    ArcServer.”

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  11. GIS Education – at UWT
    From this: And this:

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  12. GIS Education – at UWT
    To this:
    A cyclical,
    Interdependent
    Relationship
    Local/
    Topic
    Expert
    Front End
    Back End
    Data
    Analyst

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  13. The Merry-go-round of GIS
    •  Constructivist approach to pedagogy
    •  Built on existing (GIS) skills
    •  Attentive to existing (spatial) interests
    •  Highly interactive
    •  Able to ‘jump on’ at any point
    •  Build from existing technologies
    •  To emergent ones
    •  Through core concepts

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  14. The Merry-go-round of GIS
    •  Reflective of student goals:
    •  Position inside the academy = concepts and research
    •  Position in traditional GIS = traditional tools
    •  Position in wider geospatial industry = open-source, open-data
    •  CyberGIS framework helps bridge these divides

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  15. Our Curriculum by numbers…
    • GIS Concepts
    •  Formal training
    required for every
    student
    • Tool training
    •  Formal training varies
    by student goals
    •  Informal training
    occurs through
    professional
    development, etc.

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  16. Our Curriculum by numbers…
    • One year, cohort
    based
    • 13% core concepts
    • 13% desktop skills
    •  80% ESRI tools
    •  20% Open-Source
    • 60% CyberGIS/Web
    •  60% ESRI tools
    •  40% Open-Source
    • 14% Research project

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  17. Research focus on student goals

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  18. So… what does it all mean?
    •  GIS is changing, but you already knew that.
    •  GIS education must change as well, but you knew that too.
    •  Different students will have different goals and different
    opportunities
    •  The uneven development of spatial data and spatial analysis
    matters
    •  A precarious balance amongst GIScience, GIS as job, and what
    spatial jobs will and are becoming
    •  CyberGIS can help
    •  On the one hand, CYBER! as questionable framing
    •  On the other, focus on high-end, distributing computing
    recognized by national agencies
    •  Constructivist pedagogy and the Merry-Go-Round of GIS

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