I'm a teacher who is developing curriculum and professional development to empower teachers and students to improve test scores and critical thinking with geospatial technologies.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Go Baylor!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Focusing the Spatial Lens in the Classroom
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Spatial Advertising
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Cool GIS Gear
New, Free GIS Tools-ArcGIS Explorer 900
Have a look at the latest geo-browser coming from ESRI in August. It updates and enhances the existing ArcGIS Explorer to new heights! I think this tool has some great applications for K-12 education. It goes beyond Google Earth's capabilities so that students can do some more analysis of map data and content. COOL tools are a good think!
http://www.esri.com/events/uc/images/plenary/6arcgis-explorer.html
I'm looking forward to creating some great curricular resources with it! Also check out the other news from the ESRI International User Conference Plenary at http://www.esri.com/events/uc/agenda/plenary.html.
It's always fun learning about new stuff when we make the trek to San Diego each summer! Thanks ESRI!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
San Diego Zoo at the ESRI UC 2009
Become a GeoMentor
Join the fun and become a GeoMentor! Lots of educators need the expertise and support of a GIS professional while lots of GIS professionals need educators to connect with. Search no more. This is the place to connect. Educators and professionals can register on the GeoMentor site for their needs. It's free and just a good thing to do!
Updates from the ESRI EdUC 2009
Fresh from the ESRI EdUC 2009 and ready to face another year...here are the latest files updated to my website. Downloads for Georeferencing the Curriculum and the Earth, Wind and Fire presentation (sans disco music) are available along with other good resources for integrating GIS in your classroom. http://www.barbareeduke.com/downloads/downloads.htm and http://www.barbareeduke.com/resources/resources.htm
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Reading, Writing and the Great Outdoors
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/sports/outdoors/456943
Monday, July 06, 2009
Geocoding Large Data Sets...FREE
Hi all!
While I solidly believe GPS fieldwork is a great thing for a youth based project often I get questions about how can lat/long be created from an address or a spreadsheet. ESRI announced a week or so ago it’s free geocoder and it is great!(http://blogs.esri.com/Info/blogs/gisedcom/archive/2009/06/19/geocoding-using-arcgis-online.aspx)
However, one of the useful tools I would like to share today is the website Batch Geocode - http://www.batchgeocode.com/. It is very beneficial when you have LARGE data sets but equally as useful with a small dataset. You can very quickly copy information from a spreadsheet into this online tool and it will output the information with 2 new fields (bg_lat, bg_long –the bg stands for batchgeocode).
You can create a kmz file for use in Google Earth and you can also import this tabular data into ArcGIS, AEJEE and ArcExplorer with the x, y data!
A few tips that I will share from my experiences with this:
1) Try it out using their “data” that is preloaded before copying your own in. You will see how the process works with a small data set and what all of the fields/options are.
2) At the bottom of the process there is an option to “Save Map to a webpage” this is a webpage created on their website and you have no control over it other than to request it’s removal…which they are very nice to do if you mistakenly put up information that is sensitive (individuals names, phone numbers etc). I learned that the hard way.
3) As the geocoder is processing on the site. Watch your numbers of successfully geocoding data rows especially if you have a large dataset you have entered. The reason I suggest this is that if it slows down and appears to be stalling it is having a problem processing a specific address – if you write down the number that it seems to stall on you will know which row to go to in your spread sheet and look for potential addressing problems. I tried out a 300 person file and had 8 errors that I found this way. Also you can have it process in smaller sections by only copying in/out smaller sections of data at a time.
4) Always check the data once it loads in your GIS program or Google Earth – you may be able to quickly see errors in your information or in the processing. You can always rerun a single line of data. It is free so that doesn’t always mean correct!
I have shared this resource with professionals, youth groups and educators so if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask!
Shannon
Shannon H. White, PhD
Geospatial Extension Specialist
Department of Geography
University of Missouri
20 Stewart Hall
Columbia, MO 65211
Phone: (573) 884-0790
http://geospatial.missouri.edu
Friday, July 03, 2009
ASCD 2009 Interview
http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2009/03/geographic-imaging-systems.html
We'll be together again in San Diego next week for the ESRI Education Users Conference (www.esri.com/educ)...come see us!