Tracking a GIS Core Curriculum
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Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)
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Recently a few of us were discussing some Education ideas at a meeting
at University of Denver - I found the discussion very encouraging. The topic of curriculum, naturally, came up. I know we've kicked around quite a few aspects to it on this list and in our own meetings, so I went back to: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Core_Curriculum_Project and saw some similar ideas presented there. The one common idea that has come up a few times recently is where to focus OSGeo efforts. Collecting course material is obviously important, but I'm wondering if we might want to try to fit them into an overall structure. It was suggested that we build on top of existing curriculum by creating (or collecting) workshop materials that help apply the topics being taught. This may be as simple as identify which chapter/topic or subject a particular FOSS workshop applies to - or it may be more tightly coupled to a curriculum in other ways. My question is, what curriculum framework are people more familiar with or believe are more valuable to track? A few people have mentioned the GIS&T Body of Knowledge: http://www.ucgis.org/priorities/education/modelcurriculaproject.asp and more, sample chapter, etc: http://www.aag.org/bok Their divisions and categories are shown well on the flyer: http://www.aag.org/bok/AAGKnowledge_Flyer.pdf I believe some of the editors or authors are on our mailing list even. Are there other options for core model curricula you are using? Is this the one we should track? Who has a copy of the book and could recommend it further? I've had a few excellent recommendations already, but thought I'd move the discussion over to this list to help determine next steps. Any other related ideas? _______________________________________________ Edu_discuss mailing list [hidden email] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss |
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Charlie Schweik
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Tyler,
THANKS for posting these questions. I have been thinking (in part because of your discussions in Denver) that this should be the next big collaborative effort by our group. > My question is, what curriculum framework are people more familiar with > or believe are more valuable to track? > There is the NCGIS GIScience core curriculum here: http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/giscc/ (dated 2000). I haven't read the AAG book but it looks interesting. But I think our group should NOT try and duplicate these kinds of efforts. What I think we should focus on is *developing a core curriculum for, perhaps, a "GIS Certificate in Open Source GIS*," to begin. I think this is a natural next step for our group, and as you suggest, we could potentially organize or link course material in our database to a curriculum structure we as a group come up with. -- I think this is a* great collaborative goal for this next year*. Do others agree? Who is willing to help? Anyone willing to take a lead on this? Charlie P.S. My standard follow-up -- anyone have new course material to post to our database? Anyone have any information on activities for me to post to our group's blog? [cschweik.vcf] begin:vcard fn:Charlie Schweik n:Schweik;Charlie org:University of Massachusetts, Amherst;Natural Resources Conservation and Center for Public Policy and Administration adr:;;217 Holdsworth Hall;Amherst;MA;01003;USA title:Associate Professor tel;work:413 545 1824 note:Associate Director, National Center for Digital Government (www.ncdg.org) url:http://people.umass.edu/cschweik version:2.1 end:vcard _______________________________________________ Edu_discuss mailing list [hidden email] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss |
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Landon Blake
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Tyler and Charlie,
I agree with Charlie, our focus shouldn't be on creating yet another GIS curriculum. Our efforts should focus on how we integrate open source software into an existing curriculum. How can open source software be used for existing GIS curriculum classes? What new classes focused on open source GIS might be added to an existing curriculum? This does present the problem of choosing an existing curriculum to work with. Which one is the most actively developed and supported? I really don't think our main focus should be on curriculum, but on developing free course materials. A curriculum may benefit a narrow set of the population interested in setting up some sort of GIS education program, but I think we can reach a wider audience and have more impact by developing actual course material. I would love to see a web site that schools could use to download courses for their own use. The best part about having OSGEO spearhead this effort is the person downloading the course could download the software to use with the course too! In order to accomplish this I think it would be helpful to come up with a suggested format for course material. That would help someone like me, who is interested in actually authoring this type of information. I think the courses should be set-up in as modular a fashion as possible, and as short chunks. The reality is that we don't have a dedicated team of full-time people to work on this. We are going to have some gaps in our coverage. The more modular and smaller we make the courses the more effective the system will be. I'm particularly interested in developing material for the community college system and working professionals that want to do a program of self-study. If there is some interest in offering this type of course material via OSGEO, I would like to be involved in developing material for this particular audience. I can get a hold of my surveying professor in Montana, as he might serve as a test bed for some of our initial work. Here is one challenge I see to this idea: I work in Java and with OpenJUMP. Another of our members will work in C++ and with GRASS. Do we attempt to develop our material in a software/language-neutral way, or do we organize the course material according to programming language/GIS program? Please keep me posted. This is where I eventually want to go with the "Mapping Math" material I am working on right now. I would love to see that material adapted as a course that could be used in a community college. Landon Office Phone Number: (209) 946-0268 Cell Phone Number: (209) 992-0658 -----Original Message----- From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Charlie Schweik Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 6:57 AM To: Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) Cc: [hidden email] Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Edu] Tracking a GIS Core Curriculum Tyler, THANKS for posting these questions. I have been thinking (in part because of your discussions in Denver) that this should be the next big collaborative effort by our group. > My question is, what curriculum framework are people more familiar with > or believe are more valuable to track? > There is the NCGIS GIScience core curriculum here: http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/giscc/ (dated 2000). I haven't read the AAG book but it looks interesting. But I think our group should NOT try and duplicate these kinds of efforts. What I think we should focus on is *developing a core curriculum for, perhaps, a "GIS Certificate in Open Source GIS*," to begin. I think this is a natural next step for our group, and as you suggest, we could potentially organize or link course material in our database to a curriculum structure we as a group come up with. -- I think this is a* great collaborative goal for this next year*. Do others agree? Who is willing to help? Anyone willing to take a lead on this? Charlie P.S. My standard follow-up -- anyone have new course material to post to our database? Anyone have any information on activities for me to post to our group's blog? Warning: Information provided via electronic media is not guaranteed against defects including translation and transmission errors. If the reader is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this information in error, please notify the sender immediately. _______________________________________________ Edu_discuss mailing list [hidden email] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss |
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Gavin Fleming
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In reply to this post
by Charlie Schweik
Some javascript/style in this post has been disabled (why?)
To add to the list of 'core curricula', the South African
Qualifications Authority requirements for accredited GIS qualifications (and
the Unit Standards that make them up) can be accessed here. There’s a
huge amount of detail as you drill down: http://www.gissa.org.za/education/saqa-qualifications/
Gavin -----Original Message----- THANKS for posting these questions. I have been thinking (in part
because of your discussions in that this should be the next big collaborative effort by our group. > My question is, what curriculum framework are people more familiar
with > or believe are more valuable to track? > There is the NCGIS GIScience core curriculum here: http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/giscc/ (dated 2000). I haven't read the AAG book but it looks interesting. But I think our group should NOT try and duplicate these kinds of efforts. What I think we should focus on is *developing a core
curriculum for, perhaps, a "GIS Certificate in Open Source GIS*," to
begin. I think this is a natural next step for our group, and as you suggest, we could potentially organize or link course material in our database
to a curriculum structure we as a group come up with. -- I think this is a* great collaborative goal for this next year*. Do others agree? Who is willing to help? Anyone willing to take a lead on this? Charlie P.S. My standard follow-up -- anyone have new course material to post
to our database? Anyone have any information on activities for me to post to our group's blog? If you are not the intended recipient, or responsible for delivery of the message to the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution, or any action taken is prohibited and may be unlawful, and could result in a claim against you. _______________________________________________ Edu_discuss mailing list [hidden email] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss |
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Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)
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In reply to this post
by Charlie Schweik
On Tue, 2009-09-15 at 09:56 -0400, Charlie Schweik wrote:
> There is the NCGIS GIScience core curriculum here: > http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/giscc/ (dated 2000). > I haven't read the AAG book but it looks interesting. > > But I think our group should NOT try and duplicate these kinds of > efforts. What I think we should focus on is *developing a core curriculum > for, perhaps, a "GIS Certificate in Open Source GIS*," to begin. Thanks Charlie, The NCGIS curriculum was also in the dust at the back of my mind. Just to make sure we're on the same page - I'm suggesting we build on top of existing curricula by focusing on tutorials and lessons that apply theory using open source GIS applications/tools but tied back directly to aspects of these curricula. Are you suggesting that we build on top of these existing ones or start from scratch with our own? I could see that a few modules in such a certificate for open source GIS would require us to have some general "open source" focused teaching that we might have to create, but can we still re-use existing component from elsewhere, right? At least as a framework for building our open source specific teaching? My mental challenge here is that I could see that our curriculum would be the same as any GIS certificate curriculum, only the labs and applications would use open source tools. Of course, it could also be branded as an open source GIS certificate, but perhaps that's a fine line at this point? Are there other perspectives on this I'm missing? > I think this is a natural next step for our group, and as you suggest, > we could potentially organize or link course material in our database to > a curriculum > structure we as a group come up with. -- I think this is a* great > collaborative goal for this next year*. Maybe this answers my above questions. Do these next steps make sense? 1. Review existing curriculum. 2. Copying the structures from existing curricula as appropriate (hopefully verbatim so educators can tie directly back) 3. Identify holes that we'd need to fill (hopefully only a few) 4. Collate or create material for each section. 5. Bundle it all up, etc... Thanks for discussion! Tyler _______________________________________________ Edu_discuss mailing list [hidden email] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss |
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Helena Mitasova
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On Sep 15, 2009, at 11:37 AM, Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) wrote: > On Tue, 2009-09-15 at 09:56 -0400, Charlie Schweik wrote: >> There is the NCGIS GIScience core curriculum here: >> http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/giscc/ (dated 2000). >> I haven't read the AAG book but it looks interesting. >> >> But I think our group should NOT try and duplicate these kinds of >> efforts. What I think we should focus on is *developing a core >> curriculum >> for, perhaps, a "GIS Certificate in Open Source GIS*," to begin. > > Thanks Charlie, The NCGIS curriculum was also in the dust at the back > of my mind. > > Just to make sure we're on the same page - I'm suggesting we build on > top of existing curricula by focusing on tutorials and lessons that > apply theory using open source GIS applications/tools but tied back > directly to aspects of these curricula. > > Are you suggesting that we build on top of these existing ones or > start > from scratch with our own? > > I could see that a few modules in such a certificate for open > source GIS > would require us to have some general "open source" focused teaching > that we might have to create, but can we still re-use existing > component > from elsewhere, right? At least as a framework for building our open > source specific teaching? > > My mental challenge here is that I could see that our curriculum would > be the same as any GIS certificate curriculum, only the labs and > applications would use open source tools. Of course, it could also be > branded as an open source GIS certificate, but perhaps that's a fine > line at this point? Are there other perspectives on this I'm missing? > >> I think this is a natural next step for our group, and as you >> suggest, >> we could potentially organize or link course material in our >> database to >> a curriculum >> structure we as a group come up with. -- I think this is a* great >> collaborative goal for this next year*. > > Maybe this answers my above questions. Do these next steps make > sense? > > 1. Review existing curriculum. which one? There are general ones and each university program has its own (e.g. here is what we have for MS in GIST http://www.gis.ncsu.edu/academic/programs/index.php - you can see that Open source is "trickling in", but we are a very open source oriented school, to some extent because of RedHat headquarters on campus) We don't have any geography dept. so I can imagine that universities with geography department would have different curricula most of it built around ArcGIS. Also there is a difference between undergrad and grad level curricula, as well as between GIS certificate, BS, minor, and masters degree. > 2. Copying the structures from existing curricula as appropriate > (hopefully verbatim so educators can tie directly back) see above > 3. Identify holes that we'd need to fill (hopefully only a few) that will depend on what curriculum you select -undergrads basics curriculum would be certainly easier than grad level material. > 4. Collate or create material for each section. > 5. Bundle it all up, etc... we need to have a solid SVN infrastructure to be able to manage, update and collaborate on the material, I still haven't figured out the group support. Helena > > Thanks for discussion! > > Tyler > > _______________________________________________ > Edu_discuss mailing list > [hidden email] > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss _______________________________________________ Edu_discuss mailing list [hidden email] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss |
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Ian Turton
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In reply to this post
by Landon Blake
On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 11:13 AM, Landon Blake <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Tyler and Charlie, > > I agree with Charlie, our focus shouldn't be on creating yet another GIS > curriculum. Our efforts should focus on how we integrate open source > software into an existing curriculum. How can open source software be > used for existing GIS curriculum classes? What new classes focused on > open source GIS might be added to an existing curriculum? It is very hard to add new classes to the curriculum here (Penn State) but modifying existing courses to use foss is much easier. > I would love to see a web site that schools could use to download > courses for their own use. The best part about having OSGEO spearhead > this effort is the person downloading the course could download the > software to use with the course too! The only issue is that the versions of the software change to fast (often twice during a ten week term) > I'm particularly interested in developing material for the community > college system and working professionals that want to do a program of > self-study. If there is some interest in offering this type of course > material via OSGEO, I would like to be involved in developing material > for this particular audience. I can get a hold of my surveying professor > in Montana, as he might serve as a test bed for some of our initial > work. See http://open.ems.psu.edu/courseware to get you started - full courses in most cases with only the actual instructor interaction missing (we have to get our $1200 for something) -- Ian Turton Sent from State College, PA, United States _______________________________________________ Edu_discuss mailing list [hidden email] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss |
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Kim Tucker-2
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In reply to this post
by Helena Mitasova
> we need to have a solid SVN infrastructure to be
> able to manage, update and collaborate on the > material, > I still haven't figured out the group support. Or, you could simply use WikiEducator or WikiVersity (or cnx.org, etc.) and a mailing list for curriculum development. On Wikiversity and WikiEducator you can 'watch' pages you are co-editing, be e-mailed when changes are made, view page histories and roll back to previous versions, etc. Perhaps set up a portal similar to this one: http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Portal:Social_entrepreneurship/Curriculum for GIS and progressively develop modules. K ---- Links possibly of interest to some (in case you have forgotten ;-): http://cnx.org/content/m15128/latest/ - QGIS tutorial http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Portal:FLOSS4Science http://wikieducator.org/OER_Handbook/educator http://wikieducator.org/User:KTucker - my user page on WikiEducator. ----------- Helena Mitasova wrote: > > On Sep 15, 2009, at 11:37 AM, Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) wrote: > >> On Tue, 2009-09-15 at 09:56 -0400, Charlie Schweik wrote: >>> There is the NCGIS GIScience core curriculum here: >>> http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/giscc/ (dated 2000). >>> I haven't read the AAG book but it looks interesting. >>> >>> But I think our group should NOT try and duplicate these kinds of >>> efforts. What I think we should focus on is *developing a core >>> curriculum >>> for, perhaps, a "GIS Certificate in Open Source GIS*," to begin. >> >> Thanks Charlie, The NCGIS curriculum was also in the dust at the back >> of my mind. >> >> Just to make sure we're on the same page - I'm suggesting we build on >> top of existing curricula by focusing on tutorials and lessons that >> apply theory using open source GIS applications/tools but tied back >> directly to aspects of these curricula. >> >> Are you suggesting that we build on top of these existing ones or start >> from scratch with our own? >> >> I could see that a few modules in such a certificate for open source GIS >> would require us to have some general "open source" focused teaching >> that we might have to create, but can we still re-use existing component >> from elsewhere, right? At least as a framework for building our open >> source specific teaching? >> >> My mental challenge here is that I could see that our curriculum would >> be the same as any GIS certificate curriculum, only the labs and >> applications would use open source tools. Of course, it could also be >> branded as an open source GIS certificate, but perhaps that's a fine >> line at this point? Are there other perspectives on this I'm missing? >> >>> I think this is a natural next step for our group, and as you suggest, >>> we could potentially organize or link course material in our database to >>> a curriculum >>> structure we as a group come up with. -- I think this is a* great >>> collaborative goal for this next year*. >> >> Maybe this answers my above questions. Do these next steps make sense? >> >> 1. Review existing curriculum. > > which one? There are general ones and each university program has its own > > (e.g. here is what we have for MS in GIST > http://www.gis.ncsu.edu/academic/programs/index.php - > you can see that Open source is "trickling in", but we are a very open > source > oriented school, to some extent because of RedHat headquarters on campus) > > We don't have any geography dept. so I can imagine that universities > with geography department would have different curricula most of it > built around ArcGIS. > Also there is a difference between undergrad and grad level curricula, > as well as between GIS certificate, BS, minor, and masters degree. > >> 2. Copying the structures from existing curricula as appropriate >> (hopefully verbatim so educators can tie directly back) > > see above > >> 3. Identify holes that we'd need to fill (hopefully only a few) > > that will depend on what curriculum you select -undergrads basics > curriculum > would be certainly easier than grad level material. > >> 4. Collate or create material for each section. >> 5. Bundle it all up, etc... > > we need to have a solid SVN infrastructure to be able to manage, update > and collaborate on the material, > I still haven't figured out the group support. > > Helena >> >> Thanks for discussion! >> >> Tyler >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Edu_discuss mailing list >> [hidden email] >> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss > > _______________________________________________ > Edu_discuss mailing list > [hidden email] > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss Edu_discuss mailing list [hidden email] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss |
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Ned Horning-2
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In reply to this post
by Charlie Schweik
Charlie,
I think that what you suggest is a worthy goal but it probably won't happen real fast. Maybe we can start to develop a plan to go in that direction if folks thinks that makes sense. As more governments, organizations and individuals start to adopt FOSS4G I expect there will be an increase demand for guides to raise awareness of the benefits of open source and to help them make the switch. Last week I was introducing FOSS4G to a group of international scholars and it was a bit overwhelming for them to grasp the benefits of open source and get to the point where they decide to start working with it. I won't be able to take the lead on this (at least not now) but I'd like to participate. Ned Charlie Schweik wrote: > Tyler, > > THANKS for posting these questions. I have been thinking (in part > because of your discussions in Denver) > that this should be the next big collaborative effort by our group. >> My question is, what curriculum framework are people more familiar with >> or believe are more valuable to track? >> > There is the NCGIS GIScience core curriculum here: > http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/giscc/ (dated 2000). > I haven't read the AAG book but it looks interesting. > > But I think our group should NOT try and duplicate these kinds of > efforts. What I think we should focus on is *developing a core curriculum > for, perhaps, a "GIS Certificate in Open Source GIS*," to begin. > > I think this is a natural next step for our group, and as you suggest, > we could potentially organize or link course material in our database > to a curriculum > structure we as a group come up with. -- I think this is a* great > collaborative goal for this next year*. > > Do others agree? Who is willing to help? Anyone willing to take a lead > on this? > > Charlie > > P.S. My standard follow-up -- anyone have new course material to post > to our database? Anyone have any information on activities for me to > post to our group's blog? > > > _______________________________________________ > Edu_discuss mailing list > [hidden email] > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss > _______________________________________________ Edu_discuss mailing list [hidden email] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss |
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Charlie Schweik
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Some javascript/style in this post has been disabled (why?)
Hi all:Nice to see this discussion -- thanks all! A couple reactions to the past several posts. Apologies in advance for a longish note. Please read #3 especially. 1) Ian - your stuff (Open Web Mapping course) looks great (I'd like to take it)! Have you considered adding an entry to it (or other relevant material) to our searchable database? [1] I think this is an example of what kinds of stuff is "out there" by some in our community that we don't know about... 2) Kim - your post related to Helena's subversion comment brought me back to the points I was making in the BOF in FOSS4G two years ago. My Rice Connections tutorial entry was an exploration of how we develop a content database that people can find and use. Some time ago, Tyler and I had a phone call with someone (I'm forgetting his name) with the Wikieducator program. It was (and is) an interesting idea that I thought we should as a group connect to. The problem as I saw it, was people developing content have their own format needs and trying to get people to comply with some standard document structure or platform (e.g., wikipage) and the implications for setting up a system where new derivatives (maintaining old versions intact) exist. But there is no reason why someone couldn't develop educational material on such a platform and have our search system link to it. Perhaps we should strive toward that model... I should say that this is why we've established a Subversion system for our content, and Helena and Landon have done some work related to it, and (my bad) I haven't communicated the progress we have made. But that was our attempt at a platform, and as Helena suggests, there is still some work to be done to get that system operational (anyone want to take that on?). But perhaps if we can develop some kind of curriculum strategy we can revisit this and encourage content developers to consider wikieducator or one of these other platforms. 3) Helena's email raised some good points. I think this is the discussion WE NEED TO HAVE now. It's the next step I think in our group's evolution. Moreover, I'm going to post an OSgeo edu blog entry about what I saw at the Gov 2.0 summit in D.C. last week. [2] But one of the overarching themes heard over and over was "openness spurring innovation" and the importance of geospatial technologies. Ned's right this will take time, but awareness is growing, I think. So we have an opportunity, as a group, to try and develop some guidelines (and group-developed content) that might help to guide us all on what are key concepts and tools for training people in open geospatial fundamentals and technologies. I think the foundations for a "OS Geo certificate" might be the way to go... something smaller and tangible. Key concepts and technologies. But this is open for discussion. But over email is too difficult. I'd like to suggest we hold one or more IRC chats before the end of September, with a goal that we develop a strategy for presentation at FOSS4G in Sydney. Can someone set up a Doodle poll for us to settle on possible times over the next few weeks? I'm in meetings full time the next couple days. Thanks all! Charlie P.S. I'm still waiting for some blog content from you all -- come on! I know you are doing/thinking interesting OSGeo edu relevant things!!! Any local group edu activities going on, for example? P.S.S. I won't be at FOSS4Geo Sydney. I need someone to fly the edu flag in my absence. Some regular OSGeo edu folks are really quiet -- Venka? Ari? Please email me if you will be there and can do this! [1] https://www.osgeo.org/node/add/edu-content [2] http://www.gov2summit.com/ Ned Horning wrote: Charlie, [cschweik.vcf] begin:vcard fn:Charlie Schweik n:Schweik;Charlie org:University of Massachusetts, Amherst;Natural Resources Conservation and Center for Public Policy and Administration adr:;;217 Holdsworth Hall;Amherst;MA;01003;USA title:Associate Professor tel;work:413 545 1824 note:Associate Director, National Center for Digital Government (www.ncdg.org) url:http://people.umass.edu/cschweik version:2.1 end:vcard _______________________________________________ Edu_discuss mailing list [hidden email] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/edu_discuss |
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