Sunday, July 7 2002 @ the ESRI International UC

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Sunday, July 7 in San Diego, by Glenn Letham -- This year I got a bit of a head start on the annual ESRI User Conference by taking in the Education UC (EDUC) - a 3 day gathering of educators, researchers, administrators, and coordinators all having a common goal of getting GIS into the classroom. I wasn’t here for the entire event; however I did manage to spend Sunday at EDUC. Here’s what I took in: Hands-on workshop using ArcPad 6.0 - even though I’ve used ArcPad before, I decided this would be a good chance to get a look at the latest release (6.0). In a classroom setting, about 25 of us used ArcPad to view, query, and create data. A simple exercise book walked us through the necessary steps involved in adding raster and vector data, performing simple queries, editing symbology, defining views, adding data elements, and populating attribute data. ArcPad 6.0 is very simple to use, although a couple of minor bugs in the latest release still need to be ironed out (but don’t let that stop you from trying it!). Significant to users of 6.0 is the fact that if customization is necessary (like developing custom data entry forms) you will require the ArcPad application builder, a suite of tools (including ArcPad) that are necessary to accomplish this. Note that most users will require one application builder license (more than one isn’t really necessary) and this should be considered when you are estimating costs to get up and running. See http://www.esri.com/software/arcpad/index.html for more info. Using USGS raster data - a presentation by Joseph Kerski of the USGS education outreach. Of course I’m pretty familiar with using USGS data and I’m well aware of the various data providers and sources available, however, I thought this would an interesting chance to sit in with a group of people that are anxious to learn more about the subject. Joseph did a great job teaching the group how to locate free or cheap data on the Internet, download data, and finally, use the data in ArcView and ArcGIS. Detailed examples were performed by grabbing data from Terraserver (www.terraserver.microsoft.com) and the GISDataDepot (www.gisdatadepot.com) - good choice Joseph! No simple task (especially to novice GISers, Joseph went through the necessary steps involved in locating a DEM file from the datadepot, then detailed the necessary steps involved in unzipping, and importing the DEM into ArcView. To conclude the session, some LULC data was downloaded from landcover.usgs.gov - these data are provided in ArcView .SHP format. On a final note, Joseph has access to a premium data download account from the GISDatadepot, something I provided him with some time ago and I’m glad to do the same for other educators in a similar role…. Drop me a line if you’re interested! My afternoon was spent taking part in a workshop focused on how to teach teachers to use GIS - something that should be of interest to all of us working in the industry. During the session we broke out into groups (most of the people were educators) and we collaborated to come up with a course outline on how to teach teachers to use GIS. We seemed to conclude that is order for GIS to make it into k-12 classrooms a champion and mentor are necessary, GIS should be focused on as a cross-disciplinary tool, standards (particularly at the State level) are crucial to address and consider, and administrators would have to be won over. A key point I picked up on was that educators getting involved in GIS need to determine if they are teaching “about” or “with” GIS. A final observation about this year’s EDUC, visibly dominant was the Lewis & Clark expedition, and in particular, the efforts to chronicle the expedition using GIS. With the bicentennial approaching (Jan 2003-2006) we are all going to be hearing much more about this in the near future (see the July 8 issue of Time Magazine - http://www.time.com/time/2002/lewis_clark/lessay.html) . Why is this significant? Consider this… GIS will be the interface to Lewis & Clark information and as a Lewis & Clark clearinghouse is developed (and it is being developed) the efforts are guaranteed to capture much attention in the media and will serve to help prepare tomorrow’s teachers to teach using technology. Monday's agenda - I'll be spending most of the day in the main Hall attending the opening keynote and plenary sessions. Jack dangermond will welcome the crowd (more than 11,000 attendees will be here this year) by sharing his vision on the role of geography sustaining our world - the theme of this year's conference. Jack will be followed by members of ESRI's senior software development staff giving presentations on new releases, future directions, and research topics. The keynote wil be given by Cynthia Moss, founder of the Ambroseli Elephant Research Project. Monday's sessions will be followed by the ever popular Map Gallery Opening and Evening reception. Day one of the UC is usually a 14 hour day! Images from Sunday An aerial shot just West of San Diego County Downtown San Diego EDUC Joseph Kerski lectures on USGS raster data at EDUC Getting ready for the show Getting registered On site reg! Welcome to San Diego Bookmarks www.lewsiand clark.org www.davidrumsey.com www.telemorphic.com www.gisdatadepot.com/dem/ www.esri.com/industries/k-12/educ/ landcover.usgs.gov terraserver.microsoft.com www.esri.com/industries/university/deptlist.html Useful resource Mapping Our World: GIS Lessons for Educators Quotes wish I had a sweater what's a fish taco? how much is ArcPad? I'm still using 3.2 Glenn the restaurant critique! Dinner Saturday at Baja Lobster - (3 thumbs down) If you like messy, unappetizing, tasteless fried seafood served in a pail then you might get off on this place. On the up-side, the margs are pretty good but come with a hefty price tag. Dinner Sunday at Octopus Garden Sushi - (2 enthusiastic thumbs up) Best sushi I've had since the Banff Spring Hotel in Banff, Alberta! This place is awesome... great service, nice atmosphere, great value, and dynomite miso soup (splurge & get the extra crab and mushroom) In the 2002 ESRI UC goodie Bag ESRI Map Book Vol 17 buttons and stickers pen from DigitalGlobe ArcReader CD Trimble GeoExplorer CD Sourcebook America CD ESRI postcards Map of Important Bird Areas in US GISDay poster what is ArcGIS? book Arc User magazine ESRI pen ESRI luggage tag mousepad ArcNews - Sanborn on the back cover... nice score! ESRI's User Conference Home GeoCommunity UC Home

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