The Louisville Kentucky Courier-Journal on Saturday published a map of AVT (all terrain vehicle) fatalities in the region. It's a Google mashup with blue tear drops noting the age of the victim and the circumstances of the incident. The source of the data appears to be police reports.

There's a link from the story on the topic to the map - but not vice-versa. Suggestion: add a link to the map back to the story! The story notes that the state tops national stats on ATV deaths most years and likely will again. Also of note: "All the Kentucky ATV drivers involved in the fatal accidents this year ignored at least one of the safety guidelines taught in training courses and listed on stickers voluntarily placed on the machines by manufacturers, an analysis by The Courier-Journal found."

The map, alas, doesn't help reveal some key geo information in the article: all the deaths were in rural areas and many were on public roads (riding on public roads is against "safety guidelines"). Suggestion: It's time to use online mapping tools for more than just "putting dots on the map." The tools are available (even if it must be done "by hand") to note rural/urban zones and mark public roads. Those would have been a valuable addition here.

Teachable moment suggestion: Have students explore this map as is. Can they find patterns? What other geo information might be added? Where might they get it? What other information might they want to know about the fatalities that might suggest causality?

ESRI is focussing on its neighbors with a new relationship with the Colton-Redlands-Yucaipa Regional Occupational Program, CRY-ROP. The program supports job skill training for high school students and adults. ESRI will support GIS training at a variety of locations. The idea being that those who get hooked can further their education at local colleges and get local jobs. The single GIS class, Data Mapping Using GIS, joins other offerings in medical, computer and automative topics available through CRY-ROP.

Highland Community News

This is not a mapping project of a real place but rather Liberty City, home to the the latest Grand Theft Auto video game. A group at GTA are working on pooling their findings from screen shots and trailers to piece together a map. I wonder if that's a good project to teach mapping skills to students? Or better yet to learn with a virutal city then go out and map a real neighborhood and city. Here's the map and here's the thread discussing the project.

- GTA

It's called Traveler IQ Challenge and basically involves clicking on the location of a well-known or lesser known world locations and attractions. Among the chin strokers who consider its value is Jerome Dobson who notes any upsweep in interest in geography is good and quotes "writer Ambrose Bierce said around the time of World War I that 'War is God's way of teaching Americans geography.' "

Of amusement to me:

Travel IQ provides its own report card, of sorts, on geographical skills. Among those who use the game on Facebook, Tata Consultancy Services, a technology consulting firm based in India, had the lowest average Traveler IQ among workplaces, at least until the rankings were updated during the middle of this week. Mike McCabe, a spokesman for Tata Consultancy Services in the U.S., in an email called the findings "interesting" and said the company will consider them when training its staff, though he said, "Engineering skills and an overall cultural understanding of the company and its customers" are higher priorities at Tata than geography.

- Wall Street Journal

Ed Parsons noted Google's new tools for UK teachers to use Google Maps and Google Earth in the classroom to teach history, geography and citizenship. The BBC offers its take:

History topics include the slave trade, castles and the British Empire and geography topics include climate change and natural disasters - based around information integrated with Google's online maps.

Seven!

ECU [East Central University] is the only university in Oklahoma, and one of only seven in the United States, that offers an undergraduate degree in cartography.

And, the local energy company gives out scholarships! I wonder if the recent spike in interest in geo/neegeo/GIS/etc. will spark more cart degrees?

- Ada Evening News (OK)