Land Cover Classification Contest and other GIS Competitions

Land Cover Classification Competition: Join Now!

First  Prize: The top ten validators will become co-authors of the paper:
Generation of a global hybrid land cover dataset.

Other Prizes

• Best Classifier – highest quality with  the  highest number of validations: 35 Euro Voucher from Amazon

• Second best Classifier: 20 Euro Amazon Voucher

• Third best Classifier: 20 Euro Amazon Voucher

This is part of the Geo-Wiki effort. Competition ends March 30.

- via SlashGeo

Google Map Maker University Mapping Contest for the US and Canada

Register now and start mapping February 13, 2012 through March 9, 2012!

 

Be a part of a university mapping contest open for US and Canadian students who currently study at a university in these two countries! From February 13, 2012 to March 9, 2012, improving the maps of your campus can give you a chance to be a local hero and the highest scoring entries will win prizes like Samsung Galaxy tablets, Samsung Android phones, Google Map Maker messenger bags, and more! 

GeoTech Center Funding Ends in Aug 2012

Yesterday David DiBiase, in his role as as a "project advisor" with the GeoTech Center, shared the news on Facebook that National Science Foundation declined to provide the center with a second round of funding. The four years of funding ran 2008-2012 under award 0801893. (My colleague Joe Francica is also an advisor on the project.)

The GeoTech Center review meeting began this morning with the disappointing news that NSF declined to renew the Center’s funding for an additional four years. PI Philip Davis received the Program Officer’s email late last night. 

It's certainly a setback for community colleges and for the entire GIS education community. GeoTech is the closest thing we’ve had to an organization comparable in scale to NCGIA but wholly dedicated to geospatial education and training. Still, whether the GeoTech Center rebounds or not, some of its initiatives are too important to forsake. First and foremost, the GTCM needs to be updated, curated, and promoted—with or without NSF support. Now the task facing me and other project advisers is to help the team regroup, re-prioritize, and rethink next steps.

This is an unfortunate loss of funding; there is still much work to be done.

Update: Education GIS Tidbits - 4/25/11

URISA has extended the deadline for its student comptition until June 20. I think the original deadline was June 1. I'm thinking not so many students submitted papers. Perhaps the "prizes" are not appealing? Perhaps the requirements too onorous? Any students or educators want to offer feedback?

- details via @urisa

Continue reading...

GeoTech Center Announces Competition Finalists

The finalists were selected by the judges from those who submitted Round 2 videos. (APB Coverage)

Those presenting live at Esri Ed UC include:

• Evan Maier from Central Piedmont Community College
• Feather Stolzenbach from the Community College of Baltimore County
• Felicia Glapion from Northern Virginia Community College
• Nathanial Wigington from Monterey Peninsula College
• Paul Giers from Central Piedmont Community College
• Sarah Tucker from White Mountains Community College

Attendees at the session (Sun, June 10, 3:15PM 4:30PM National Geospatial Skills and Competencies Competition Finals Marina - Salon F)  will vote on the winners. I hope there's a good turnout. I plan to attend.

- GeoTech Blog

Education GIS Tidbits - 5/31/11

Haywood Community College in NC is rearraging its GIS certificate.

The Geographic Information System (GIS) specialist certificate has been moved to the Low Impact Development Program as a greater benefit to students.

- Ashville Citizen Times

Very excited to see that three of my favorite GIS educators are part of the Ed UC Plenary: David DiBiase, Allen Carroll and Don Cooke. 

- Esri Ed UC

I just recently learned there was something called mobile learning (mlearning) and a related idea, location-based learning. The former is mostly about using mobile devices as tools for learning - aka "learning anywhere," while the latter is about providing appropriate or just-in-time learning based on location. A paper in IEEE Explore (abstract only is free) just this month describes a learning management system (LMS, aka a CMS for education) that includes the location of the instructor as one of the parameters of the content. So, as I read it, the instructor builds the content while out in the field. I wonder if that's realistic?

- IEEE Explore

TargetMap is another quick way to get your Excel spreadsheet data onto a Google Map. It's free if you share the map with everyone and there's a fee to keep in private. I first noticed it last November.

- via GIS Lounge