University Consortium for Geographic Information Science
Education Committee Meeting, Winter Assembly
Washington, DC
February 8, 2002
1. List for names and emails passed around
2. Introductions
3. Updates on Education Committee Activities
(1) Status of on-line education activities
Dawn Wright update: A group of UCGIS authors has submitted an article
describing UCGIS distance education activities for a URISA Journal special
issue.
Rejuvenation of Virtual Seminar. A Virtual Seminar will be led by
Chuck Ehlschlager, Hunter College, during the fall semester 2002. Chuck has
some assistance from Sloan grant monies to help develop the course. He is
developing a course now for CUNY, and is learning to work with Blackboard
software. He is interested in our experiences with other software, but only
Blackboard is currently available to him.
The plan is to have a Virtual Seminar next fall semester. Concept is a 10-week
course in 3 modules. It will use the conceptual model from the UCGIS Summer
Meeting, with each of the 3 modules led by a different professor. Art Getis may
do medical geography. Chuck is still looking for suggestions for faculty, and
it is possible that a small stipend may be available. Dawn W. proposes Lynn
Usery as a potential faculty for this.
Original idea is to host virtual seminar on-line as a threaded discussion list.
This would be similar to earlier Virtual Seminars hosted by UCSB and UO. A
short article published in GeoInfoSystems about the earlier Virtual Seminars
generated some feedback.
External students will be able to register with Chuck as non-matriculated
graduate students. The second possibility is for students to sign up at their
home universities for "Directed Studies" and then have the local
faculty member assign the grade.
Action: Chuck will post course description on UCGIS-ALL.
Distance Learning Workshop. Dawn is still thinking about a one-day workshop,
but it needs to be fit into the UCGIS meeting schedule. David DiBiase wants to
talk about workshop audience.
Action: Dawn will try to do an outline for such a Distance Learning
workshop.
(2) Status of Model Curriculum Task Force
This activity is now called the Model Curricula
The task force met in Redlands recently. The 2nd NSF proposal
submission failed and the group does not plan to prepare another proposal.
The task force report, to date, is now a UCGIS Board-only document. The results
to date will be presented at several academic and professional conferences
during the spring, and comments will be collected from panelists. It will be
edited, discussed by Task Force, and published on the web no later then March
30, 2002 for UCGIS delegates. By May 31, 2002 results will be published
publicly and linked on UCGIS web page.
Action: Dawn Wright moved and Susan Nolen seconded the following motion
:
1) The Education Committee requests that the UCGIS Board allocate a full 2 day
to be dedicated to a Model Curricula plenary discussion at the Summer Assembly
in Athens, Georgia.
2) The task force should publish their results, to date: March 30, 2002 to
UCGIS delegates, and May 31, 2002 to the public.
3) The Education Committee recommends that the Task Force representation be
broadened in the near future to include a representative from community and
small colleges, an interdisciplinary representative, and someone familiar with
distance learning. Suggestions of possible participants included Bob
Welch/Lansing Community College, rwelch@lansing.cc.mi.us; Quinto
Lotti/Alexandria Community College, quinto@alx.tec.mn.us,
320.762.4535; Dick Klosterman, University of Akron; David DiBiase, Penn State.
(3) Plans for Education session at the Spring Meeting in Athens
The Committee agreed that model curricula should be the focus activity.
(4) URISA certification activities
Bill Huxhold is the chair of URISA Certification Committee. At the URISA
Conference last October the Certification Committe submitted a proposal for a
portfolio-based certification process. It was approved for the URISA BOD and is
now in a two-year design and implementation process. The draft and lots of
public comment is open for available on the web at www.urisa.org.
Issues for UCGIS members to be aware of:
Do we need to be certified?
What do students need to know?
Process
Proposal approval 10/2001
Open for public review now
Revision due by Feb. 28, 2002
Revision proposal posted early March 2002
3 months of comments to early June 2002
Scheduled for another URISA BOD vote in June 2002
1 year pilot to start in the summer of 2002
Creation of 5018)(3) organization: probably an association of certifying
organizations
Final document: Fall 2003
ACSM, ASPRS, GITA, NSGIC are currently involved in the process.
The proposal is for a voluntary certification, NOT accreditation of
academic programs. The Certification is intended for individuals: no
exam, because of the complexity of the 20 or 30 disciplinary competencies
involved in GIS
Portfolio proposal has 3 major groups
education
experience
contributions
Original proposal had two models:
technician, analyst, manager (now eliminated due to public comment)
levels of competency (now under review)
Certification fees will be collected to finance the staff for processing
applications and supporting the body that sets policy and determines outcomes
in border-line cases. A recertification process every 3 years that shows
new points will be designed. Application needs to be signed by boss or
certified person.
A draft Code of Ethics (draft from W. Craig) will appear for comment soon.
Several members of the Education Committee felt that the work done by
Mississippi Workforce Development group on Competencies was not as general as
desired and is focused on content (what it means to be a professional), but is
not strong on GIScience.
In regards to UCGIS, how do we introduce this? People need to know what
is in the proposal before council vote is taken.
Certification issues should be presented to council as information issue
ONLY. Certification is for individuals, UCGIS is an organization of
institutions. Down the road the accreditation issue may arise, but for now
distinguish between certification and accreditation. Ask at council
meeting this afternoon if there is interest in an one hour information session
at the summer assembly?
(5) Status of Special Issue on Education of the URISA Journal
Karen says there are 5 papers under review, available on the URISA web page (www.urisa.org):
D. DiBiase on certification and peer review of educational material
F. Harvey on public safety
Hamerlink et al on metadata education
Wright et al on distance education
Gaudet et al on NASA competency study
This issue is related to UCGIS since most of the authors are UCGIS members, but
is clearly a URISA Journal issue
(6) GIScience Educator Award - nominations and schedule
Please check announcement for this award. Submissions should be sent to Lyna by
15Mar2002
Selection committee:
Dawn Wright
Chuck Ehlschlager
Susan Nolen
Ann Johnson
Francis Harvey
Lyna Wiggins, Chair
Action: Lyna will post notice on UCGIS-ALL next week.
(7) Other business
Susan Nolen reported on the Intergraph software distribution: full campus
license was sent to all UCGIS lead delegates last year. Acknowledgments came
back from most universities. New UCGIS members were sent software later.
Software was used for revised education task force NSF proposal. Is Intergraph
happy? Yes. Really important that to all members of the vendor community have
been of benefit to all of community through student exposure to different
software alternatives.
Motion to adjourn, seconded and approved at 11:51