UChicago to partner with UCGIS to convene national forums on GIS librarianship

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) awarded the University of Chicago Library a National Leadership Grant to support the hosting of national forums on GIS librarianship. Organized in collaboration with the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS), the project - GIS Librarians for Open Workflows (GLOW), will focus on the workflows of librarians and library staff charged with supporting geographic information systems (GIS) and its use across diverse academic disciplines. The $133K grant will support multiple in-person forums, workshops, and coordination of existing and new open educational resources (OERs). 

Leading the project is Cecilia Smith, Director of Digital Scholarship at the UChicago Library and former GIS and Maps Librarian, in collaboration with Diana Sinton, Senior Research Fellow at the UCGIS. The Library will host exchanges with librarians around their existing consulting and instructional workflows and practices, and their development and use of open educational resources (OERs). To provide meaningful relevance for the GIS librarian community as a whole, the forums will ground these exchanges in concrete examples from social justice, health, and infrastructure application areas. The two forums being planned will inform the production and deployment of the commonly duplicated workflows and activities undertaken within university library contexts, building on shared vocabularies and practices. A second focal area includes review of current and future digital platforms regularly used as portals for data search and dissemination. 

In January 2021, the UCGIS Education Committee surveyed the UCGIS community to ask about their teaching experiences - the good, the bad, and the ugly - from fall 2020.  There were some technologies worth trying, some strategies that failed, and some innovations and ideas worth repeating. Screen-Cast-O-Matic was a clear winner. Lousy internet connections undermine all types of efforts every time. Virtual field trips can be wildly successful.  Here are the summarized results (pdf) - download to read them all!

Members of the UCGIS Education Committee have published a report following their interactive session during the June 2020 Symposium, Capturing New Opportunities in GIScience Education.  The session focused on three topics: 1) opportunities, 2) equity and accessibility, and 3) effectiveness. You can find a full copy of the report here (pdf).

Last year, UCGIS introduced a new biennial award for Innovation in GIScience Education. This month, the 2020 recipient was finally announced. In recognition of efforts far and beyond expectations, during massive disruptions at our universities in the first few months of this year, the UCGIS awards the 2020 GIScience Education award to the entire global GIScience Education community. For every person who jumped into online teaching and learning, and did all they could to just make it work and support their students, the citation says it all: 

For meritorious service in developing innovative learning techniques to advance GIScience education and promote equity and inclusiveness under trying circumstances and extreme risk of mortal illness.

by Karen Kemp, Professor Emerita at University of Southern California and UCGIS President 2019-20

As I hear from many of you and read lots of blogs and articles about the challenges of going suddenly to online teaching, my heart goes out to the many of you trying to do your research, advise grad students and learn to teach your own courses online while at the same time learning to teach your school-age children and keeping them entertained while dealing with everything surging around you. I am moved to think about all the lessons I learned in my own decade of teaching online. In 2008 when I started teaching in the expanding online master’s in GIS&T program at the University of Southern California, I was just as green as all of you. How do I do this???

Rapid responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have left many GIS instructors scrambling to shift to an online educational format with little notice. For those new to the experience, what knowledge can be gained quickly from those who have years of experience?  What's a piece of advice that you might share with your peers at this point in time?

 

AAG has developed a proposal for a new Advanced Placement course in Geographic Information Science and Technology (AP GIS&T) for high school students. The AP GIS&T proposal was submitted last month to the College Board, where it is now being formally reviewed. For the most current information, please see the AAG's AP GIS&T Course webpage.