[Ica-osgeo-labs] Your ideas/inputs needed for online educational tools for Spatial literacy using OSGeo technologies and open data

Mon Jan 26 15:29:48 PST 2015

Charlie - thanks for this and with all this activities you are leading, it will be great if you can please lead this bid and others interested will join the proposal.

My humble suggestion is to build the proposal with Spatial Literacy as the overarching theme but different people with different expertise contribute ideas to add components for each user group (for example the environmental conservation example you gave ) and for different levels (undergraduate, postgraduate etc)

Also it is important to use this also for school teacher training. The reason i believe this is important is that it can then provide opportunities for learning spatial technologies for wider number of students globally . For example, imagine there is a school teacher in a government school in rural India or Africa or South America but luckily their school now has 3 or 4 computers (very basic hardware), with basic internet connection , then how can you make use of this to teach your secondary level students on environmental conservation or climate change effects. Again low cost hardware along with free and open software is key esp. in developing countries, so your links with "Public Laboratory for Science" can be helpful in designing new ideas for this.

Good news is that we can build upon  what is already there. For example, Ela and colleagues in UNEP Warsaw ( i am sure Ela will be happy to help us and be part of your bid ) have developed some excellent lesson scenarios in different subject areas which can be build as web based learning interactive scenarios (which will need collaborators in software development) that the teachers with very little background preparation can demonstrate to the students and once the students know these resources, they will not only learn but bring and build up new ideas for the future.

If everyone agrees that Worldwind is the way forward that we need to focus for this. So please go ahead with this.

Suchith

________________________________________
From: Charles Schweik [cschweik at pubpol.umass.edu]
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2015 3:43 PM
To: Mueller, Thomas
Cc: Suchith Anand; Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX); Helena Mitasova; ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [Ica-osgeo-labs] Your ideas/inputs needed for online educational tools for Spatial literacy using OSGeo technologies and open data

Two reactions on this thread:

1) Teaching developers is really important, but we shouldn't forget on teaching users of WorldWind technology. I'm personally contemplating how to introduce this to environmental conservation students...

2) The WaveGlider technology looks so cool and provides one idea for a research grant topic for a GeoForAll proposal that I could possibly work on if it resonates with others. I'm working with a group called "Public Laboratory for Science" [1] who focus on low-cost, open source Do-It-Yourself technologies for science. I have a team of students working with another open source hardware called "OpenROV" [2] that is a tethered open source research sub. I think a neat research topic for a GeoForAll network grant proposal would be to propose to develop a research network working on geocoded environmental monitoring open source software and hardware technologies, that is coupled with students who think about the environmental or ecological issues.   I could bring in the theroretical/social science end around the idea of "commons-based peer production" (which GeoForAll and all of these efforts are), and the environmental applications (user) side of this. A proposal would need partners around the technology development side. We could propose to have a network of "flipped", team-based learning, classes in a network of educational GeoForAll labs, working in conjunction with our non-educational partners. We could launch new student project initiatives every year at the FOSS4G conference and then have in-person student team report backs the next year.

Does this idea resonate with others in this network? WorldWInd could be a central piece of this.

Charlie

[1] PublicLab.org
[2] OpenROV.org

On Mon, Jan 26, 2015 at 8:48 AM, Mueller, Thomas <Mueller at calu.edu<mailto:Mueller at calu.edu>> wrote:
Patrick

 I am not sure if you remember but a few years back (maybe 6 or 7 years) I attempted to have students build lessons using WorldWind.  The hope was to incorporate WorldWind into high school level, etc.  Unfortunately at the time you needed a much higher end video card then we had on our computers.  I was able to purchase a few, but we found schools did not have the high end card.

I would be willing to help out with WorldWind again down the road.

Tom

Thomas R. Mueller, Ph.D., GISP
Advisor: Geography Major with GIS and Emergency Management Concentration
Co - Director: Pennsylvania View
Department of Earth Sciences, California University of Pennsylvania
"A man never gets to this station in life without being helped, aided, shoved, pushed and prodded to do better." - Johnny Unitas

-----Original Message-----
From: ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> [mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>] On Behalf Of Suchith Anand
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2015 2:44 AM
To: Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX); Helena Mitasova
Cc: ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: Re: [Ica-osgeo-labs] Your ideas/inputs needed for online educational tools for Spatial literacy using OSGeo technologies and open data

Also it might be also a good opportunity for our US colleagues with NASA support to take lead in planning a NSF bid  or other suitable options  for this. Patrick can provide us with strong Letter of Support and other logistics needed.

Suchith

________________________________________
From: Suchith Anand [Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk>]
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2015 7:25 AM
To: Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX); Helena Mitasova
Cc: Suchith Anand; ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: RE: [Ica-osgeo-labs] Your ideas/inputs needed for online educational tools for Spatial literacy using OSGeo technologies and open data

Patrick - thank you for your thoughts. To be very clear, as Helena pointed out OSGeo Summer of Code projects are for building up OSGeo Technologies and providing students opportunities to work on interesting projects which hopefully they will continue to be involved event after thier projects.

But the point you made is very important and hence i suggest we explore other options for building the online educational tools for Spatial literacy using OSGeo technologies and open data. It will be great if NASA can help us with this and we will aim to use NASA WorldWind as the foundation for building educational tools for Spatial literacy using OSGeo technologies and open data.

Let me know your ideas on this and we will be pleased to work with you and NASA for this.

Best wishes,

Suchith

________________________________________
From: Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX) [patrick.hogan at nasa.gov<mailto:patrick.hogan at nasa.gov>]
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2015 4:37 AM
To: Helena Mitasova
Cc: Suchith Anand; ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: RE: [Ica-osgeo-labs] Your ideas/inputs needed for online educational tools for Spatial literacy using OSGeo technologies and open data

Helena,
Yes, you are correct, I'm a bit sensitive on the subject. My apologies! It's just that between this and everything else, Goog search, Goog documents, goog email, and how much they sift us and sell us out, is a point of concern. This is an activity our governments (or academia) should be supporting and with far more privacy issues exercised than are currently today (either by corporations or governments). We are being led down the primrose path and civil liberties have been cast to the wind. The end result is not what these 'generous' exercises seem to portend. That's enough of my weary weekend 2-cents. For the rest, I'll let be.
-Patrick

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety [or benefit], deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Ben Franklin, 1755

-----Original Message-----
From: Helena Mitasova [mailto:hmitaso at ncsu.edu<mailto:hmitaso at ncsu.edu>]
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2015 8:21 PM
To: Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX)
Cc: Suchith Anand; ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>
Subject: Re: [Ica-osgeo-labs] Your ideas/inputs needed for online educational tools for Spatial literacy using OSGeo technologies and open data

Patrick,

Google summer of code has nothing to do with google earth or any other google application - please find the list of participating organizations here:
https://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/org/list/public/google/gsoc2014
I assume that a project which contributes code to World Wind could be funded.
OSGeo has participated in GSoC since 2006 and each year we have number of students developing code for GRASS GIS, QGIS, GDAL and other projects by students paid by Google.

Suchith, just a reminder, that the projects must include coding, so educational material development would need to include development of code to generate or manage the material.

I haven't heard from Anne or Hamish yet - they have been GSoC admins for OSGeo during past couple years - it would be challenging to do it without their leadership so I hope they will be available this year again,

Helena

Helena Mitasova
Professor at the Department of Marine,
Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences
and Center for Geospatial Analytics
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-8208
hmitaso at ncsu.edu<mailto:hmitaso at ncsu.edu>
http://geospatial.ncsu.edu/osgeorel/
"All electronic mail messages in connection with State business which are sent to or received by this account are subject to the NC Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties."

On Jan 25, 2015, at 10:56 PM, Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX) wrote:

> Suchith,
> I will make one small suggestion, though I appreciate that Goog has
> command of extraordinary resources, from watching every move we make
> in order to market us into a maximum consumer, despite the opposite
> direction we need to be moving in today, given we are already
> consuming far more than this planet's resources can sustain or the
> biosphere can absorb in waste (CO2/NO2/CH4). The suggestion is that,
> unlike Goog, NASA makes it's virtual globe code open and free. And
> we've been doing it longer than Goog, since 2002. James Gosling, the
> 'father of Java,' who still uses NASA World Wind today to manage a
> world of WaveGliders, http://liquidr.com/, spoke of the World Wind
> code base as "the gold standard, truly a thing of beauty." In other
> words, not a bad example by which to teach geospatial software coding.
> The Java (and iOS) code is particularly well-structured, architectural
> poetry even, especially for modular componentry architecture. This is
> thanks to our long-standing world-class development team. Just ask a
> few old timers at the WorldWindCentral forum,
> http://forum.worldwindcentral.com/forumdisplay.php?37
> -Patrick
>  650.604.5656<tel:650.604.5656> (office)
>  650.269.2788<tel:650.269.2788> (cell)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>
> [mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>] On Behalf Of Suchith
> Anand
> Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2015 2:32 PM
> To: ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>
> Subject: [Ica-osgeo-labs] Your ideas/inputs needed for online
> educational tools for Spatial literacy using OSGeo technologies and
> open data
>
> We will welcome ideas/inputs from all colleagues interested in this. OSGeo-Google Summer of Code opportunity is one option. If anyone has ideas for other joint collaborations  to achieve this, please let me know and i will be pleased to work with you to make this happen. This will help us further provide geo education opportunities to more students globally.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Suchith
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Anand Suchith
> Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 8:29 PM
> To: ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>
> Subject: Your ideas/inputs needed for online educational tools for
> Spatial literacy using OSGeo technologies and open data
>
> Looking at the Summer of Code timeline it says Mentoring organisations
> can begin submitting applications to Google on 9th Feb 2015, so i
> assume OSGeo projects need to be planned by then (Anne- please correct
> me if i am wrong)
>
> We only need to finalise the project ideas (which OSGeo project it builds upon) and a small team of mentors . The students selection is later.
>
> The advantage of synchrosing efforts with OSGeo-Google Summer of Code efforts is that we can make use of an existing well structured and funded program to achieve this objective and also we can then keep expanding and building more functionalities for this in the future SoCs.
>
> So those of you who are interested to contribute, please do share your ideas now , so we can be prepared before 9th Feb and put in strong applications for this.
>
> Suchith
> ________________________________________
> From: ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>
> [ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>] On Behalf Of Suchith Anand
> [Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk>]
> Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 9:27 AM
> To: ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:ica-osgeo-labs at lists.osgeo.org>
> Subject: [Ica-osgeo-labs] Your ideas/inputs needed for online
> educational tools for Spatial literacy using OSGeo technologies and
> open data
>
> Colleagues,
>
> I had a Skype meeting yesterday with Maria Brovelli and she mentioned an excellent idea to impact education efforts through both International Map Year and Google OSGeo Summer of Code opportunities we have.
>
> Thanks to Anne and others we have an excellent base for the Summer of Code activities. For example last year  Luciene Delazari (Federal University of Parana, Brazil),  Piotr Pociask (GIS Support Sp, Warsaw) and  Mark Ware (University of South Wales) joined together for supervising the  Schematization Plugin for QGIS project http://hub.qgis.org/wiki/quantum-gis/Nishithm that student Nishith Maheshwari (IIIT Hyderabad, India) carried out. It helped enable more collaborative research ideas for the map generalisation research community and provides opportunity for extending this as an open schematisation platform which other students in future can use to build upon. It is an excellent example of how we can build ideas for collaborative research for ICA-OSGeo-ISPRS labs for the future.
>
> The idea is to use the Summer of Code opportunity to develop online educational tools for Spatial literacy using OSGeo technologies and open data.The target audience is school teachers in science, geography, biology (both secondary and primary education).
>
> We can use the existing expertise within our network to bring in
> excellent ideas for this. For example there is already good examples
> and lesson scenarios developed by Ela and colleagues at UNEP-GRID
> Warsaw through their GIS for Schools initiative which covers topics
> from biodiversity to educating climate change. Details at
> http://www.edugis.pl/en/images/stories/guide/gis-at-school.pdf
>
> If we can bring in good ideas and work on this, it will be a great
> resource we can make available to educators globally for spatial
> literacy using open technologies and data. It might need working
> together of 3-4 Summer of Code projects (all working on different
> components) that will be joined together to make this possible. This
> year's timeline for SoC is at
> https://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/events/google/gsoc2015
>
> So please let us know your thoughts/ideas on this so we can work on this and aim to an excellent gift to educators and students worldwide from our community for the International Map Year.
>
> Suchith
>
>
>
>
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--
Charlie Schweik

Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Dept of Environmental Conservation and Center for Public Policy and Administration

Personal website: http://people.umass.edu/cschweik
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Author, Internet Success: A Study of Open Source Software (MIT Press, 2012) - see http://tinyurl.com/d3e4545

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