Five Sources for Geography and GIS Education Resources and News

March 6, 2013
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Geography educators are busy people. Trying to keep up with the latest education technology, online resources, grants, professional development opportunities and government news related to geography and related topics can be grueling. Below are five resources that can help keep educators and other interested individuals up-to-date.

Geography Education

Seth Dixon, a professor at Rhode Island College in the Political Science Department and the Department of Educational Studies, serves as the coordinator for the Rhode Island Geography Education Alliance. He also curates Web content for geography educators and students using the Scoop.it curation tool. He provides not only resources tagged by category but also commentary on each contribution. There’s a good deal of discussion in the comments, too. The website is updated daily or you can follow it via Twitter and other social media platforms. Dixon was profiled as a “Lord of Curation” by Scoop.it last year.

GeoTech Center

The GeoTech Center is a National Science Foundation-funded collaboration effort between colleges, universities and industry to expand the geospatial workforce. It offers “professional development, teaching and curriculum resources, career pathways and model core competencies for geospatial technicians and technologists.” In addition, a blog points to resources of interest for geography and GIS educators.

Esri GIS Education Community

The well-known GIS software company offers free e-books, lessons that work with its software and more via its community page. (If you work with other software, the lessons, ideas, resources, and datasets provided are still quite valuable.) There is an active blog with posts from company staff. The Esri Higher Ed community has an e-mail list and a Facebook presence with different content.

National Council for Geographic Education

Perhaps best known for its annual conference, the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) hosts professional development webinars (some free, some not) and links to resources. News and pointers to new resources are shared via Twitter and Facebook.

Association of American Geographers

While the Association of American Geographers (AAG) is best known as an organization for those in higher education that hosts an annual conference and publishes scholarly work, it keeps a close eye on geography education and policy. Education news can be found via its press page, with association news on a separate page. A weekly e-mail put together by SmartBriefs (subscribe, top articles, archive) points to online content about geographers at work. You can follow the AAG on Twitter.

Do consider this list just a starting point. There are many educators, government agency staffers and geographers in the private sector who share their wisdom via blogs, Twitter and other social solutions. The resources above can help point those interested toward resources of particular interest.

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