Thomas R. Baker

Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) | ESRI · Industry Sol

In April 2015, a call for geospatial technology and learning papers was released announcing a special issue of the CITE Journal. This brief paper is intended to share the reflections on the special issue topic of the CITE Journal, the state of geospatial education research, and to offer a sneak peek at the forthcoming issue. Those interested in geo...

Ever want to take a quick, deep-dive into a map found in your students’ textbooks? Ever want to use a web-based map to bring that static, print map to life? Maybe the map you’re using would be better with interactive or near real-time data. Enter the new Earth Science GeoInquiries! Earth Science GeoInquiries from Esri are instructional resources d...

Web-based GIS or WebGIS is powerful mapping and analytical functionality expressed within a web browser. Today, webGIS comes in many forms from consumer navigational maps to versatile location analytics tools that allow for user-directed analysis and content discovery. With nearly two decades of development history, webGIS tools are rapidly amassin...

The rapidly-developing field of geospatial information technologies (GIT) includes such tools as GPS, Google Maps/Earth, and GIS. While GIT holds great potential for learning in preK-16 education, it has been unknown to what extent those who train teachers are preparing future educators to use these tools. An online survey was designed to capture d...

This research contains the results of ongoing machine analyses of over 3,500 US curriculum standards or similar curriculum references. All state core standards (English, math, science, and social studies) and Career and Technical Education (CTE) curriculum references were collected. A python-based program reads each standards document in search of...

Explore geospatial technologies in your curriculum standards with the largest national and state documentation effort to date. Advance your teaching or research practice with geospatial tools drawn from your state's standards! Project updates can be found at: http://bit.ly/geospatialwords

Three manifestations of Web GIS are influencing the way GIS is being used to teach with GIS and about GIS. These manifestations include web mapping and analysis, teaching with and creating web mapping applications, and collecting data using field-based citizen science mapping tools. This chapter investigates how these maps, data sets, tools, and me...

Geospatial technologies allow learners to study social or scientific data. Geospatial technologies include location-based digital tools that enable or extend data collection, analyses, or visualization; these commonly include geographic information systems (GIS), global positioning satellites (GPS), and remotely sensed data. For example, GIS can em...

This paper examines the development and advancing use of a mainstream curricular solution intended to support standards-based classroom teaching and learning with geospatial technologies. With over one million downloads, Esri's GeoInquiries are reaching the Early Majority of educators across the U.S. The role of instructional design, professional d...

The “Geospatial Instructional Interaction Complexity” score orders the complexity of common instructional tasks with ArcGIS Online. It is intended to provide a relative weighting of tasks during the delivery of instructional materials by mainstream (non-GIS) teachers during direct instruction with an ArcGIS Online map.

Mass customization is a growing tech trend, including software that is created to respond to learners as they progress. As teachers, we often differentiate to engage learners, so we need materials that can be tweaked quickly. GeoInquiries (www.esri.com/geoinquiries) are a set of lessons available for English, math, science, and social studies that...

According to the National Research Council (2006), geographic information systems (GIS) is a powerful tool for expanding students’ abilities to think spatially, a critical skill for future STEM professionals. However, educators in mainstream subjects in U.S. education have struggled for decades to use GIS effectively in classrooms. GeoInquiries are...

For nearly 25 years, teachers, researchers, and curriculum developers have designed, tested, and evaluated teacher professional development with geospatial technologies in education. These innovators created a better practice in teaching with mapping and location-based technologies, using methods and principles that advanced inquiry in meaningful a...

How could a map change the way your students understand history? Immerse students in the geography of the 1930’s U.S. Dust Bowl. Use population change, agricultural patterns, and precipitation to help students understand how and why the Dust Bowl occurred by using a free tool called Geoinquiries (www.esri.com/geoinquiries) from Esri.

An internal white paper created in 2001 for the use of GIS within KanCRN. A map is a two dimensional graphic representation of the three dimensional configuration of the earth’s surface. As an abstract representation, maps reduce the number of variables and simplify reality into an understandable bit of information. Even a simple map, however, cont...

Finding data online has been a challenge in the past since even the best search tools lead to general top-level project pages with useable data only available deeper in the site. This often required students to visit several websites, download, unzip, and place the data correctly on the computer’s hard drive and hope file formats or projection didn...

Find my iPhone, FedEx package tracking, or Uber are just a few examples of why programmers should be savvy in both programming and geospatial concepts to stay highly profitable! This is why the US Department of Labor designated the geospatial industry as one of fastest growing new industries. Much of that growth comes from such diverse need for spa...

Knowledge around geospatial technologies and learning remains sparse, inconsistent, and overly anecdotal. Studies are needed that are better structured; more systematic and replicable; attentive to progress and findings in the cognate fields of science, technology, engineering, and math education; and coordinated for multidisciplinary approaches. A...

Before widespread professional development programs were created to support classroom adoption of GIS technology and methods, a small but influential handful of science teachers not only learned how to use GIS but found ways of using it to drive deep scientific inquiry in the classroom. Because these educators were few in number, largely working on...

Learning and Teaching with Geomedia provides a theoretical and practical introduction to a field explicitly aimed at secondary education. The first section consists of three scientific papers introducing the dimensions of the emerging geoinformation society. The second section of the book is specifically dedicated to teacher trainers and teachers....

Although most people don’t associate social media with maps, a large volume of the information shared on social media networks is location-aware. Therefore, there is great potential in social media to allow students to organize information on maps to address live, global issues. Most social media platforms support some form of geotagging, the inclu...

The latest from book from Tom and Roger on field studies includes the technology and how to information to implement into many settings. This one comes to you in FULL COLOR! We created this resource for educators who want to do research with learners -typically classroom teachers working with their students in Earth Systems or Environmental Science...

A brand new publication from Carte Diem Press...the perfect compliment to your field work, school trip or outdoor curriculum. Geotagging Media: Connecting Your Classroom, Club and Personal Photos to the Map Learn the ins and outs of geotagging media! This book includes methods, software, tools, best practices and ways to integrate geotagging into s...

There are plenty of reasons why spatial thinking and geospatial technologies have yet to fulfill their transformative potential in higher education. However, it’s likely that concerted efforts by a few key institutions could have a dramatic impact. Mindful of this, it is apparent that there are five characteristics of “The Spatial University”:

International Geospatial teachers and teacher educators have an ever-increasing opportunities and technolgoies that are both intuitive and age-appropriate for students of all ages. Integration of social media and online mapping, expanded online mapping capabilities and societal use of geosptial technologies is increasing exponentially from GPS to s...

Despite nearly 20 years of intensive investment by higher education, industry, primary and secondary teachers, youth and community leaders, government agencies, and non-profits organizations in geographic information systems (GIS) in education around the world, a GIS education research agenda has yet to be developed. This paper provides a rationale...

New uses of Geospatial technologies (GSTs)from GPS to GIS to Google Earth and new online GIS mapping are increasingly common in everyday use. In this panel, two award-winning Geospatial educators, Rita Hagevik and James Oigara present current studies and applications in both Science and Social Studies. GIS specialist, Tom Baker describes national a...

This article examines the results of an online national survey of K–12 educators who attended a series of GIS training workshops conducted by the authors between 1998 and 2004. Data from the self-report survey (N = 186) suggest new information about potential changes in instruction and assessment patterns following GIS training. The survey provides...

This paper will provide an overview of the common infusion strategies, for geospatial technologies in the pre-service science, social studies, and instructional technology classrooms. Geospatial software, hardware, and data will be reviewed, including digital globes, global positioning system receivers, geographic information systems (GIS), and rem...

GGeography has always played a pivotal role in the development of scientific thought. Alfred Russell Wallace (1885), recognizing the spatial proximities of related species, concluded that “Every species has come into existence closely coincident both in space and time with a pre-existing closely allied species,” bringing to light one of the most ba...

Spatial thinking—a constructive combination of concepts of space, tools of representation, and processes of reasoning—uses space to structure problems, find answers, and express solutions. It is powerful and pervasive in science, the workplace, and everyday life. By visualizing relationships within spatial structures, we can perceive, remember, and...

Internet-based mapping provides a powerful alternative for successfully establishing GIS technology in the K-12 education community, while simultaneously avoiding the traditional barriers associated with desktop GIS. Internet-based GIS can support standards-based inquiry methods of teaching and learning while providing basic analysis tools for stud...

This paper examines a non-equivalent quasi-experimental research effort, wherein two versions of a two week Project Based Learning unit were developed, implemented, and assessed. Students used a collaborative GIS or paper maps to support data analysis activities in this eighth grade Earth science unit. Attitude and self-efficacy in science as techn...

An approach for using a common lichen inventory in middle school science to investigate local air quality.

It was Alfred Wallace who first identified the geographic distribution of species as a lynch-pin to understanding evolutionary succession. Today, students' must apply the same fundamental concepts to the collection, analysis, and interpretation of biodiversity and geological data. Using Web-based data entry forms and ArcIMS mapping software, studen...

Since the publication of the National Science Education Standards , a concerted and evolving movement to make science classrooms more inquiry-oriented has been building. The proliferation of models of teaching and learning where questions and investigations drive learning, while not new are also not easy to plan, implement, or evaluate. In order to...

Explore the multiple uses of GPS handheld devices in science classrooms for environmental inquiry.

GIS Day is an outstanding opportunity for presenting the capabilities of a GIS to schools, the public, and industries. Unfortunately, limited personnel and restrictive scheduling often make face-to-face visits difficult. Web casting technologies allow for a method of addressing these issues. Utilizing real-time and on-demand web casts, we are now b...

Discusses the possible uses of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as an educational technology for developing contextually rich student learning, which extends students' ability to do scientific inquiry. (ASK)