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Recent emergency online learning, forced upon students around the globe as a result of COVID-19, has exposed many challenges to both learner and instructor in the online learning environment (Schultz and DeMers 2020). Among these numerous challenges is that of insufficient time management skills and learner motivation (Rouse 2013). While young people seem to be able to spend endless hours engaged in games, the same does not seem to be true of the learning experience, particularly regarding online learning. There is something about the attraction of the game itself that motivates the player. Quest-based learning (QBL) is part of a larger set of approaches to learning called game-based learning. While generally, but not exclusively, not focusing on making the learning itself "fun," instead it focuses on course organization, where all assignments--while traditional in their methods of delivery--are considered to be quests to be conquered. Because this platform is so new, there is little if any formal documentation regarding the success or failure of implementing courses using this approach. This is a first step in filling that intellectual void with reference to GIS education.

Geospatial expertise draws on and recognizes a vast array of seemingly unrelated interconnections allowing the geographer to find solutions to otherwise incomprehensible problems. Geospatial thinking involves both time and space, acknowledges cause-and-effect relationships of geographic phenomena at multiple scales, and recognizes the impact of spatial and temporal scale on processes. The complexity of geographic thinking necessitates an equally complex set of learning experiences that collectively are characterized by the professional geographer. Due to the inherent complexity of geospatial expertise, its nuanced relationship to spatial thinking, and a lack of research on how individuals attain geospatial expertise, we organized an interdisciplinary group of experts to present their perspectives on developing geospatial expertise in this special edition. In this introduction, we review geospatial expertise and distinguish it from spatial thinking, review research on developing geospatial expertise, and end with recommendations for future research. Through these reviews and recommendations, this introduction provides background context for the articles in this special edition and elucidates their connections. Given the complexity of geospatial expertise, it is only through connecting researchers and educators across multiple disciplines that the nature of one of the most integrative professional disciplines – that of the geographer – can be fully understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent events resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic precipitated a triage-like environment wherein experienced faculty were forced to convert courses rapidly to online venues. This unexpected circumstance forced educators to adopt different learning theories of which they were largely unaware. The results were predominantly unsatisfactory for both learner and educator. This paper provides perspectives to this unfortunate circumstance, describes positive and negative aspects of the experiences, presents best practices for deep online learning, and challenges geography educators to learn how instructional design for online courses can be leveraged. The goal is to provide a forum for online learning in geography education.

Depending on how you determine the starting point for the technology driving geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing, it is well over fifty years old now. During the first years of its existence in the early 1960s, the new technology benefited relatively few students who attended the handful of college programs that were actually developing GIS. By the 1970s this technological innovation was disseminated to other colleges and universities and they too began looking at the development side of GIS with an emphasis on creating new programs and improving existing programs. In the 1980s, those university faculty who found the geospatial technology software to be reasonably effective at solving geographic problems began teaching both the concepts and the applications as part of their GIS courses. Cartography classes gradually either gave way to geographic information science or began incorporating their visualization tool sets as part of the emerging new science of geographic information. Perhaps the most important recent development regarding the future of K-12 GIS education is an initiative by the Geography Education National Implementation Project (GENIP). This initiative is to develop a K-12 GIS curriculum proposal for what would be an advanced placement (AP) GIS course, sponsored by the College Board, just as AP human geography is now. Once the curriculum proposal is developed, GENIP will approach the College Board with a proposal which, if accepted, will result in a nationally recognized, high-quality GIS program for K-12 students. With luck, if it is forthcoming, it will also signal a new day for geography education in our elementary and secondary schools.

Second Life is increasingly being used as a venue for education, especially for delivery of online instruction where social presence and community building are essential components. Despite its robust 3-D modeling tools and powerful scripting language, many educational uses of Second Life are limited to passive forms of content delivery that often mimic some variety of Victorian style lecture setting. This article demonstrates a series of exercises designed around a more active learning model for my geography courses based on Kolb's (2005) theory of experiential learning. Active class exercises encourage hands-on interaction with components of the virtual world, but are linked explicitly to real subject matter content. By providing fun pre-exercise training and promoting learning by discovery, the exercises are designed to encourage the four fundamental components of the experiential learning environment: involvement, reflection, analysis, and problem solving. Beyond providing an excellent educational environment, such approaches can act as surrogates for real-world experiences that are either impossible or logistically problematic.

Coyote teaching emphasizes learning community, long term mentoring, a need for learning, ownership of learning, heightened sensory awareness, storytelling, purposefully designed tricks, and the Socratic method to promote lifelong learning and a new generation of coyote teachers. Many of these methods are found in other educational philosophies but seem to be fully integrated in the coyote teaching method. Because geography is integrative, it seems a logical discipline in which to apply this method. Each of the characteristics of coyote teaching has its unique place in geography education. This article demonstrates how each of these components of coyote teaching can be readily employed, enhanced, and, more importantly, integrated into geographic education and inculcated into multiple generations of geography educators.

The use of geographic information systems (GIS) in the classroom provides a robust and effective method of teaching the primary spatial skills of identification, description, and explanation of spatial pattern. A major handicap for the development of GIS-based learning experiences, especially for non-GIS specialist educators, is the availability of spatial datasets that are not only inexpensive and easy-to-use, but incorporate a large array of topical and regional themes. ArcAtlas Our Earth is a possible solution to these dual problems. This article describes the composition and structure of this database that is designed for academic and educational applications. It also provides a workable example, links the exercise to Bloom's Taxonomy, and the National Geography Standards, includes a suggested grading rubric, and provides suggestions for additional exercises. (Contains 2 tables and 4 figures.)

Nearly three decades after development of the Canada Geographic Information System, the first functional geographical information system (GIS), a compendium of primary research topics and typical applications has finally been [...]

Reviews the computer software FastCAD (Version 1.20) by Evolution Computing.