Geospatial Technology and Global Citizenship

Editor's Notes

• #2: What is your school’s interest in global cit? Global citizenship education aims to foster greater empathy with others, a sense of a global political community, and the ability to solve more effectively the global problems challenging our shared future. An essential building-block in global citizenship education is geospatial technology literacy—the understanding of the importance and interconnectedness of places and the ability to analyze their relationships. This session explores the connection between global citizenship education and geospatial technology, citing ideas for curricular integration. World is changing – globalization propelled by technology & the marketplace creates growing integration & interdependence . Tide that lifts all boats or divisive force that creates winners & losers? Role of states in more globalized environment? Europe?
• #3: Global citizenship encompasses identities and a sense of self-realization and belonging at many levels of participation and self-realization, from the individual, to family, society, country, the world, and planet earth itself. Even as tensions arise among our arenas of belonging, we navigate such obstacles to work constructively through differences and make the most of growing ethnic, cultural, racial, linguistic and religious diversity. The point is to reflect humbly on our privileges, connect with others, not only know the world but engage with the world, and work towards social justice by transforming society for the greater good. Learning outcomes in this pathway may include the ability to: Identify social, institutional and political forces that shape the world •Interpret historical, political, scientific, cultural and socioeconomic interconnections between the U.S. and the rest of the world •Recognize and examine cultural activity and communities different from one’s own •Articulate a clear understanding of global citizenship. Describe and critically evaluate global and local perspectives and the interconnections between the two. The twenty-first century world calls for a new understanding of civic education. Indeed, the very concept of citizenship is changing: whereas citizenship was envisioned traditionally within the narrow confines of the state, there is a growing recognition that it also exists on a global level. This vision of citizenship is driven by a growing awareness that technology provides new methods of participating in the political arena. In 2010, the world media was captivated by cyberactivism: Twitter feeds from Iran, texts for earthquake-aid donations to Haiti, and the Wikileaks release of classified U.S. government documents. Many social networking tools now have geolocation capabilities, creating place-based data. This phenomenon calls for a new way of approaching education for citizenship—citizenship that fosters knowledge, empathy, and participation across borders. In order to gain a broader understanding and appreciation of the variety of communities that exist around the world, geospatial technology can be of use in making sense of the place-based data that is emerging though civic engagement. GIS (Geographic Information Systems), geolocation, and digital map “ mashups ” all give visual representations of patterns that require new visual and geospatial literacies to see interconnectivity and how actions in one area can impact another part of the globe. New skills must be developed to make sense of and analyze the new place-based data available. There are numerous colleges and universities that are making concerted efforts to promote pathways to global citizenship among their students; geospatial technology has an important role to play in these initiatives. Revisit citizenship on a national level. Rights extend beyond borders. UN declaration of human right. Duties – promote global collective good. Psych – identity; multiple levels; global village. Rep legitimacy – lack of = south africa under aparteid. UN, world bank , IMF, NGO no elected. EU parliament is elected. Not just that sudents should “care” about other human beings, environment, shopping. Only 1% of US college students study abroad, half go to Britain, France, Italy, Spain. 8% take foreign language. Global competency is lacking (ability to understand the interconnectedness of today’s world)
• #5: Ground truth is a term used in cartography, meteorology, analysis of aerial photographs, satellite imagery and a range of other remote sensing techniques in which data are gathered at a distance. Ground truth refers to information that is collected "on location." In remote sensing, this is especially important in order to relate image data to real features and materials on the ground. The collection of ground-truth data enables calibration of remote-sensing data, and aids in the interpretation and analysis of what is being sensed. More specifically, ground truth may refer to a process in which a pixel on a satellite image is compared to what is there in reality (at the present time) in order to verify the contents of the pixel on the image. In the case of a classified image, it allows supervised classification to help determine the accuracy of the classification performed by the remote sensing software and therefore minimize errors in the classification such as errors of commission and errors of omission. Ground truth is usually done on site, performing surface observations and measurements of various properties of the features of the ground resolution cells that are being studied on the remotely sensed digital image. It also involves taking geographic coordinates of the ground resolution cell with GPS technology and comparing those with the coordinates of the pixel being studied provided by the remote sensing software to understand and analyze the location errors and how it may affect a particular study. "Is x really what is going on, objectively, versus some evidential claims we are making?”
• #6: “ Ground truth” is a term used in geography to use onsite inspection of a geological feature in determining the accuracy of data collected remotely. In the same vein, it is important to use “ground truthing”—or gathering information from people who have witnessed events firsthand—in determining accuracy of reporting when government-controlled news agencies are suspect. During the unrest in Kyrgyzstan, citizens found more credible the information supplied by individuals who, using their mobile phones, were able to record and report events firsthand, rather than television and newspaper coverage. In countries where an autocratic government controls the media, cyberactivists rely on mobile phones to provide ground truth to the outside world. For example, posts to Twitter, or “tweets,” along with video of Neda, a young woman killed during a protest in the streets of Tehran, Iran, brought the world’s attention to the brutal government crackdown on protesters following the disputed Iranian presidential election. Not only does the use of technology to share information inside a country become important, but sharing the ground truth to populations outside a country’s borders becomes a tool for cyberactivists to raise consciousness and put pressure on governments.
• #7: Click on Syria Can use google translate. Follow links. Pause, go backward… Tahrir square
• #8: Alec Ross – cnn.com commentary June 20 - Many people know the story of Mohamed Bouazizi, a fruit vendor from the small town of Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia whose self-immolation on December 17, 2010, catalyzed what became the Arab Spring. On December 18, his mother and other family members began a protest that spread to the rest of Tunisia. What most people don't know, though, is that just two years earlier there were protests in Tunisia that started off far larger but failed to spread beyond the confines of the Gafsa mining basin where they began. What changed in those two years? During the initial protests in Sidi Bouzid, acts of protest were documented on video-enabled mobile phones and posted to social media sites. Activists in the Tunisian Diaspora curated and distributed this content, leading to its pick-up by pan-Arab satellite television networks including Al-Jazeera. This allowed students with a few dozen friends and followers on social media to become eyewitness sources for satellite TV networks that broadcast their stories to hundreds of millions of viewers. The Tunisian government of president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali was unable to contain this flow of media and information. This combination of new and traditional media can amplify the voices of citizen-centred movements into potent political forces and demonstrate how governments lose control over their information environments.
• #10: This is one way to get information (# of facebook users in different countries)
• #11: Raw data – this is from the Iraqi war logs released on wikileaks The use of GIS and other map-based tools that allow for spatial data representation give us the opportunity to help our students understand patterns of interconnectedness. Seeing where events occur in relation to resources, epidemics, voting trends, ethnic groupings, police presence, etc. can give students the opportunity to visualize data and relationships that are much less challenging to interpret than through speadsheets or text-based descriptions. The availablility of the Google maps application programming interface has offered infinite possibilities for visualizing place-based data, from a map that shows nearly real-time tweets during the earthquake in Chile to using the Wikileaks Iraq War Logs to create a map of civilian deaths in Iraq over a five year period. To help students get a better perspective of what 65,649 deaths look like, they can visualize the same data over U.S. cities
• #12: The Guardian has the CSV file available on its website – which can be used to turn it into…
• #15: Another example of a table that would be lost on students. PPP=much money would be needed to purchase the same goods and services in two countries
• #17: Social networking tools are providing greater geolocation capabilities that take advantage of mobile technologies. We can follow not only what is happening, but exactly where it is happening. With more than 60% of the world ’ s population under the age of 30, this is the most technologically-connected generation yet, with the potential to be the most individually-empowered (Cohen, 2010). Educators today face the challenge of how to use the constant changes in technology to best teach their students. The use of technology in global civics education is most effective when it corresponds to clearly defined goals. Preparing students for participation as global citizens means preparing them to use the tools to learn and connect. The internet is not only “ flattening ” the world economically, as Thomas Friedman (2007) notes, but also offering “ new hope for educating the citizens of this planet. It is the opening up of education that ultimately makes a flatter or more robust economic world possible ” (Bonk, 2009, pp. 7-8). The strengths of technology include its ability to enhance knowledge, empathy, and participation. When people use blogs or social networking sites politically, they are much more likely to be invested in other forms of civic and political activism such as joining a political group, contacting a government official, or expressing their views in the media (Smith et al, 2009). However, there are also dangers associated with the use of new technology and its potential to spread misinformation, division, and inequality. It is by understanding this promise and peril that we can bring a new civics education to our students.
• #18: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124913011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/opinion/23kristof.html?_r=1 Being "harmonized" is now a common expression that means you've been censored. Doubleleaf explains that it's a sardonic swipe at the "harmonious society" China's leaders claim they're trying to build. "The government just covers up all sorts of conflicts, problems and clashes through coercion," he says. "They feel this is very harmonious, but it's really not. It's nothing more than an illusion." To me, the lesson of my experiments is that the Chinese Internet is too vast for the government to monitor fully. It can toss individuals in prison. But it can’t block the information revolution itself. Once again the lesson seems to be that the Chinese authorities are relatively lenient about provocative postings – until they get attention.
• #21: Global citizenship encourages deeper knowledge of the historical, political, scientific, cultural and socioeconomic interconnections between one’s own community and the rest of the world. Education in this area must require students to learn to analyze and critically evaluate global ideas, arguments, and points of view Social networking tools are providing greater geolocation capabilities that take advantage of mobile technologies. We can follow not only what is happening, but exactly where it is happening. With more than 60% of the world ’ s population under the age of 30, this is the most technologically-connected generation yet, with the potential to be the most individually-empowered (Cohen, 2010). Educators today face the challenge of how to use the constant changes in technology to best teach their students. The use of technology in global civics education is most effective when it corresponds to clearly defined goals. Preparing students for participation as global citizens means preparing them to use the tools to learn and connect. The internet is not only “ flattening ” the world economically, as Thomas Friedman (2007) notes, but also offering “ new hope for educating the citizens of this planet. It is the opening up of education that ultimately makes a flatter or more robust economic world possible ” (Bonk, 2009, pp. 7-8). The strengths of technology include its ability to enhance knowledge, empathy, and participation. When people use blogs or social networking sites politically, they are much more likely to be invested in other forms of civic and political activism such as joining a political group, contacting a government official, or expressing their views in the media (Smith et al, 2009). However, there are also dangers associated with the use of new technology and its potential to spread misinformation, division, and inequality. It is by understanding this promise and peril that we can bring a new civics education to our students.