{"id":275142,"date":"2019-10-27T19:59:10","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T02:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcnews&p=275142"},"modified":"2020-01-03T14:48:55","modified_gmt":"2020-01-03T22:48:55","slug":"gis-educator-leaves-no-facet-of-the-field-untouched","status":"publish","type":"arcnews","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/gis-educator-leaves-no-facet-of-the-field-untouched","title":{"rendered":"GIS Educator Leaves No Facet of the Field Untouched"},"author":5752,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[171,10372,91],"tags":[1631,195672,1531,288282,152552],"arcnews_issues":[387012],"class_list":["post-275142","arcnews","type-arcnews","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-gis-hero","category-mapping","tag-collaboration","tag-curriculum","tag-national-geographic","tag-teachers","tag-training","arcnews_issues-fall-2019","arcnews_sections-gis-people"],"acf":{"short_description":"Anita Palmer is a pioneer in GIS education. And when it comes to teaching novices, she has a knack for bringing the technology to life.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"For 25 years, Anita Palmer has been a leader in teaching GIS\u2014and not only to students but to hundreds of teachers as well.\r\n\r\n\u201cShe\u2019s one of those rare birds that does teacher training, materials development, and some technical development; has participated in academic research; and has taught,\u201d said Esri education manager Tom Baker. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s a facet of GIS education that she hasn\u2019t worked in.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cWhere she excels is with early learners,\u201d added Charlie Fitzpatrick, Esri education manager for K\u201312. \u201cLots of people who get good at GIS want to spend more time getting deeper into dramatic technology. But Anita has been very good about focusing on the people who are just getting in and being as interested in them as with the people who are well down the road.\u201d\r\n\r\nPalmer started out as a high school technology teacher, ended up founding an educational technology consulting company, and is currently the National Geographic Society\u2019s first ever GIS-focused Education Fellow.\r\n\r\n\u201cGIS speaks differently than any other technology,\u201d said Palmer. \u201cI used to teach spreadsheets and Lotus, and I loved it. I love technology. But when you connect a map to technology or a spreadsheet, patterns and visualizations emerge. Things we couldn\u2019t see before in that spreadsheet, in those lists and columns, all of a sudden appear, and we can see what we need to do.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":275192,"image_position":"right","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"That\u2019s sort of how Palmer\u2019s career in GIS unfolded, too: all of a sudden, when she saw what she needed\u2014and wanted\u2014to do.\r\n\r\nOriginally from Burbank, California, Palmer had been interested in geography and travel as a kid.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe would always be in the \u201956 Chevy going places, like camping up Route 1 or to Lake Gregory or the Grand Canyon,\u201d she recalled. \u201cMy mother would be sitting in the passenger\u2019s seat with the big map.\u201d\r\n\r\nPalmer initially didn\u2019t think of making a career out of maps, though, and she ended up in accounting. Twenty years down the road, however, she decided that she really wanted to teach, so she studied social studies and technology education at the University of Nevada, Reno, and got a job at Carson High School in Carson City, Nevada. She then immediately started pursuing her master\u2019s degree in geography.\r\n\r\nAround the same time, Palmer also got involved with National Geographic\u2019s Alliance Network in Nevada, which brings together educators who want to support geographic literacy. That\u2019s where she first heard about GIS. A fellow Alliance member, whose husband was the GIS manager for Washoe County, Nevada, told her that they needed to get the technology into their classrooms, so Palmer got on board.\r\n\r\nIn 1993, Fitzpatrick set both teachers up with ArcView, which they installed on borrowed computers that really couldn\u2019t keep up with the software. The two persisted anyway. And while Palmer wanted to use the technology to teach geography, her school had other ideas.\r\n\r\n\u201cI became the tech coordinator for the school and then got involved with the district,\u201d she said. \u201cWe brought one of three high-tech centers in the state to Carson City. It was a co-op between the high school and the community college. So we used it up until 3:00 p.m., and the college came in and used it through the evening.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Palmer\u2019s students loved the tech classes, so they took every course they could from her.\r\n\r\n\u201cI was like, OK, well, here\u2019s this GIS software. Learn it, and then teach me,\u201d she recalled.\r\n\r\nOnce the tech center was up and running, Palmer applied for, and received, a grant through the National Science Foundation to teach GIS to Hispanic female students who spoke little to no English.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe had a real cultural divide with the girls during the regular school day,\u201d she recalled. \u201cSo we had them come in at 7:00 in the morning to learn GIS.\u201d\r\n\r\nThere were no educational materials available at the time, so Palmer was writing them from scratch as fast as she could. The students elected to not have the lessons translated into Spanish to better learn English.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt was empowering for them. These girls started getting on student council, and they graduated,\u201d said Palmer. \u201cThe program was quite successful, and it kept going for several years. It really became an inclusive process.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"At the same time, Palmer started learning how to teach GIS to other teachers so they could use the technology in their own classrooms.\r\n\r\n\u201cI really became so passionate about GIS right in the beginning that I thought, this is it; this is where it\u2019s at,\u201d she said.\r\n\r\nIn 1998, Esri hosted an intensive GIS workshop for 32 teachers, and Palmer was one of them.\r\n\r\nAs it turned out, \u201call the teachers were married except for one other person, and that was Roger Palmer,\u201d whom she later wed, she said. \u201cBut we did start a GIS education business together before we got married: Educational Technology Consultants,\u201d which they later shortened to GISetc<\/a>.\r\n\r\nPalmer ended up leaving the classroom to devote herself entirely to this new endeavor, which included working with Roger and Esri education manager Joseph Kerski (who at the time was a geographer with the US Geological Survey) to hold GIS teacher training workshops around the United States."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"\u201cTeachers were coming from all over the place, and it was really wonderful. The connections were amazing,\u201d she remembered. \u201cOne time we counted that the three of us got 12 hours of sleep the entire week because we were writing curriculum and activities all night long. But the workshops were great fun. Teachers would have this aha moment, and it was like, \u2018Oh my gosh, I\u2019m going to use this back in my classroom!\u2019\u201d\r\n\r\nBut Palmer, Kerski, and Baker\u2014who was also involved\u2014wondered if teachers were actually implementing GIS in their classrooms. They later con-firmed through research that implementation rates weren\u2019t very high without classroom materials. So Palmer decided to produce a book. She got two additional coauthors on board\u2014fellow teachers Lyn Malone and Christine Voigt\u2014and, with help from Fitzpatrick and George Dailey (who also used to be on the Esri education team), they pitched the idea to Esri president Jack Dangermond.\r\n\r\n\u201cThat\u2019s how Mapping Our World: GIS Lessons for Educators<\/em> was born,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cJack threw a massive amount of resources at it, Esri Press just dug in, and it came out like a storm.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe 535-page book, which is painstakingly scripted with screenshots and step-by-step lessons, spoke mainly to early adopters of GIS. Over the years, Palmer has helped update it for new technology, break it down into smaller sections, and even adapt parts of it into GeoInquiries\u2014short, instructional activities that teachers can have students do using ArcGIS Online."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"\u201cMapping Our World<\/em> laid the foundation for a lot of instructional materials both at Esri and at universities and schools that were doing materials development,\u201d said Baker.\r\n\r\nPalmer, now based in Dallas, Texas, has continued to host teacher trainings. And she and her husband have taken participants to remote places around the world\u2014mostly in Costa Rica but also in Peru, Ecuador, Australia, Kosovo, and New Zealand\u2014to learn GIS.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe\u2019d be out in the Amazon rain forest with two hours of generated power every day, and we were like, \u2018If you can do GIS here, you can do it back in your classrooms,\u2019\u201d Palmer said.\r\n\r\nFor one project in Costa Rica, which prompted the Palmers to start a nonprofit called Geoporter, teachers helped kids map where they picked up trash and then worked with community elders to place mini recycling and trash centers in appropriate areas.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt really transformed the community,\u201d said Palmer, \u201cand then other communities asked to be shown what they were doing.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"With her breadth of experience and depth of commitment to geography and GIS, it seems natural that Palmer was chosen as one of National Geographic\u2019s eight Education Fellows for 2019\u2014and the first focused on GIS.\r\n\r\n\u201cPalmer\u2019s thought leadership in the education space\u2026will help to elevate the work and reach of the National Geographic Society\u2019s educational offerings,\u201d stated a press release about her selection.\r\n\r\nHer main project is to work as a liaison with a collaborative group from Esri and the education and digital teams from National Geographic to develop the next generation of MapMaker Interactive, a map interface from National Geographic that teachers and students have used for years to assemble, draw on, and annotate maps. Palmer is also working to design curricular materials and workshops to use in MapMaker Interactive, version 2.\r\n\r\n\u201cI am part of a really great team,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve done interviews with teachers about how they\u2019ve used MapMaker Interactive and what they really want to get out of a mapping instrument. There\u2019s still a lot of hard, grinding work to be done, but we\u2019re moving forward, and we will prevail!\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Center","content":"Read other articles in the GIS Heroes<\/a> series.","snippet":""}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"\nGIS Educator Leaves No Facet of the Field Untouched<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Anita Palmer is a pioneer in GIS education. And when it comes to teaching novices, she has a knack for bringing the technology to life.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/gis-educator-leaves-no-facet-of-the-field-untouched\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GIS Educator Leaves No Facet of the Field Untouched\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Anita Palmer is a pioneer in GIS education. And when it comes to teaching novices, she has a knack for bringing the technology to life.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/gis-educator-leaves-no-facet-of-the-field-untouched\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Esri\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-03T22:48:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2019\/10\/arcnews-banner-giseducator-card.jpg\" \/><meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2019\/10\/arcnews-banner-giseducator-card.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"824\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"549\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Esri\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n\t \"@graph\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"WebPage\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/gis-educator-leaves-no-facet-of-the-field-untouched\",\n\t \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/gis-educator-leaves-no-facet-of-the-field-untouched\",\n\t \"name\": \"GIS Educator Leaves No Facet of the Field Untouched\",\n\t \"isPartOf\": {\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website\"\n\t },\n\t \"datePublished\": \"2019-10-28T02:59:10+00:00\",\n\t \"dateModified\": \"2020-01-03T22:48:55+00:00\",\n\t \"description\": \"Anita Palmer is a pioneer in GIS education. And when it comes to teaching novices, she has a knack for bringing the technology to life.\",\n\t \"breadcrumb\": {\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/gis-educator-leaves-no-facet-of-the-field-untouched#breadcrumb\"\n\t },\n\t \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t \"potentialAction\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ReadAction\",\n\t \"target\": [\n\t \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/gis-educator-leaves-no-facet-of-the-field-untouched\"\n\t ]\n\t }\n\t ]\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"BreadcrumbList\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/gis-educator-leaves-no-facet-of-the-field-untouched#breadcrumb\",\n\t \"itemListElement\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t \"position\": 1,\n\t \"name\": \"Home\",\n\t \"item\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\"\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t \"position\": 2,\n\t \"name\": \"ArcNews Articles\",\n\t \"item\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\"\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t \"position\": 3,\n\t \"name\": \"GIS Educator Leaves No Facet of the Field Untouched\"\n\t }\n\t ]\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"WebSite\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website\",\n\t \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/\",\n\t \"name\": \"Esri\",\n\t \"description\": \"Esri Newsroom\",\n\t \"potentialAction\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"SearchAction\",\n\t \"target\": {\n\t \"@type\": \"EntryPoint\",\n\t \"urlTemplate\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}\"\n\t },\n\t \"query-input\": {\n\t \"@type\": \"PropertyValueSpecification\",\n\t \"valueRequired\": true,\n\t \"valueName\": \"search_term_string\"\n\t }\n\t }\n\t ],\n\t \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\"\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"Person\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/41c803b2ea8734c36f9c4e9586d1449d\",\n\t \"name\": \"Amy Ambard\",\n\t \"image\": {\n\t \"@type\": \"ImageObject\",\n\t \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\n\t \"url\": \"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f356480172f8ad0bc8d72b855e84171c52f1944c7c7779f3e425d73bf3efa3c7?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\n\t \"contentUrl\": \"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f356480172f8ad0bc8d72b855e84171c52f1944c7c7779f3e425d73bf3efa3c7?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\n\t \"caption\": \"Amy Ambard\"\n\t },\n\t \"url\": \"\"\n\t }\n\t ]\n\t}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"GIS Educator Leaves No Facet of the Field Untouched","description":"Anita Palmer is a pioneer in GIS education. And when it comes to teaching novices, she has a knack for bringing the technology to life.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/gis-educator-leaves-no-facet-of-the-field-untouched","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"GIS Educator Leaves No Facet of the Field Untouched","og_description":"Anita Palmer is a pioneer in GIS education. And when it comes to teaching novices, she has a knack for bringing the technology to life.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/gis-educator-leaves-no-facet-of-the-field-untouched","og_site_name":"Esri","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/","article_modified_time":"2020-01-03T22:48:55+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2019\/10\/arcnews-banner-giseducator-card.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""},{"width":824,"height":549,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2019\/10\/arcnews-banner-giseducator-card.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@Esri","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/gis-educator-leaves-no-facet-of-the-field-untouched","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/gis-educator-leaves-no-facet-of-the-field-untouched","name":"GIS Educator Leaves No Facet of the Field Untouched","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-10-28T02:59:10+00:00","dateModified":"2020-01-03T22:48:55+00:00","description":"Anita Palmer is a pioneer in GIS education. And when it comes to teaching novices, she has a knack for bringing the technology to life.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/gis-educator-leaves-no-facet-of-the-field-untouched#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/gis-educator-leaves-no-facet-of-the-field-untouched"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/gis-educator-leaves-no-facet-of-the-field-untouched#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ArcNews Articles","item":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"GIS Educator Leaves No Facet of the Field Untouched"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/","name":"Esri","description":"Esri Newsroom","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/41c803b2ea8734c36f9c4e9586d1449d","name":"Amy Ambard","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f356480172f8ad0bc8d72b855e84171c52f1944c7c7779f3e425d73bf3efa3c7?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f356480172f8ad0bc8d72b855e84171c52f1944c7c7779f3e425d73bf3efa3c7?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Amy Ambard"},"url":""}]}},"sort_order":"20","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/arcnews\/275142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/arcnews"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/arcnews"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/arcnews\/275142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275142"},{"taxonomy":"arcnews_issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/arcnews_issues?post=275142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}