MODIS Image of Hurricane Harvey. This natural color image of Hurricane Harvey was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Terra satellite as the hurricane reached the Gulf Coast of Texas at 12:25 p.m. local time on Aug. 25, 2017. (Image: USGS)
Free and rapid imagery was provided through the USGS Hazard Data Distribution System.
The calls for assistance started days before Hurricane Harvey came barreling across America’s doorstep this summer. First responders and government officials needed answers to prepare and protect communities.
How strong is this storm going to be? What kind of damage occurred on its path through the Caribbean? How might it impact southeast Texas once it makes landfall?
Remotely sensed imagery was provided — at no cost and almost daily — through the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Hazard Data Distribution System (HDDS) for analysis on the extent, severity and evolution of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
“USGS staff worked around the clock to keep HDDS populated with satellite and aerial imagery,” said Brenda Jones, who is the disaster response coordinator for the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS).
15,000 images were downloaded from HDDS following the three storms. Requests came from 48 government agencies, including the U.S. Senate, Foreign Agricultural Service, Department of Homeland Security and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For example, Harvey dropped as much as 52 inches of rain in Houston. The Federal Emergency Management Agency used data from HDDS to identify roads and other infrastructure that were under water in an effort to better direct rescue efforts.
“Quick, easy and centralized access to high-quality imagery made it possible to create maps that were useful to disaster management authorities,” Jones said. “We haven’t had a hurricane season like this for a very long time, and the HDDS system proved invaluable to rescue efforts.”
In addition to hurricanes, HDDS is useful for numerous hazard situations. For example, following the recent earthquake near Mexico City, imagery provided through HDDS allowed first responders to see collapsed buildings, blocked roads and damaged infrastructure.
During fire season, HDDS makes it possible for first responders to have wide-scale pictures of situations.
HDDS acquires imagery and data from several sources, including the International Charter for Space and Major Disasters, of which the USGS is a member. Once the hurricane season began, USGS EROS staff began pulling data acquired by space and aerial systems and loading them into HDDS.
GEOS-13 Image of Hurricane Maria and Tropical Storm Jose. Image of Hurricane Maria and Tropical Storm Jose acquired by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 13 at 1:15 p.m. local time on Sept. 19, 2017. The satellite is operated by NOAA while NASA helps develop and launch the GOES series of satellites. (Image: USGS)
OnTerra Systems has introduced a new version of its MapSavvy aerial imagery service and a corresponding new website, www.MapSavvy.com.
MapSavvy is an affordable Web Map Service providing OGC-compliant images for anyone who needs aerial images in the course of their work or research.
The new version of MapSavvy offers users access to two versions of Bing Maps aerial imagery: original Bing Maps imagery and the recently updated aerial imagery updates introduced in 2017.
Typical users of MapSavvy are GIS and CAD professionals from business, research, or government organizations that need to use aerial imagery as part of projects, presentations, reports, or visual analysis of trends.
Examples of MapSavvy users include:
Architects and developers: Architects and developers use MapSavvy in GIS and CAD applications to obtain aerial imagery of construction sites to incorporate into projects, proposals and presentations that show where new buildings or structures would be located in the context of an existing built environment.
Research teams: Research teams use MapSavvy in GIS and CAD applications to access aerial imagery that will be incorporated into research reports, or to be able to spot trends by visually depicting information on top of an aerial image. MapSavvy is used for wildlife tracking, hydrology, environmental programs and a host of research activities.
Public safety: Law enforcement teams use MapSavvy to access base map where crimes are occurring, either to spot trends or to help solve a specific criminal case.
City planning: City planners use MapSavvy to see base map aerial views of cities, municipalities and unincorporated areas as part of their process of planning city infrastructure and new developments.
Oil and gas: Oil and gas companies use MapSavvy in GIS and CAD applications to view aerial imagery to plan for pipeline facilities placement.
The new MapSavvy aerial imagery service offers the flexibility of access to original Bing Maps imagery as well as the new updated aerial imagery introduced in 2017. The original Bing Maps imagery offers the highest resolution. The newly updated Bing Maps imagery offers the most up-to-date imagery of developed areas that have undergone changes to streets and buildings, or wild land areas that have seen changes due to geological shifts or wildfires.
“By offering MapSavvy users access to the original Bing Maps imagery and the new updated imagery, users get the best of both worlds,” said Steve Milroy, OnTerra Systems president. “This new version of MapSavvy lets users access original Bing Maps imagery if their application requires high-resolution images, or access recently updated Bing maps imagery if they require the most up-to-date images showing changes to cityscapes or wild lands.”
High-altitude pseudo-satellites (HAPS) are platforms that float or fly at high altitude like conventional aircraft but operate more like satellites. (Image: ESA Earth Observation Graphics Bureau)
The European Space Agency (ESA) is considering extending its activities to a new region of the sky via a novel type of aerial vehicle, a missing link between drones and satellites.
High-altitude pseudo-satellites, or HAPS, are platforms that float or fly at high altitude like conventional aircraft but operate more like satellites — except that rather than working from space, they can remain in position inside the atmosphere for weeks or even months, offering continuous coverage of the territory below.
The best working altitude is about 20 kilometers, above the clouds and jet streams, and 10 kilometers above commercial airliners, where wind speeds are low enough for them to hold position for long periods.
From such a height they can survey the ground to the horizon 500 km away, variously enabling precise monitoring and surveillance, high-bandwidth communications or back up to existing satellite navigation services.
Several ESA directorates have teamed up to investigate their potential, explains future-systems specialist Antonio Ciccolella.
“For Earth observation, they could provide prolonged high-resolution coverage for priority regions, while for navigation and telecoms they could shrink blind spots in coverage and combine wide bandwidth with negligible signal delay,” Ciccolella said.
“ESA is looking into how these various domains can be best brought together.”
“We’ve been looking into the concept for the last 20 years but now finally it’s becoming reality,” explained Earth observation specialist Thorsten Fehr.
“That’s come about through the maturing of key technologies: miniaturised avionics, high-performance solar cells, lightweight batteries and harness, miniaturisation of Earth observation sensors and high-bandwidth communication links that can deliver competitively priced services.”
Navigation engineer Roberto Prieto Cerdeira added, “There’s obvious potential for emergency response. They could also be employed semi-permanently, perhaps extending satnav coverage into high, narrow valleys and cities.”
The QinetiQ-designed and Airbus-owned Zephyr-7 solar-powered unmanned aircraft holds the world flight endurance record at 14 days. (Photo: Airbus)
European companies have already unveiled product lines. For instance, Airbus has developed the winged, solar-powered Zephyr, which in 2010 achieved a world record 14 days of continuous flight without refuelling.
The Zephyr-S is designed to fly payloads of a few tens of kilograms for up to three months at a time, with secondary batteries employed to keep it powered and aloft overnight. A larger Zephyr-T version now in preparation will support larger payloads and power needs.
The first flight is projected for 2021 for Thales Alenia Space’s Stratobus airship. (Artist’s rendering: Thales Alenia Space/Briot)
Meanwhile, Thales Alenia Space is preparing the lighter-than-air Stratobus, with its first flight expected in 2021.
The buoyant Stratobus airship can carry up to 250 kilograms, its electric engines flying against the breeze to hold itself in position, relying on fuel cells at night.
Many other firms are also developing vehicles, payloads and services. Last month saw them gathered at ESA’s inaugural workshop, together with representatives of potential customers, including the European Defence Agency, Frontex — the EU agency tasked with Europe’s border management — and EU Copernicus environmental monitoring services.
Airbus’s double-tailed Zephyr-T variant HAPS aircraft is designed to support larger payloads, keeping them aloft for months at a time. (Image: Airbus)
“This was the first meeting of its kind in Europe, with more than 200 HAPS experts” explains Juan Lizarraga Cubillos, from ESA’s telecoms area.
“We heard from them on the needs, opportunities and critical issues within the field, particularly as a complement for existing satellite services, to start preparing a future ESA programme.”
ESA regards the vehicles as a valuable way of establishing applications that complement its satellites while also accelerating space technologies through early, high-altitude flight testing.
The point was also made that market acceptance of HAPS would come down to their efficiency and cost-effectiveness — and the best way to show that would be through demonstration projects.
“We have to fly them,” remarked Alvaro Rodriquez of the EU’s Satellite Centre. “The technology is there, all the ingredients are there, now it’s time to mix them into a nice recipe.”
Thales Alenia Space’s Stratobus is topped with solar panels, powering its propellers to fly against the wind at 20 km for prolonged periods of service. (Image: Airbus)
SimActive Inc., a developer of photogrammetry software, has released Correlator3D version 7.1 with new technology for true orthophotos.
Users can now automatically generate enhanced true orthomosaics through a technological breakthrough that significantly minimizes artifacts, the company said.
This major release successfully addresses the industry-wide challenges of generating true orthophotos without artifacts, such as distortions around buildings and vertical structures. Along with the enhanced output quality, the overall mosaicking speed of the software has increased five-fold, furthering the gap with competing tools.
“While DTM-based orthophoto generation has been the norm for decades, we observe a shift toward true orthos,” said Louis Simard, CTO of SimActive. “The advancement provides consistent quality of results without any manual intervention.”
For a live demonstration at the Geospatial World Forum (Jan. 17-19, Hyderabad, India), send an email to [email protected].
To register for an online training session on how to generate high-quality orthomosaics with Correlator3D (Nov. 30, 10 a.m. Eastern Time, sign up at the website.
Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is calling for interested participants in its Geospatial to the Edge Interoperability Plugfest.
OGC Plugfests, initiatives of the OGC Innovation Program, provide a venue for sponsors and technology implementers to come together to solve geospatial interoperability challenges in a collaborative, agile process.
A plugfest is organized around scenarios and a testing environment to advance the implementation of OGC standards and profiles of OGC standards in commercial and open source software products. A plugfest allows organizations to test and validate implementations of OGC standards in their software products, verifying that they can interoperate with other products implementing the same standards.
The Geospatial to the Edge Interoperability Plugfest is co-sponsored by Army Geospatial Center and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA/CIO&T). The Plugfest will assist tool enhancement and provide guidance to improve the delivery of enterprise geospatial data to end users. The Plugfest will test profiles and extended capabilities of the GeoPackage, WMS, WMTS, and WFS standards for the end user.
Examples of end user communities that will benefit include:
first responders, relief workers, and firefighters preparing for and operating in limited network environments;
emergency planners and managers in their efforts to support hurricane, wildfire, and earthquake preparedness, relief/response activities, and damage assessment;
soldiers/warfighters planning and executing operations, specifically in disconnected, intermittent, and limited network environments.
What is an OGC profile?
An OGC profile is a subset of a standard that helps better share information within a community of interest. A profile is a specification that imposes additional constraints on an existing standard to make that standard more focused to the needs of the user community. A profile can also be extended to offer specialized functionality, for example, make previously optional capabilities mandatory, or define extensions where permitted by the base standard.
The profiles that are planned to be used in the Plugfest include: raster and vector NSG GeoPackages, NSG WMTS, NSG WMS, and NSG WFS.
Remote GeoSystem, North Shore Rescue and Talon Helicopters have successfully deployed a geoDVR Gen2 with a FLIR daylight EO/IR gyro-stabilized video camera on an Airbus TwinStar (AS355) for search-and-rescue (SAR) missions.
NSR and Talon team operate the geoDVR and FLIR during ground training in October 2017.
The geoDVR Gen2 is an advanced mil-spec DVR for recording multiple channels of HD & Standard-Definition geospatial full motion video in airborne and rugged vehicle environments.
The geoDVR’s ability to reliably record HD color and infrared, along with continuous GPS data and Live Moving Maps, make it suited for professional airborne search and rescue, law enforcement and infrastructure inspection applications that utilize multi-sensor gimbal video cameras.
“Remote Geo has a reputation for building one of the industry’s most dependable and user-friendly airborne geospatial video recorders, complete with flexible post-flight mapping tools. So the geoDVR Gen2 was an obvious choice when we were asked to fly the FLIR on the TwinStar for mountain search and rescue,” says Peter Murray, Founder/Operations Manager at Talon Helicopters.
“Adding the FLIR camera to North Shore Rescue’s toolbox has been a great enhancement to NSR’s capabilities,” said Jim Loree, North Shore Rescue SAR manager and air operations coordinator. “Having the ability to record and geo-track the location of the video seemed essential to maximizing the full potential of the FLIR camera. The geoDVR allows searchers to review recorded video for clues that may or may not have been observed during the flight.”
“This feature could also be highly valuable in a large-scale disaster such as an earthquake where widespread areas are surveyed for damage,” Loree said. “Emergency Operation Centers would be able to use the data to help them make decisions on where and how to deploy resources based on the exact location and extent of damages provided by the video recording.”
North Shore Rescue and Talon Helicopters will use the geoDVR with a FLIR generously donated by Port of Vancouver to perform helicopter-based SAR operations with color and infrared. Then, using LineVision™ software post-flight, North Shore Rescue will review the geoDVR videos and flight tracks overlaid on Google Earth and Esri maps for training mission planning and recovery operations.
Because North Shore Rescue is an all volunteer organization, Remote GeoSystems donated 18 LineVision Esri Maps and LineVision Google Earth licenses as part of the implementation.
The Think 3D Stormbee multicopter integrated with Trimble’s AP15 provides efficiency, accuracy and performance for lidar surveys from unmanned vehicles.
Historically, lidar-based aerial surveys were impractical for all but the largest unmanned systems. Because of Applanix’ development of small, lightweight and low-powered direct georeferencing solutions, airborne lidar scans from small drones are now practical, cost-effective, highly accurate and excellent options for lidar surveys, according to the company.
The Stormbee is a directly georeferenced UAV lidar solution for 3D industrial mapping applications, designed to collect survey grade spatial data in a significantly more cost effective and efficient way than static lidar.
The Stormbee, a Faro Focus 130 laser scanner, and the AP15.
Stormbee’s 3D mapping technologies include Faro’s Focus 130 laser scanner, Trimble’s AP15 high performance GNSS/inertial receiver, Applanix’s POSPac UAV GNSS/inertial post-processing software and Stormbee’s proprietary Beeflex software for lidar point cloud generation.
Industrial applications (GNSS-denied environments) pose unique challenges for laser scanning using traditional static systems, due to obstructions and poor signal environments. These issues lead to increased costs and operational time.
By using the high-performance Trimble AP15 with two antenna and the Applanix post-processing software (POSPac MMS) for georeferencing the lidar data, Stormbee provides an accurate real-time and post-mission solution for all motion variables.
Applanix has brought together its decades of experience in multi-frequency, multi-constellation Differential GNSS and inertial based positioning and orientation with the best in small-form factor hardware and powerful software, to produce a DG solution for professional aerial mapping on UAVs.
With a system delivering better than 5-cm accuracy (real mean squared) and high resolution, Stormbee and Applanix offer 3D detail from a platform moving at speeds up to 15 meters per second. The Stormbee leverages Applanix’s decades of experience in direct georeferencing of lidar systems to collect the most accurate 3D data.
Benefits of the system:
compact, easy-to-operate and cost-effective
centimeter-level mobile positioning accuracy for 3D mapping products
improved productivity, with optimized workflow from data capture to georeferenced point cloud generation
superior visualization: Lidar scanners provide more accurate information of structures than camera technologies
Think 3D, a Belgian company, is a 3D scanning company for many industrial applications including those in the beverage, steel, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and tank terminals industries. Think3D helps companies make changes to their installations by providing a full 3D CAD model of their installation.
Stormbee to date has proven to be effective in many industries including mining, engineering, dredging, forensics, universities and survey.
La Direction générale de l’armement (DGA), the French Defence Procurement Agency, has entrusted the firm tranche of the 10-year SYSENV contract to Airbus Defence and Space and its four partners, for the production of the SI GEODE4D information system for the French Armed Forces.
This system is an essential component of the GEODE4D programme (geography, hydrography, oceanography and meteorology for defence) and will be available via a single and secure portal.
It will allow all Ministry of Defence actors to access and share the same geophysical environment data and select and present them in a coherent way, according to the “one card for all” principle.
“This programme shows the confidence of the DGA in Airbus and its partners for the construction of this information system for the French Armed Forces,” said François Lombard, Head of the Intelligence Business Cluster at Airbus Defence and Space. “One of the major challenges for the SI GEODE4D, which can truly be qualified as the active digital map of the 21st century, is also to assist our armed forces with their digital transformation.”
It is vital to reinforce the ability to manage information and intelligence for early threat detection and identification. To provide an appropriate response to these varied and constantly changing threats, an accurate understanding of the geophysical environment is crucial for deployed forces.
In future, the SI GEODE4D system, consisting of various services and applications, will provide the armed forces with an interoperable, coherent and shared vision of the geophysical environment, consistent with the NATO REP concept (Recognised Environmental Picture).
The consortium is headed by Airbus Defence and Space and built around four innovative and specialised partner companies: Magellium for geography; Météo France International for meteorology, hydrography and oceanography; Bertin for the tool providing decision-making aids; and Deloitte for change management.
The contract also includes the refurbishment of the geographical and meteorological–oceanographic data production centres in Creil, Haguenau and Toulouse. In particular, this refurbishment is designed to meet the need for the increased volume and transmission rates involved in the visualisation of all the environmental data on the future GEODE4D portal.
Velodyne LiDAR is partnering with BoE Systems to integrate its VLP-16 Puck and Puck LITE 3D lidar sensors into BoE Systems’ UAV fleet for geospatial data collection and analysis.
With this integration, BoE Systems provides full 360° imaging of geography and equipment for a multitude of industries with a critical need for quick, safe and accurate aerial inspections, including transportation, utilities, telecommunications/infrastructure, construction, aggregate, forestry and agriculture.
BoE Systems acquires imaging data, processes it, and works with customers for tailored analysis and inspection reports, allowing them to address immediate and future needs and compliance issues.
In addition, BoE Systems’ proprietary hardware and software integrations provide digital maps with a level of detail that allows for the development of highly accurate flood models, drainage analysis, building information modeling (BIM), contour mapping and more.
“UAV mapping is a nascent industry that has quickly evolved with the adoption of lidar sensor technology,” said Mike Jellen, president and chief commercial officer, Velodyne LiDAR. “With BoE Systems’ integration of Velodyne’s advanced VLP-16 Puck and Puck LITE sensors, the result is an incredibly valuable service that quickly and accurately maps geography and equipment to save customers critical man-hours, cost, and effort.”
“BoE Systems’ hardware and software integrations leverage cutting edge technology like Velodyne’s VLP-16 lidar sensors to produce highly accurate three-dimensional environmental models for industry professionals,” said Jason Littrell, president, BoE Systems. “Those professionals appreciate that our systems can do the job quickly, safely, accurately, and without breaking the bank.”
Vertical aerial maps extended to include uninterrupted panorama imagery and measurable oblique images
Nearmap, a location content provider specializing in high-resolution aerial maps, announces the release of new forms of location content — Nearmap Panorama and Nearmap Oblique — available through a new MapBrowser interface.
Nearmap has long provided vertical imagery (also known as orthorectified imagery) covering about 70 percent of the U.S. population. Today, it extends its location content to include new aerial geospatial data services—Nearmap Panorama and Nearmap Oblique imagery.
Nearmap Panorama is unique since it enables users to view perspective maps in all cardinal directions for small or large areas in uninterrupted fashion. Users do not need to jump from one image to another and, in the process, lose context.
They can easily navigate, pan and zoom across any size geography, quickly analyze perspective maps and make faster decisions that impact government and commercial operations — all within an instantly accessible, 100 percent cloud-based environment.
“Nearmap Panorama is delivered via our new, highly intuitive MapBrowser interface, enabling users to effortlessly visualize and navigate across regions or local areas in an uninterrupted way,” said Patrick Quigley, SVP and GM for Nearmap North America. “Our users can inspect aerial location content faster than ever before using Nearmap Panorama. Consistent with past location content, Nearmap Panorama is delivered in high-resolution, 3-inch GSD.”
Nearmap Obliques enable users to interactively inspect and measure the height of features, such as buildings and terrain, from all cardinal directions. Nearmap Oblique images are also accessed through the new MapBrowser.
“Our customers need location content aligned with their requirements,” said Natasha Ridley, product manager for MapBrowser. “For example, with Nearmap Oblique images, government organizations conducting property appraisal can accurately value property using measurement and detailed, tilt-angled perspectives. At the same time, commercial organizations interested in engineering and construction can quickly select a north, south, east or west orientation, measure heights of buildings and better plan changes.”
Users working within MapBrowser can switch from Nearmap Vertical to Nearmap Panorama or Nearmap Oblique location content. “We’ve added new features that our customers are going to be very excited about,” said Ridley. “For example, now users can export our imagery with measurements added. The saved image provides the whole picture, which is very useful in proposal development and communicating specific aspects of the aerial maps essential in planning and operations.”
“These enhancements represent a major step forward in both our location content and delivery capabilities. There’s also more on the way,” said Robert Carroll, VP of 3D commercial and government for Nearmap. “This imagery is produced by our patented HyperCamera2 technology, enabling us to continue to proactively survey the U.S. urban areas including 50 percent of the population with obliques while also producing high-resolution 3D content. Our plan is to extend our leadership position by introducing Nearmap 3D, combining ‘off-the-shelf’ digital surface models (DSM), textured 3D mesh and 3D point clouds in the near future.”
Nearmap will be exhibiting at Autodesk University 2017 in Las Vegas from Nov. 14-16 at booth A503 in the Sands Expo/Venetian Hotel. Nearmap is also hosting a breakout session (“Aerial Imagery Transforming AEC”) on Nov. 15 at 9:15 a.m.
Nearmap is also exhibiting at the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center in California from Nov. 13-15. Interested parties can visit Nearmap at booth 441, exhibit hall A.
The northernmost Joint Polar Satellite System Common Ground System station in Svalbard, Norway. (Photo: Raytheon)
Newest version of Raytheon’s Joint Polar Satellite System Common Ground System is now operational
Raytheon’s next-generation Common Ground System for the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS CGS 2.0) is now operational, supporting 11 polar-orbiting satellites and delivering observations to NOAA’s National Weather Service almost 50 percent faster than before.
Svalbard, Norway, is the location of the northernmost Joint Polar Satellite System Common Ground System station.
JPSS CGS 2.0 was designed to support the upcoming NASA launch of NOAA’s JPSS-1 satellite on Nov. 14.
“The new ground system significantly improves the mission capabilities of the JPSS program,” said Matt Gilligan, vice president of Raytheon’s Navigation and Environmental Solutions. “It can handle even more data from the full constellation of satellites now and in the future.”
Developed by NASA for NOAA, the JPSS CGS collects and disseminates observations from polar-orbiting weather satellites from the United States, Europe and Japan.
The polar orbiters provide critical weather and environmental data to ensure meteorologists and forecasters have robust, reliable information to make timely and accurate weather predictions that help save lives, protect property and decrease the devastating economic impact caused by severe weather.
Most of us know about serious games that teach real-world applications.
Flight simulators are the most well-known example. Learning to fly multi-million dollar aircraft is simply too costly and too dangerous to train in the real world. Pilots spend hundreds and thousands of hours in flight simulators going over basics and learning to deal with emergency situations.
Doctors are another profession that spends many hours doing simulated procedures.
The military is another.
So are police and emergency responders.
The risks are too great in those professions for real-world training. Immersive training in virtual, simulated environments is the only way to become fully proficient.
The term serious games describes a type of game-based learning, but serious games don’t have to be associated only with jobs that are high cost and high risk. Other examples of fields using serious games include fleet logistics operations, air traffic control, shipping port operations, unmanned aerial systems and driver training.
In all of those games, GIS is a crucial component because it allows game-based learning to transition from the virtual world to the real world.
Back to the Classroom
What was became what is because someone asked what if.
“What if,” two words the dogmatists abhor and the idealists herald. The idealists (aka visionaries and dreamers) drive change at an ever-increasing pace. There is never a respite.
I am admittedly a dreamer, but only in my waking hours. From midnight to sunrise I am very much a conservative (aka dogmatist and traditionalist), lest in my sleep I am overtaken by a swifter, stronger, more technically savvy idealist and awaken a dinosaur: Tewelowsaurus Rexus.
So it is in this age of disruption, an economic stalwart in one quarter and a bearish pariah in the next. The archeological rubble of traditional industries piles up.
The education system is such a behemoth, sluggish and dying, unable to compete with emerging technologies and immersive learning. Education RIP — another victim of the internet. But it is more than the battle of brick and mortar versus e-commerce. This extinction is happening because of style over substance.
Traditional schools simply are not attracting the generations of students who grew up in an increasingly connected digital age. What’s in it for me? Is now, what’s here, relates to me? We screamed when we were young and going through the system, but the alternatives were not there. Now, the alternatives are fascinating, engaging and wondrous. Students and the curious line up, wanting to participate.
To understand the difference between the two schools of thought, let’s consider a traditional subject: algebra — a favorite of millions of students year after year. Perhaps you too recall the joys of X over Y and the endless hours enraptured in sheer delight solving for “why,” as in why in tarnation does anyone need to know this?
If you were like me, then you too believed the title mathematician was synonymous with masochist, except that these instruments of mental torture were leaked to the government and, through public schools, were inflicted on innocent children posing as students.
But I digress. Probably due to latent psychosis: Post Algebraic Stress Disorder (PASD). It doesn’t have to be that way, except dogma dictates that our successors suffer the same.
A GIS Classroom Tale
The following example illustrates what a typical game-based learning environment might look like.
Professor Hamill, wearing a sports blazer over a dark blue T-shirt that reads “Data, the new bacon” and a comfortable pair of jeans, stands in front of the class. The Earth slowly rotates behind him on a large, multi-panel screen. It is the students’ second year of their Geospatial Science curriculum.
The professor addresses the students warmly and asks if anyone knows Xnite21? He explains it is his online gamertag and his GitHub user name. Most of the students, being coders and gamers with a background or an interest in GIS, immediately identify and begin calling out their own callsigns.
After a brief open discussion about favorite games and name familiarity, Professor Hamill explains their first assignment. They will be mapping all the trees in the campus commons — a typical task for an Applied GIS class, but this time is different.
The class is going to be using game-based learning. Each student is issued augmented reality (AR) glasses and a GPS-enabled tablet loaded with geospatial software. The students form into five six-person teams, each assigned a color. Each team has to geospatially tag unmarked trees by collecting attributes about the types and estimating height and diameter.
Looking through the AR glasses, if a tree has been tagged a translucent, colored column, the height and diameter taken from the attribute table will appear around the tree in the color of the team that captured it. When a total of all the tagged trees reaches 120, the assignment (game) is over.
Back in the classroom — converted to a command center — the students focused on a large, multi-panel screen showing the color-coded players as they moved around the campus and color-coded trees as they’re added. The overall score of each team is in the upper right corner. Individual stats on players are in the left.
The green team was ahead by a sizable lead. The red team and white team were fighting for second place, while the purple team trailed behind and the yellow team struggled to get started. The professor knew that he would have to spend some time with the students on the purple and yellow teams. The goal wasn’t to win, but to learn and have fun while doing it. By looking at the individual student’s metrics, the professor could see where the students were having challenges and then teach to improve those areas.
In the above example, the assignment usually takes five to six hours, but the gamification of the task cut the time in half. The students were more engaged, more motivated and had more fun; additionally, they learned leadership and teamwork and how to use the technology more creatively.
Students also develop camaraderie faster, usually beginning with the first assignment. Another added benefit is reduced absences. Students look forward to their assignments, and because they are usually part of a team, they feel a sense of interdependence that helps to motivate them to make it to class.
Because the students were able to finish the assignment faster than their traditional learning counterparts, they were given another assignment. Usually, that would be met with angst. But in game-based learning, as long as the assignment is fun, won’t take an inordinate amount of time, and has a relevant purpose, the students are more than often happy to do it.
After meeting with the class and going over the areas that the professor saw the students having the most difficulty, he sent out the same teams as before. This time they were tasked with sectioning off the student parking lot into five equal areas. Each of the teams were then to collect information on the each of the cars in their area: GPS location, make and model, and estimated value. After collecting the information, the students were then able to calculate the average value of all the vehicles, and thus, an average net worth. They were also able to run geospatial analytics to visually look for patterns and anomalies.
The students did not see the assignment as work so much as a game of discovery about themselves and their school, and appropriately enough how to apply GIS to everyday life.
The knowledge and experience acquired through game-based learning happens at a deeper level. The students are actively engaged in the learning process rather than passively engaged and emotionally charged with higher levels of energy.
Speaking with Giants
Phaedra Boinodiris
Writing this article gave me a great opportunity to interview Phaedra Boinodiris, a 20+ year leader in the game-based learning industry. She led IBM’s first serious gaming venture into a multi-million-dollar business unit. She is an expert in how to use game theory to promote user engagement and motivate students and employees to modify behavior toward more positive outcomes.
Phaedra is the author of the book Serious Games for Business: Using Gamification to Fully Engage Customers, Employees and Partners. Phaedra explained that elements of gaming are typically thought of as points, badges and leaderboards; but in reality, what motivates most people for long-term engagement is autonomy over their own lives, mastery of their craft and having a sense of purpose greater than themselves.
Phaedra also said that gaming is entering the workforce. It is beyond just training and education. Companies are already using game-based systems to engage employees. The return on investment (ROI) to the company is greater employee engagement, better moral, a more appealing workplace and higher retention rates, especially for Millennials and Gen-Xers.
Phaedra went on to say other advantages of game-based systems are the ability to curate user data to learn what motivates them. Knowing what drives a person means the system can hone the user’s experience.
Phaedra explained that game-based systems make data science actionable. She said what fascinates her the most is the intersection of artificial intelligence and play, and the advancements in human-computer interface. There is so much happening right now; it is an exciting time to be in the field.
See Phaedra Boinodiris at the 2014 gSummit in San Francisco speaking on gaming the workforce.
Nathan Elequin
In addition to interviewing Phaedra, I also had the opportunity to interview gamification specialist Nathan Elequin, a graduate research assistant at Syracuse University. Nathan’s primary interest is moving the education system toward a more robust learning experience using game-based design. He authors an online column, EduGames.
According to Nathan, training is most effective when game theory is applied to learning. Gaming is the synthesis of science, skill, behavioral psychology and art, and when done right allows a student to figure out problems on his or her own, ensuring the learning is experienced internally, and thus, to a much deeper level than rote and recall.
GIS in gaming is important because rich gaming environments deal with massive amounts of information, and GIS has already overcome that challenge by creating spatially aware interactions of different types of complex variables to visualize patterns.
In regard to GIS and gaming, Nathan shared that one of the most popular games of the past several years was Pokémon GO, which made national news several times. It is an augmented reality game built on a geospatial platform.
A far better game is Ingress, where players are in one of two teams battling for world domination. The whole world‚ the real world, is the gameboard.
Ingress is a geospatially augmented reality game. It is described as bringing a video game into real life. Seeing the world through the lens of Ingress is to see magical things in the world around us that otherwise would go unseen. It is a fascinating game; you can see the trailer here.
Nathan spoke about a fascinating future using a geospatial-like system described as an objective-based navigation system similar in design to a GPS-based navigation system that takes a person from point A to point B along a course the computer determines based upon available data.
The objective-based system helps steer a person towards their chosen objectives, or goals. The person selects their own objectives. Using an artificial intelligence-based information system similar in design to a GIS allows complicated and massive amounts of data to interact and plot a course of action, helping navigate the person towards their objective.
Let sleeping dogma lie. Awaken the lucid dreamers of tomorrow. We exist on the precipice of potential, and it only takes a few of us to turn what if into what is. Find ways to teach that are more active, more immersive, and more engaging.
If it’s worth learning, then it’s worth spending the extra time to gamify the experience. It’s a win-win for students and teachers. This is a future we need only open our hands and grasp, for it is within our reach.
So, let the games begin.
Encore: The Cutting-Room Floor
Games in School
Returning from her first day back to school her phone rang as she opened the door. The familiar voice of her friend Conner asked in a hopeful voice, “Hi Jill. Want to come over?”
Sadly, after a moment’s pause she had to decline. “I can’t, Conner. I’ve got so much math homework. I can’t believe how much they gave us.”
“I do too, Jill,” said Conner explaining he was in a game-based learning curriculum. “My homework is to finish level 1 called Euclidian Dreams. Some of my friends are over and we are all playing, plus we’re going online later to compete against the rest of the class to see who’ll be the champion tomorrow. I was hoping you could come over, too.”
Jill sighed. In her voice was a tinge of disappointment. “It sounds fun, Conner, but I don’t know how well you’re going to be able to learn algebra playing games.” Jill’s answer sounded more like what his mother or father might’ve replied. Or the more harsh, disgruntled criticism of his grandfather who would’ve added how the world is going to pot playing games instead of studying.
Dejected, Conner hung up with Jill. He knew there was more than just a “no” in Jill’s refusal to come over. It was accusatory, as if she were judging him to be a miscreant because he was in the test program.
Conner went on that evening to have a great time with friends playing the games that were teaching algebra without actually doing math. The game taught algebraic concepts using a storyline, puzzles and challenges. There were characters, of which Euclid was the main one, guiding the journey and revealing insights and clues to find and reach the Elements, Euclid’s treasure.
As Conner progressed through the course, the games incorporated races, battles, adventures, stories, philosophies and mysteries of the ancient mathematicians whom he had to come to know through the games. The great mathematicians became friendly figures as they guided him through games with names such as The Riddle of Archimedes, The Mystery of Cheops, Code of Pythagoras, Plane of Descartes, Newtonian Revelations and the Visions of Einstein.
By the time each level was completed, the formulas didn’t seem like math so much as they appeared to be keys to unlock the secrets of the world around us.
NOTE: The characters in the story are fictitious. The games mentioned in the story are not real, but are based on DragonBox’s educational games.
Please provide your feedback. Specifically, are you interested in more on this subject? Did you enjoy the article? What topics would you like to see covered? All feedback is appreciated. Thank you.
