ArcGIS Online no place like home the first steps

'... Most of us remember the place where we were brought up in some considerable detail and
often recall it with fondness. These first impressions of the outside world stay with us
throughout our lives and provide a rich source of experience...'
Stephen Scoffham (2004)

ArcGIS Online (AGXO) allows students to make sense of the world and to write
the earth using a map. The map acts as the paper on which the story is then
written. These story maps can also be produced using a range of templates,
which will be introduced later. Students could be encouraged to start their
journey using AGXO with a place that they know well: their own home, or home
area. Go to the website, and launch the map option to open the main mapping
area.

Using the search box top right, search for the place where they live. As the site is
of American origin, it may be necessary to add a place identifier that this is a UK
settlement that is being looked for.
This should bring up the village, town or city where the student lives.

Tip: The site will also accept postcodes, which may bring a more immediate and accurate
location. The location will be shown with an arrowed box as shown below.


Change the Basemap to see which one offers the best quality of mapping as they
zoom in close to their own area. Click on the icon, which is third from the left on
the top bar of the main website.



There are 9 mapping options: the Topographic layer is selected as the default.


You may need to experiment to identify the best map layer for your chosen
activity. All the maps are not available at all zoom levels. You may also have to
wait a second or two for the maps to be drawn in and appear clearly, as the map
layers are streamed from the internet (and the cloud) to the schools computer
network. Your choice may be determined by a number of factors discuss with
students the reasons for their choices once they have made them.

Tip: To zoom into an area, draw out a box with your mouse while holding the shift key down.
Release the mouse button and the box you have drawn will become the new area shown on
the map.

Some of the maps will not be appropriate for this work students should discuss
the relative merits of the different basemaps, and perhaps identify situations
where each would be the preferred option.
Are there any further basemaps which they would like to have access to ?

Explain that the basemap is the bottom layer and it is possible to add other
layers on top. These will be transparent, so that the basemap can still be seen
through them.
The easiest one to add is a layer which would allow students to add notes onto
the map in the form of text, lines, shapes and other annotations. This will enable
them to add their own vernacular geographies: information about places which
is not necessarily official to the existing map. These more personal geographies
are just as interesting as the places marked on the real map, many of which
students will have had no personal experience of visiting, or involvement in.

Invite students to add a range of annotations to the map.
These could include some of the following:

a) routes that they take between home and school / friends / town centre
etc.
b) places which are important to them, but are not marked on the map
c) changes which they have noticed, or which they would like to see
d) areas which they spend a lot of time in / avoid

With each feature that is added, there are options to format the symbol to suit
the needs of the map, and also add a text description, which will be displayed
when the feature is clicked on.


Students could also be shown how to search for, and add, other relevant content.

Maps can be saved and shared, if users are logged in. Note that a free ESRI Global
account is all that is required to create maps.
Further features are available for subscribers.



Online Support

The ESRI user community has created and shared many thousands of resources
over the years. Since the launch of ArcGIS Online in its current form, resources
and ideas are starting to filter through and be added.

These can be identified using a search within AGXO itself.

One way to identify relevant content is to use a search using Google, or
increasingly social media, as people tend to tweet useful resources which they
find.

ESRI Story Maps

ESRI StoryMaps are a way of using the tool to tell a story, or to explore a story
that somebody else has created.
Go to the StoryMaps website:
http://storymaps.esri.com/home/

Geography-related Story Maps
As an example of what can be achieved, were going to explore one of these
maps:
Great mountains of the World:
http://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2012/treasure-hunt-mountains/

The splash page has an introduction and some instructions.







Authentic Contexts

ESRI mapping has always been used in the aftermath of natural disasters, but it
is now possible to create and share maps with remarkable speed in the
aftermath of some catastrophe.
Within a day of the Lushan earthquake in Sichuan province, China in April 2013,
this map had emerged:
http://www.arcgis.com/apps/OnePane/basicviewer/index.html?appid=03f3ef2
3b42f4d51802bd85759250f61

An example Story Map: the Swipe.
http://storymaps.esri.com/templates/swipe/

This is often used to enable comparisons between two datasets, particularly
when looking for patterns.

Joseph Kerski has produced a range of StoryMaps, which have been made
available on his homepage.

Useful layers available from the web for Geographers

Context Description Author Search term /
location
Koppen
classification
animation
Climate classification map for the
period
ESRI Koppen / Web
Tectonic plates Global tectonic plate boundaries Tectonic /
AGXO
Alan Parkinson
October 2014