Are You An Advanced Learner?

The other day I was reading an article, waiting for Curiousity to set-down on Mars. The author described two types of learners. Not there are only two types, but the author had identified two specific types of learners, "Novice" and "Advanced."

Suppose the nature of a project is to build the 2nd Generation Mars Rover. Engineers, geologists, chemists, physicists, whoever, gather to design and discuss the component details. Over the following 6 years the "iRover 2" evolves. Prototypes are built. Components designed, engineered, and fabricated. Software written. Problems and dilemmas addressed and solved.

August of 2019 sees three new rovers rolling over the Martian terrain capturing data in unprecedented detail. New cameras, new optics, new compression algorithms, new and robust materials reduce weight yet strengthen these new Rovers, Larry, Moe, and Curly. Larry, Moe, and Curly are semi-intelligent (like their namesakes) but unlike their namesakes, using the latest in state-of-the-art GPS and LiDAR for land navigation and route-finding, augmented by a flock of Albatross-class Mars drones capable of flying aloft for years collecting atmospheric aerosols and moderate-resolution LiDAR data.

NASA in 2019, as in 2012, finds unparalleled success in these endeavors. Costs have been minimized while the results are simply phenomenal. The scientific community revels in the unprecedented success of the scale and complexity of the Martian ecosystem of robotic vehicles charting our neighboring planet.

Yet, some are not enthusiastic. Engineers, chemists, computer scientists speak out against any more investment in Mars.

What did we really achieve? they ask.
Too much money was spent on these sexy missions with no real tangible benefits.
Yes, I helped write code; yes, I helped design and fabricate materials; yes, some new alloys and processes were used to improve strength and radiation shielding.
Could not the funds have been better spent on something else?

Those are some paraphrased responses I either read or heard in subsequent to the successful Curiosity landing. Those also tend to exemplify the voices of those who fall into the "Novice" learner category.

One of the first color images sent by Curiosity. Morse code in tread is clearly seen

Enthusiastic folks intoxicated by the Rube Goldberg inspired deployment of Curiosity see ... the future. By the future, I mean "possibilities" and "potential" for growth in all sorts of new and unique fields. The commercial and industrial applications of Science, Engineering, Physics, and Chemistry fill adult minds with child-like fervor.

Every molecule of sweat equity poured into Curiosity translates lessons learned.

How much did we, and be we I mean Humanity in the form of NASA employees, engineers and the lot who all chipped into to make Curiosity a success, learn from our experience? How much will we learn? Whatever we learn from Curiosity may pale in comparison to what has already been achieved in simply getting a 1,500lb remote-controlled vehicle across 535 million miles of space and safely down and operational on another planet.

Advanced learners do not only see the problem, or task, at hand. Advanced learners see the task as an opportunity to learn something about the process. Even though Curiosity landed August 2012, the technology built into Curiosity was benchmarked to 2004. Like the Space Shuttles. I had more computing in my personal computer than at least two Space Shuttles. Perhaps all of the them.

But, Advanced Learners are not merely concerned with the nature of the task at hand. No, the entire process becomes an ecosystem for learning. Organizing teams, leadership, team management, the "human-side" of technology is only one part of the system. The technology, the engineering, and all of the other sciences come into play. What did we learn about what worked? Why did it work, and work so well? What did we learn about what broke? Why did it break? Now, and this is the key point, how can we take the sum total of our experience, both the tangibles and intangibles, and apply our ecosystem of knowledge to new and different problems?

But, to be an Advanced Learner does not mean putting a remote-controlled laser-arm buggy on a distance planet. To be an Advanced Learner one only needs to look around, really.

Curiosity is not about exploring Mars

What do tweets about beer and church have to do with anything?

Here is an article from Floating Sheep about a group of college students who mapped tweets. What has mapping tweets to do with anything other than tweets, beer, and church?

Floating Sheep are a team of geographers. One of the team corralled some students and they all learned how to use the Twitter API and pull out geo-located tweets. The tweets of interest fell into two specific groups, those which dealt with "beer," and those which dealt with "church." A marvelous idea on the surface and as the article suggests a great way to introduce students to spatial statistics and research.

As I pitched this idea around, I discovered many folks who didn't see the need to map both "beer" and "church." Almost to a person, no one really saw the need to map beer and church and the inherent spatial auto-correlation between the two.

The mapping project was not about "beer" and "church" just like putting Curiosity on Mars was not really about putting Curiosity on Mars. These are not simply Proofs of Concepts, these are Proofs of Fruition, the fruition of hopes, dreams, and ideas made manifest. The maps of "beer" and "church" could have easily have been about "beer" and "DUIs" or "tequila" and "pregnancy" (I'd like to see that spatial auto-correlation). On a more serious note, the maps could have been about "weapons" and "dark knight" or "shoot" and "Obama."

Learning how to map the relationship between beer and church is not about mapping the relationship between beer and church. That is a side-effect, a by-product.

Curiosity is not about exploring Mars; that is a by-product. Everything which went into developing Curiosity was the real reward. The International Space Station is not about the International Space Station.

All of these endeavors are about putting our minds to work in uniquely challenging ways and expanding our potential to continue putting our minds to work in uniquely challenging ways.

What Is Facebook Bankruptcy?

In 2003 or 2004, I can't remember which year, I signed up for Facebook. I found people who I remembered from my past, people I knew at that time, and people who shared similar interests of mine.

Facebook allowed me, like everyone, to share sites, information, jokes, etc. Keeping up with the lives of friends, family, acquaintances, and news from groups was a cinch.

The more people I added the more dis-enthused I became with Facebook. See, what happens when people share the mundane details of their lives is you begin to see how mundane people's lives are. Mundane is not a bad thing; perhaps mundane is not precisely what I mean. People are so caught up in going about their lives, grocery shopping, feeding kids, watching movies, etc. Their lives are so busy simply being led that being a well-informed critical-thinking person is nearly impossible.

And, being a well-informed critically thinking person take work. I know; I work hard at being both every day, and critical thinking does not come naturally to me, for sure.

I found the vast majority of people on my Facebook lacked information, were not critical thinkers, and were not really interested in overcoming ignorance or developing critical-thinking skills. Sad. The vast amount of dogma, their entrenched beliefs, and unwillingness to consider alternatives I found completely disheartening.

Then, to make matters worse, my contacts on Facebook had friends who were racists, bigots, and Christian fundamentalists. If there is one thing I cannot tolerate, its intolerance. My brain simply refuses to cooperate and communicate with people who cannot question and contemplate alternatives.

The defining straw was a man who declared himself to be a Vietnam Vet, a Green Beret, and a local gun-toting Baptist preacher. He essentially wants a white Christian America, with no Blacks, no other minorities, no foreigners, no immigrants, simply a White-bred America. Furthermore, no American should ever be taught another language, not Spanish, or French (oh, God, no), and certainly not Arabic. He proceeded to insult and berate a Muslim friend of mine, and was joined by other like-minded people in his verbal attack. I enjoined the conversation, but discovered we were not debating, and there was no chance of me even wedging an alternative thought into his tiny brain. And by tiny, I really do mean tiny, and probably damaged to be as hostile to other cultures as this purported Christian minister.

When I contemplated the shear volume of cultural ignorance I discovered on Facebook, and not just ignorance, but racism, and bigotry, and the overwhelming banality of Facebook, I resigned.

I resigned two years and I really haven't looked back.

I declared Facebook bankruptcy.

Facebook is a graffiti-scrawled toilet stall in the Internet bathroom. My theory of cultural evolution states "society can claim to be only as advanced as the care given to its toilets." The reason Facebook's shares have fallen off might be explained by the fact no one wants to hang-out in a bathroom for very long. Gossip is spread in bathrooms, germs are spread in bathrooms. Who wants to buy advertising in a decrepit bathroom?

I doubt I will sign rejoin Facebook. I don't want to jump into an environment which is mostly toxic, full of poisonous ideas, and rampant with ignorance. I really don't want any more evidence which supports the notion 99% of people are mostly concerned with living their lives without encouraging others to be more adaptive and receptive to new knowledge.

"society can claim to be only as advanced as the care given to its toilets."

I cannot handle the blind and raging ignorance of Facebook. I thought, for about two seconds, of selectively "unfriending" people on Facebook. However, people go bonkers when "unfriended." When unfriended on Facebook people take "unfriending" far too seriously and tend to make the connection to Real Life. Again, proof of the banality and insipid nature of Facebook.

And, I have Twitter. When I declared Facebook bankruptcy, I invested in Twitter. Twitter is superior to Facebook in that I do not really know who I follow, and I do not really know who follows me. I do care, though. But, I also realize people may follow or not as they wish, like moving through a crowded convention eavesdropping on conversations. No one's feelings get hurt if a person "unfollows," at least that is the rule.

I only follow people I think I can learn something from or who have something interesting to contribute to my Body of Knowledge. I use Twitter to follow scientists, astronomers, engineers, programmers, and a bunch of educators. I follow people in Geography, Archaeology, Astronomy, Computer Science, plus an array of science organizations, NASA, NOAA, Association of American Geographers, CERN, and a host of news agencies, and, best of all, creative writers and thinkers, like Neil Gaiman, Tony Lee, David Brin, Cory Doctorow, Liana Brooks, et. al.

I only follow people I think I can learn something from or who have something interesting to contribute to my Body of Knowledge.

Yes, I could do the same with Facebook. Yes, I have lost out on some contests, and my Farmville farm has been foreclosed on. But, I don't have to filter content, don't have to ignore contacts, or choose to "confirm" or "deny." I can follow or unfollow at will. And, I don't have the distractions of Farmville, or Petville, or Fishville, or Zombieville, or Ignorant-Pinhead-Racistville to distract me from learning and interacting with others from whom I can learn more. And, see, if I wanted to find junk on Twitter I could do so. I know I could find all the hate, bigotry, racism, and ignorance I could possibly stand, and then some. But, I don't go looking for it. And, while sometimes those elements do creep in to my Twitter feed, they are broadcast by unknowns, not by people who are supposed to be respectable "friends." Or, these elements retweeted by similar-minded people using such tweets as examples of ignorance in our society. I go looking for good people, good thinkers, good ideas, good technology, good organizations.

If I could figure out a way to do start-over from scratch, with a brand-new account on Facebook, with my true name, not an alias or Nom de Facebook, and "follow" people on Facebook from whom I could learn and be challenged, I might do that. If Facebook would allow a person to "reset" their account and all credentials back to zero, I might contemplate such. Maybe. I think that would be like giving the truck-stop toilet a good cleansing, though, knowing full well in a week or two its going to get filthy again.

If you are tired of Facebook drama, maybe Facebook bankruptcy is for you.

Business Model? We Don't Need No Business Model!

Few things raise my hackles more than irrational or illogical behavior. And, in this collection I also include my own behavior. Take for example the recent news of a student, Timothy Arnold, a University of Central Florida student, who developed an application. His application, UCouldFinish, helped students find courses with open seats. Armed with this knowledge, over 500 students found acceptable courses in which to enroll. In higher education, 500 students x 3 credit hours equals 1,500 credit hours. Now UCF charges $208 per credit hour (site). Doing some simple math...1,500 x $208 equals (make this easy: 15 x2 x1000) about $300,000 dollars. Hypothetically, Mr. Arnold helped UCF bring in $300,000 with his application.

Consulting the UCouldFinish web site, Timothy has been subjected to punishment for being so bold as to help his university improve the conditions of his fellow students and also helping improve the financial environment of his university. Mr. Arnold's application earned him 3 semesters of academic probation, a research paper on the management of MyUCF, and counseling on how to make good choices.

To throw some positive vibes on this debacle, the 3 semesters of probation is not a big deal. Timothy sounds like a smart guy. He will either make those semesters pass easily, or he will bid UCF adieu and find a more suitable uni to finish his education. My sense is a company, like Google, or Facebook, or Twitter will offer him a job. Writing a research paper on the IT on the UCF ERP system will undoubtedly require some research. He should need to speak with many IT folks, network analysts, programmers, and system admins to get a sense of the breadth and depth of the inner workings of the ERP system in order to understand the impact his application had upon UCF IT. All of his research will undoubtedly result in more experience dealing with systems, programming, and the entire ecosystem of higher ed IT, giving him even more insight into the trials and tribulations of systems administration. Thus, in writing the research paper, he could end up with even greater knowledge of how to exploit...er, augment educational IT systems.

In a broader sense, Timothy Arnold v. UCF illustrates a much more important and sobering issue in Higher Education. Traditional higher education, public & private colleges and universities, are being assaulted on numerous fronts. Set aside for a moment the Conservation/Right-wing/GOP gutting of education, in general. The literal attacks committed against Education by Republicans is well-documented and is a true source of concern. However, critical thinking requires us to ask, Why? Why is their such animosity against Education, especially Higher Education?

I submit one essential reason: Higher Education has become sclerotic, hard, calcified, resist to change and adapt, entrenched in a management mindset at least a century old. For traditional colleges and universities to not only remain relevant but to serve current and future educational needs, the Higher Education business model needs to evolve from the 19th century academic mindset into a a mindset capable of being nimble and adaptive to 21st century educational needs. If Higher Education had been more vigilant in adapting and evolving new business and academic models, these specious attacks would have no merit

A propose a number of remedies to address the improvement of our College and University business models. First, classes need to be able to be added & dropped as needed. Doing such will require some transcript flexibility. Department chairs and deans are best able to support student advising and transcript adjustment. ERP systems need to be able be adaptive enough to manage student academic records, as well.

Colleges and Universities must be allowed to leverage faculty, staff, and student expertise. Unquestionably and undeniably, colleges and universities must be open and receptive to using on-site knowledge, experience, and expertise to address the daily and long-term mission of the institution. As Timothy Arnold attempted, when a need is identified, such as the notification system Timothy developed, those needs should be immediately addressed. Students should be allowed to help design and implement CMS and help manage institutional web sites. Students should be allowed to help develop institutional applications which help the overall function of the institution. One of the greatest complaints new graduates have, and have always had, is that of experience, having none. Students assisting with all aspects of institutional management, planning, and IT will have experience upon graduation. Perhaps experience with Drupal, Joomla!, PHP, Python, WordPress, Javascript, HTML5, SQL and SQL Server, or Oracle. Graduating student would have experience in application development, design, implementation, and enhancement. A phenomenal example of such a team is the InfoGraphics Lab in the Department of Geography at the University of Oregon.

Online courses, for-private schools, and now the growing presence of massively open online courses (MOOC), with the movement of so much content into "the cloud" is going to push universities to evolve into something new. Those who do not evolve, who do not revolutionize their educational business model are going to slide away into obscurity.

Current business models and the closely related academic models will need to evolve into something else. Global economic forces change faster than seasons or global climate change predictions. Business, industry, and global commercial sectors need employees who can adapt to change and work within fluid environments. Industry needs nimble thinkers who can address current business trends yet also be able to act quickly and foresee changes in technology, consumer tastes, trends in raw materials and labor markets which are embedded in Globalization.

Of current concern is unemployment. As of this writing, 12.8 million people were unemployed. The national unemployment rate is 8.3%. Again, doing some quick math, 12.8 / 0.083 and we arrive at a labor force size of about 156 million Americans, which is about 50% of our population, and that is my "rule of thumb" for determining the size of any country's labor force (about 50% of population, give or take) (Source: BLS).

Also, of this writing there are about 3.8million open job postings. We can debate the accuracy of the number, I will grant that. But, hypothetically, let's say ...entertain me here... 3 million of those open jobs were filled by people from the 12.8 million group. Then, we would have only 9.8 million unemployed. Simple math gives us 9.8 / 156 which equals 6.3% unemployment (Source: BLS)

Now, 6.3% is not bad. Not great, but certainly better than +8%. The question then becomes, "Why are those jobs not being filled by people in the 12.8million group?"

I don't have an answer to that question. I know some factors include unwillingness to move to where the jobs are, the pay of those open jobs, and the experience gap between the unemployed group the experience those open jobs require.

Retraining & re-education can help fill some of those jobs. Re-education requires colleges and universities to be open, fair, and honest with themselves, and be open to new ideas, fail fast, fail often, and learn and grow from those experiences, and be ever-evolving. Self-assessment mandates interaction with business and industry to make sure graduates have both the education and experience necessary for those graduates to succeed.

Higher Education cannot be a stove-pipe themselves, or become educational "silos" immune to local, state, national, or international influences and catalysts. Those institutions who pay attention will succeed by their graduates. Those institutions who fail to adapt to 21st century educational changes and evolving business needs will falter and suffer under constant mis-identification of goals and mis-aligned "mission statements" and find themselves under-going continual identity crises which will do nothing but undermine institutional confidence at all levels.

Institutions of Higher Learning represent a bizarre dichotomy of work environments. On one hand, some of the most brilliant people on the planet are employed by them, and some of the most pedantic, too. Even the educated folks are routinely bound by limited vision and are what I might label as "novice learners" being unable to see past their own discipline, specialty area, or responsibility. Thus, the very institutions which were created to promote critical thinking and openness are just as poisoned as any other institution or corporation.

So, yes, my hackles get up when these institutions victimize innovation, stifle advancement, creativity, and stymy new ideas and concepts, and squash young, middle-aged, an older minds in favor of "tradition" and "that just not the way its done" mentalities.

I invite all rational and reasonable comments :)

PAX

Fostering Education Through Student Incubators

Technology is challenging to stay on top of. Seems like every day a new tablet, a new smartphone, or a new version of Android is released. The changing legal environment of social networks adds another dimension to technologies complexity. The number of programming languages required for technology development only Zaphod Beeblebrox would be able to count on all hands.

Colleges and universities struggle against rapidly changing technological needs, cuts to financing, and striving to educate students with necessary skills to be productive in a rapidly globalizing workforce. With online educational opportunities such as those offered by OpenCourseware and Coursera growing in popularity colleges and universities could find themselves fighting for relevancy in a few short years.

How, then, to educate, train, and remain relevant?

One opportunity gaining some legs is the idea of "student incubators."

What is a "student incubator?" A few years ago the buzzword zipping among campuses   across the country was "business incubator." The idea of colleges and universities hosting business incubators was to attract businesses and industries to higher education facilities in order to foster a greater level of involvement between public and private entities. The private sector has the knowledge of the business world and money, while colleges have access to research dollars, students needing to gain experience, and faculty interested in research. The Federal Government encouraged cooperation by tying grant funding to proposals which detailed private and public interactions.

At Ivory Tower State University, a "business incubator" was built 1/2-mile from the main campus. With funds from the Department of Commerce, the Commonwealth, and Ivory Tower State University, an attractive, two-story brick building was constructed on nice property on a busy two-lane state highway. The Innovation and Commercialization Center (ICC) opened in 2002 and has enjoyed pretty much zero  tenants. The building was essentially a shell, with the inside to be completed by whoever decided the lease the place. With millions of dollars of construction yet to be done, few startups wanted to dump their investment capital into architecture and design of office space. My point being, the "business incubator" idea was sort of a flash-in-the-pan.

Over the weekend, I ran across a piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education which referred to "developing student entrepreneurship." Student entrepreneurship was to be fostered through "student incubators." Rather than try to work with mature business and industry partners, colleges and universities are recruiting high school students, community college transfers, and current students. These students are then given the opportunity, supplies, some financial resources, as well as faculty guidance in assisting them with a startup.

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Oklahoma State University

Florida State University

For more on student incubators: 

Bloomberg Business Week, Sept 23, 2010

Bloomberg News, May 17, 2012

Statesman.com, Austin, TX, May 3, 2012

MichiganRadio, Ann Arbor, MI, April 26, 2012

UCDavis News & Information, University of California - Davis, CA, May 8, 2012

Of immediate concern to many universities is drastic cuts in state funding. In recent memory, universities were able to farm out work to application developers, consultants, and independent contractors. Honestly, many colleges and universities were living high on the hog, and were not doing much to restrain costs. Times are now different, and will remain so for years to come.

Ivory Tower State University is no different. Looking at how ITSU funds projects, I wonder if some of ITSU's efforts might be better directed to using on-campus expertise. For example, ITSU contracted with an outside developer for a new web site. The only users who enjoy the new web site are those who contracted out the work. The rest of the user community, i.e. the world, believes the new web site is an atrocity. Adding insult to injury the cost of the new design was the equivalent to a new Harley-Davidson Softtail. Personally, I'd rather have the old web site and the new HD.

Why could a new web site not have been created in-house? Could a new web site not be developed by the in-house web team? Or, could the faculty, staff, and students of the Computer Science department have been invited to submit a number of web site prototypes? Or, perhaps even better, why could not a campus-wide contest be offered for the design of a new ITSU web site? Instead, ITSU is suffering under a crappy web site which no one wants to update.

An ecosystem of education, training, development along with the cost-benefit savings of conducting activities in-house could go a long way towards providing real-world experience for students and teaching moments for faculty. A college web site administered by faculty-student teams could provide opportunities for considerable involvement for all parties; the college gets a fresh, up-to-date, low-cost web site, faculty are able to research, explore, develop, and mentor, and students gain exposure to a variety of Internet technologies. Everyone wins.

Colleges and universities need to avail themselves to local talent and encourage, mentor, and nurture students wanting to expand their horizons. Colleges and universities have missions to serve their communities, provide opportunities, and public higher education institutions should be committed to ensuring responsible use of state money. "Incubating" students knowledge and skills seems like a no-brainer to me.

 

Create and Share Custom Maps with ArcGIS Explorer

Geography is so much a part of our everyday lives we take our experiences for granted. Being a geographer is not enough; we are still susceptible to bias and not immune to being oblivious. However, I would submit the holistic nature of Geography allows trained geographers to see, interpret, and question patterns many others would miss.

How can we develop better spatial skills ourselves? How can we help others develop better spatial skills? Everyone needs better spatial thinking skills as much as we all could use more critical thinking skills. In fact, I would argue each goes in hand with the other.

If you are in the position of helping others see patterns, analyze and interpret information, you might find ESRI's ArcGIS Explorer Online a nice tool for enhancing your web site or your presentations. Explorer Online is a wonderful app allowing anyone to create, develop, and share maps, using prepared data.

Initially, you will want to perform two tasks. First, install Silverlight for your web browser. Second, in order to share any map you create you will need to save the map. Saving a map requires an ESRI Global Account. Creating an account is free and allows you to save, store, and share your maps. On your first visit to ArcGIS Explorer Online [link] go ahead and setup an account.

The app is so easy to use a child could create a meaningful map in about 5 minutes and share her map with friends or classmates around the world. Wordpress.com blogs do not allow "iFrames" so I am providing a link to a public map [link] so you can see a working map which I created in less than 5 minutes. An argument to host my own web site I suppose :)

I'm not going to do anything about explaining data, as my intention here is merely to detail two cool functions of ArcGIS Explorer Online a person can use immediately, and we have to have a working map before those option are available to us.

Once you login, an interface will load showing three button at the upper-left, "Home," "Details," an "Share," plus four icons, Save, Print, Basemap, and Add Content. Mouse-over the buttons and a popup box will identify each button.

Click "Add Content" and a scrolling menu will appear. A good habit in working through any exercise, one I practice, is to examine any dialog box which should appear. Software changes so rapidly written directions are often out of date within weeks or months of apps being launched.

After you have examined the Add Content scrolling list, replace the "Search or URL" with 'median household income,' then search. You don't have to follow my example verbatim; I am going to "add" the first result in the list, "USA Median Household Income." Click outside the dialog box, the box will disappear, and click on the "Zoom To Rectangle" tool found under the "Presentation" tab. Draw a rectangle around the coterminous United States (the lower 48.) The view will zoom, capturing the area you defined with your box. Save your map; you'll have to name the map - I called mine, Mike's Map.

Awesome Map Option #1

At the top left, see the "Share" button? Click the button. Right there on the dialog box are a number of really great choices. You can share your map to Facebook, or Twitter immediately. If you have created an ESRI Group, you can share with group members, or you can simply allow everyone in the world to see your map. At the bottom, you can generate HTML code to embed you map in your own web site. How cool is that? Except, like I said earlier, the HTML uses iFrames which might be an issue for some web sites.

Awesome Map Option #2

At the top-center of our window are two tabs, one says Mapping, the other Presentation. Choose Presentation and watch how the app changes.

We are prompted to "Click to add first slide." I am not going to walk you through all of the finer details though by mouseover, you should be able to discern the functions of all buttons. However, anyone with elementary Powerpoint skills should be able to figure out how to add, delete, insert, and run a slide presentation.

An awesome trait of the Presentation mode is the maps upon which the slides are built is "living" data. In other words, you are not creating screenshots of your maps, your slides are your maps. You can update, alter, modify your maps as you develop your presentation. You can even introduce more data during your Presentation. Change them on-the-fly. And, as we saw on the Share button, you can share your Presentation with whoever you want, or embed within a web site.

Thanks to Joseph Kerski, ESRI's Education Manager for helping pass along the niceties of ArcGIS Explorer Online. Faculty and staff were very excited by the sharing and ease-of-use potential of Explorer.

I suggest getting your kids involved. A child 8+ might find making maps interesting. The exposure to the technology might inspire them in new and different ways to bring geography into their classroom. I can see Explorer being a great tool for homeschooling, as well. Free technology, using real data, and easy to use and share.

Brilliant!