I was a geospatial instructional technologist at a college and, as you know, I was laid off from my last job. I worked with professors and students on teaching classes with GIS (or Google Earth or some other geospatial tools), creating teaching exercises and conducting geospatial research. Doing this type of co-curricular, teaching support at this college and writing papers and giving talks about that work with faculty members was exactly the reason I was awarded a Fulbright scholarship. I am a scholar and a teacher. I have argued that academic technologists should be considered an academic first and a technologist, well, further down than second and have come to the conclusion that we academic technologists should no longer be placed in the campus IT group. When we are placed in with the IT group someone in charge of the IT group may or may not know what it is that the academic technologist actually does, what our role is, what we bring to the college's learning environment, how we are useful in a unique way.
I am sure that for purely fiscally prudent reasons my position was eliminated. But because there still exists a thriving GIS program at my former college, there was still a need to support GIS work on campus so the college’s IT manager decided to outsource GIS. The individual works 10 hours a week and comes from a private environmental consulting company that specialize in Phase I and II environmental assessment, soil remediation projects and environmental impact statements and the like. I have it on good authority that this GIS support solution for my former institution is not working out so well. How could it? Cultivating relationships on a college campus takes years, not hours. They’re pretty unique place, college campuses. I am sure that someone from a consulting company can come into a GIS support position at a college campus and do "GIS projects" but do they understand what a professors wants to do with those projects? Are they aware of spatial literacy and the impact that using GIS and Google Earth can have on a history or poli sci class? Do they know that, contrary to popular myth, students come at technology from all skill levels, mostly low to non-existent skills, and that using GIS software and teaching with it can be really challenging? Perhaps a consultant knows this intuitively but if this consultant has not taught a class before or worked directly with a faculty member to understand her or his learning goals, or worked with data other than environmental or engineering data, the fit will not work, at least not without some years of investment. If that particular GIS consultant goes off to become a Project Manager for the firm, she or he will no longer do the "flunky" work of GIS support out at College X or University Y because that employee is much more valuable writing reports and working on bringing in more contracts for more and more projects.
To my GIS consultant friends out there...I am not saying any of this to damn you and your profession. You are awesome and you do great work. GIS consulting is a huge demand area (that’s why some schools want to teach with it!) and that demand is not waning in any way. I saw this email recently for a GIS position and thought I’d share it as an example of this type of GIS work:
"Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Coordinator. Working independently and under the general direction of the Technology Director, this position is responsible for the design, implementation, and general operational maintenance and promotion of the GIS system and its related databases and maps. Position is responsible for regular updates to parcels, utility and basemap datalayers, annual production of tax maps, and updates to zoning, and other official maps as required. Position fulfills map production requests from town departments, boards, and committees to support local initiatives and projects.
3-5 years of experience with municipal government, 4-6 years of experience utilizing ESRI's GIS products, and 1-3 years of experience with web based GIS applications. Must have a valid driver's license. Starting salary $61,077."
That’s not bad. I might even think about applying accept for the fact that I have never worked with “town departments and boards,” though I have had my share of working with plenty of (academic) committees. Well, my niche is an academic setting. I will probably just wait out the storm and work that niche. The image above is a Creative Commons Flickr photo from Marjorie Lipan.
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