[Talk-us] Edits near Lexington, KY?

[Minh Nguyen]

On 2014-12-16 04:04, Shawn K. Quinn wrote:
> Does anyone know anything about a school course (middle or high school
> most likely) incorporating OSM in or near Lexington, KY? I saw one
> changeset comment mentioning something about extra credit but not
> mentioning what the edit actually was. In addition I cleaned up plenty
> of vandalism: a road on top of another road labeled "Short cut to
> school", three exclamation marks added to a street name, undeleted a
> fire hydrant (!), and a couple of other things that I'm drawing a blank
> on right now.
>
> While I support OSM-related lessons in the classroom on general
> principle, but I have to wonder if some of the garbage edits that come
> with it offset the good edits. And to put it bluntly, the higher the
> grade level this is coming from, the more disappointed I will be
> regarding our public education system in 2014.
>
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/history#map=13/38.0462/-84.4885

Some recent changesets in Lexington mention "UK", which is the 
University of Kentucky. For a few years now, the Geography department's 
GEO109 course [1][2] has incorporated an introduction to OSM and 
TileMill. Students in this class have edited primarily in the Lexington 
area but also in hometowns across Kentucky. The changesets are usually 
tagged "#geo109". [3] Perhaps GEO109 has raised awareness of OSM on 
campus, leading to less-closely-guided edits?

Ohio State's Geography and Geodetic Science departments have also 
offered extra credit for OSM contributions in the past. I've found most 
course-related contributions from both universities to be of high 
quality. Following up with quick corrections and "guerrilla edits" can 
help keep these mappers engaged beyond the course.

[1] https://geography.as.uky.edu/courses/digital-mapping
[2] https://twitter.com/search?q=%23geo109
[3] http://resultmaps.neis-one.org/osm-changesets?comment=geo109

-- 
minh at nguyen.cincinnati.oh.us