Essays on Geography and GIS is a compilation of best practices in a free electronic book (in PDF) from ESRI.  Articles include:

  • What Is GIS?
  • What Holds Us Together
  • Exploration in the Age of Digital Earth
  • Dynamics GIS: Recognizing the Dynamic Nature of Reality
  • Living Inside Networks of Knowledge
  • What Historians Want from GIS
  • Bring Back Geography!
  • The Fourth R? Rethinking GIS Education
  • Nature, the Human Network, and the Role of GIS
  • People–Nature: The Human Network
  • People–Nature: The Natural Network

The volume makes an excellent course supplement for GIS, geography, and GIScience. Download the free PDF document here.