The Future of Geospatial Education

GIS Professionals need to diversify their skills and quickly learn emerging technologies, argues Patrick Rickles. The use and understanding of GIS was historically limited to specialists. Today, GIS is commonplace, as spatially-enabled apps become standard on smartphones. With over a third of the world’s total population – an estimated 2.6 billion people - owning smartphones, and a reported 5 billion requests per week to Apple Maps alone, there are a large number of non-expert users of GIS, which is only sure to grow. GIS professionals need to diversify their skillsets and quickly learn emerging technologies in order to support these... (read more)

2017-04-04 05:09:14

It's not about Education, but Shared Learning

The pre-summer conference season is in full swing. It's a great opportunity for me and others on AGI Council, to meet AGI Members and the wider geo and data-driven communities while learning about the latest innovations and discovering industry issues and challenges. Certainly the sheer volume and number of events happening with a relevance to geospatial illustrate the breadth of what's happening on the UK geo-scene. Let’s take some space here to share some highlights of recent events that I or fellow members of AGI Council have attended recently, broadly split into three types of event. Firstly, fantastic events that... (read more)

2017-06-02 01:30:59

GIS Education is Key to Our Future

Last month, while travelling from Konstanz, a town in the south of Germany, to Memmingen airport, I engaged in a conversation with a fellow train passenger. After discussing the German football team’s shock early exit from the World Cup, our conversation turned to a far more worrying subject – the condition of the rural landscape on the other side of the train window. “Our nature is in major trouble. And we don’t know what to do about it”, he said. The gentleman noted that over the past 20 years insect, bird and wildlife numbers, have in some parts of the... (read more)

2018-08-20 03:23:59

senseFly Brings Drone Education to Esri User Conference

senseFly will showcase the simplicity of integrating drone imagery into current workflows at the Esri User Conference (July 10-14 in San Diego) in a series of workshops designed for surveying, mapping and GIS professionals. As the world’s leading producer of mapping drones and an Esri Silver Partner, senseFly will present the innovative ways in which its drones are being used with Esri’s Drone2Map for ArcGIS software to deliver on-demand high resolution imagery and robust GIS projects. Drone Surveying 101 – Wednesday, July 12 The first of senseFly’s two workshops will be led by Francois Gervaix, surveying project manager, and is... (read more)

2017-06-30 11:46:16

Is it Time for Competency-based GIS Education?

Educational institutions have been exploring and implementing competency-based education (CBE) since World War II. This approach to teaching and learning breaks down topics into discrete skills known as competencies. Students must show mastery of each competency (or a group of competencies) before moving on to learn the next one. The U.S. armed services used CBE to train soldiers to quickly master the hands-on skills needed to support the war effort. Later, the approach was used to train staff in manufacturing and construction skills. In the past few decades educational institutions adopted CBE for certificates and degrees in academic topics. Exactly... (read more)

2018-08-16 03:10:00

Working with the GIS Industry - Benefits of Research and Education

A key component of many MSc degrees offered in Universities in the UK – particularly those that fall under the heading of ‘vocational’ programmes – is the importance of external links – to what some of us might call the ‘real-world’. The reasons behind establishing these links are many, but include: to (a) bring outside expertise into the classroom through the provision of guest lectures; (b) provide a way to help students engage with practitioners in the discipline or profession; (c) broaden student horizons; (d) help students begin to network with professionals and practitioners; (e) provide opportunities for students to... (read more)

2017-12-08 11:40:57

Global Mapper Available to Higher Education for Free

Blue Marble Geographics has announced the availability of an update to the Global Mapper Academic Curriculum. Comprised of a series of hands-on lessons, the full package of lab materials is available free of charge to schools and colleges using Global Mapper in the classroom. Developed by Blue Marble Application Specialists, the goal of this program is to streamline the deployment of Global Mapper within the academic community while introducing some of the fundamental principles of GIS, in a concise and understandable way. Institutes of higher education in the U.S. and Canada can install Global Mapper for instructional use at no... (read more)

2018-04-09 01:20:44

International LiDAR Mapping Forum

GIS Professional From January 25-31, 2019, the industry will descend on Denver for a geospatial gathering like no other. For mapping professionals, there’s no better place for technical education, networking and sourcing geospatial solutions than at ILMF, taking place as part of Geo Week 2019! With the new addition of MAPPS Winter Meeting, you’ll get to connect with more high-level geospatial professionals than ever before. This will give geospatial professionals a one-stop shop for the most current commercial and technical education. As a valued reader of GIS Professional, register here to take 25% off an All Access Pass. (read more)

2018-10-10 07:30:04

Adena Schutzberg

Adena Schutzberg has worked in geospatial technologies for more than 25 years. She is a member of the Esri Education Team. (read more)

2017-08-03 02:09:57

Making Geospatial Opportunities Accessible to All - Interview with Dr Suchith Anand

Suchith Anand served as the founding chair of the ICA Commission on Open Source Geospatial Technologies. He is currently serving as the chair of Geospatial IG of Research Data Alliance (RDA). He is working for the establishment of Open Source Geospatial Labs/Research Centres in key universities worldwide as part of the GeoForAll initiative with the mission to make geospatial education and opportunities accessible to all. He is currently working as an Independent researcher for the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) initiative. Before joining GODAN, he worked at the University of Nottingham where he established the first Open... (read more)

2017-10-10 09:03:30