GIS Education Priorities
 

Background on the process

The 1997 UCGIS Annual Assembly and Summer Retreat at Bar Harbor, Maine was devoted to the advancement of GIS education.  A year long discussion and review process culminated at the meeting in the identification of a set of the highest education priorities for UCGIS's efforts to advance geographic information science and the drafting of a number of  initiatives to respond to those needs.

The process began in 1996 when an initial list of priorities was obtained from UCGIS member institutions via e-mail and from participants representing K-12, community college, and university educators in a special plenary session at the Second International Symposium on GIS in Higher Education (GISHE '96).  This initial list was reduced to a short list by the UCGIS Education Committee at GIS/LIS'96 in November 1996.

At the Bar Harbor Annual Assembly in June 1997, an opening plenary provided an opportunity for detailed discussion of the preliminary white papers.  Working groups were formed and they met several times during the week at Bar Harbor to revise these papers.  At the Council meeting on Thursday June 19, a set of 8 topics were endorsed as the UCGIS's education priorities and an editorial and review process was set in place to prepare these documents for public distribution.  The following topics form the basis of the UCGIS Education Priorities Statement.

If you wish to contribute to this discussion, please contact either the Education Committee Chair or the editor of the Priorities (listed below), or the editors of individual white papers.

Richard Wright, Chair, Education Committee
Karen Kemp, Editor, UCGIS Education Priorities