New ArcGIS Online Explorer map of the Center and its partners throughout the US.

 GAINESVILLE STATE COLLEGE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:  SLOAN JONES, 678-717-3836

            Gainesville, GA., July 20, 2010 – Geographic Information Systems – they are not just for college students anymore. 

            Thanks to a Geographic Information Systems (GIS)/K-12 Outreach Project between Gainesville State College (GSC) and two Hall County middle schools, GSC is fulfilling its mission of expanding excellent hands-on training in geospatial technologies to the surrounding communities. The Outreach project is a component of GSC’s involvement with the National GeoTech Center, a National Science Foundation funded initiative to increase the GIS workforce in the United States.

            Chris Semerjian, Associate Director of GSC’s Lewis F. Rogers Institute for Environmental and Spatial Analysis (IESA) and Co-Principal Investigator for GeoTech, approached the GSC Information Technology team for ways to implement GIS specialized software in K-12 education. In the past, many obstacles would hinder the process of implementation due to lack of funding and IT support at the K-12 level.

            A solution was immediately presented by extending a successful service in place for GSC students, faculty, and staff called Virtual Lab. This state-of-the-art virtualization technology allows users to connect from anywhere at any time where an Internet connection is available to what appears to be a GSC lab computer with access to applications, data, and storage areas in exactly the same way they would while using a computer in an on-campus lab.

Lance Hundt, GSC Virtual Systems Administrator, and Wally Beck, GSC Assistant Director of Academic Computing, collaborated to mirror a GSC GIS student desktop experience at a K-12 level. Virtualization technology allowed the project to move forward faster than anticipated. A basic remote lab environment was ready for testing in less than a week. The K-12 students used existing technology in their labs to view remote GSC computers and access powerful and complex GIS applications. This enables the K-12 educators to focus on student learning and leave the technical responsibilities to GSC.

            Zac Miller, GIS Outreach Coordinator at GSC, introduced Virtual Lab to two Hall County middle schools during the spring of 2010. Miller’s important role consisted of traveling to the local schools and working with the middle school students and educators in the classrooms.

            Students received instruction on the significance of GIS and its practical applications.  Students performed hands-on exercises incorporating data acquisition, data visualization and production of thematic maps.  Additional topics such as the global positioning system (GPS) were introduced to the students, and GPS data was used in the exercises.  The entire process consisted of two weeks at each school with an hour of instruction per day.  

            The initial project utilizing the virtualization solution allowed GSC to assist two K12 educators and reach 62 students, 35 males and 27 females.  Forty-five of the students, 25 females and 20 males, were at North Hall Middle School and 17 students, 2 females and 15 males, were at the DaVinci Academy at South Hall Middle School.  The program was continued at the DaVinci Academy, and all 120 students attending the school received hands on GIS instruction.

            As a result of the GIS instruction at their school, several students from The DaVinci Academy were able to compete for the Georgia Chapter of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association’s (URISA) annual Thomas Mettille Student Achievement award.  DaVinci students Logan Allen and Chad Newstrom took first and second place respectively in the K12 category.  The winners were presented with their awards during the Georgia URISA Career Day and Student Awards Ceremony, and Allen was invited to present his project at the ceremony. 

            The students’ very public success in using GIS technology prompted additional interest by Hall County Schools in GIS education.  The school system is currently working to create a Geospatial Technology Career pathway for Georgia High Schools and is incorporating geospatial technology and GIS into various charter school efforts throughout the county.

            As part of its ongoing efforts to expand excellent hands-on training in Geospatial Technology (GST), GSC is offering a free training workshop for educators from the K-12 sector July 19 – 22, 2010.    Thirty-two teachers representing elementary, middle and high schools as well as two- and four-year colleges are participating in the four-day hands-on workshop.

Geospatial technologies include, but are not limited to, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Remote Sensing (RS). Upon completion of the workshop, participants will be able to design a transferable introductory course in GST and/or to develop GST exercises to complement existing courses such as environmental science, information technology, business and others.

For more information about Geospatial technologies at Gainesville State College or the GeoTech Center, contact Chris Semerjian, IESA Associate Director, at csemerjian@gsc.edu or 678-928-1482.

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A 4:43 minute video explaining the project may be found by visiting http://media.gsc.edu/gc/it/gisvirtualization.wmv.  Images from this video may be used for the purpose of reporting the news.

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 Just this month, the U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) approved the recently completed Geospatial Technology Competency Model (GTCM) that I discussed in an editorial several weeks ago.  The GTCM acts as a blueprint for those developing curricula within higher education for certificates and degrees in GIS, and for companies looking to hire capable geospatial technologists where the skills of the potential employee must match the critical job functions of the employer. The process to complete the GTCM took several years and is important in that it recognizes geospatial technology as one of only a handful of professionsidentified by the DoL's Employment and Training Administration (DOLETA) as expecting to experience higher than average growth over the next few years.

Read rest of article here

 The Labor Department is providing recruiters and aspiring mapping technologists with an interactive, online guide to career advancement partly to promote government jobs in what Labor says is a growing field.

The model for geospatial technology competency, which Labor released on July 8, is one of 16 industry roadmaps available through an online clearinghouse that outline requirements needed to perform in occupations ranging from advanced manufacturing to water resources.

On a list of industry occupations profiled on the website, a sun icon appears next to the title of geospatial information scientists and technologists to flag the jobs that are among the clearinghouse's new and emerging "bright outlook" occupations. Bright outlook fields are projected to have at least 100,000 job openings and employment growth of at least 20 percent during the next decade or so.

Read article here

US Department of Labor announces release of Geospatial Technology Competency Model

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration today announced the release of an industry competency model for geospatial technology. There are now 16 models available on the Competency Model Clearinghouse available through the department's One-Stop Career Centers website. The Geospatial Technology Competency Model has been developed by researching and analyzing publicly available resources, existing skill standards, competency-based curricula and certifications to provide an employer-driven framework of the skills needed for success in geospatial technology.

"Competency models offer workers an opportunity to learn what it takes to enter a particular field," said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. "The geospatial model serves as a guide for those who want to both find a good job and map out a long-term career pathway in any of several geospatial technology fields including surveying and mapping, computer science and information science."

The model will serve as a resource for career guidance, curriculum development and evaluation, career pathway development, recruitment and hiring, continuing professional development, certification and assessment development, apprenticeship program development and outreach efforts to promote geospatial technology careers.

ETA worked with employer and education partners for two years to develop and validate a model that represents the broad range of services, technical and manufacturing professions, and products within the fields of geography, surveying and mapping, computer science, information science and other specialized areas of application that comprise geospatial technology. The GeoTech Center, a government, academia and industry partnership funded, in part, by a grant from the National Science Foundation and based at Del Mar College, led the validation process.

The model builds on previous efforts to describe geospatial industry skill needs, including the Geospatial Technology Competency Model developed at the University of Southern Mississippi. The new model groups competencies into foundational competencies, core geospatial competencies and competencies for three geospatial sectors: positioning and data acquisition, analysis and modeling, and software and application development.

To access the new competency model, visit the Competency Model Clearinghouse athttp://www.careeronestop.org/competencymodel/.

For more information on the range of Department of Labor employment and training programs visit http://www.doleta.gov.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GeoTech Center Receives Special Achievement Award for Exceptional Application of Geography Technology

San Diego, California—July 14, 2010—GeoTech Center received a Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award today at the 30th Annual ESRI International User Conference (ESRI UC) in San Diego, California. They received this honor for their vision, leadership, hard work, and innovative use of Esri's geographic information system (GIS) technology. GeoTech was selected from more than 300,000 organizations worldwide.

GeoTech's Web-based Map of Two Year College Geospatial Academic Programs

"We created the Special Achievement in GIS Award to recognize our users' extraordinary contributions to global society," says ESRI president Jack Dangermond. "Each year, I look forward to being part of this ceremony; it's a tradition that has gained great meaning and importance for professionals in the GIS industry."

GIS combines computer hardware; software; data; and, most importantly, people to collect, manage, and analyze geographic information. Virtually any information can be linked to a geographic location, helping people see that information as part of a complete picture. With GIS, users can view relationships, processes, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports, and charts. Whether they are responding to a natural disaster, growing a business, or sharing information with the public, GIS helps them solve problems and make smart decisions. More than one million people worldwide rely on GIS to learn and plan geographically.

Organizations being honored at the ESRI UC, the world's largest GIS event, span countries and industries including agriculture, cartography, climate change, defense and intelligence, economic development, education, government, health and human services, telecommunications, and utilities. More information about the 2010 Special Achievement in GIS Award winners, including project information and photos, are available at www.esri.com/sag.

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For more information please contact Ann Johnson, GeoTech National Education Marketing Manager: gisajohnson@geotechcenter.org