Honorees Will Post Reports about Their Experiences and Impressions on Blog
Redlands, California—Four educators, all strongly committed to teaching others about the power of geographic information system (GIS) technology, were named today as winners of the joint Tele Atlas and ESRI scholarships to attend the ESRI Education User Conference in San Diego, California, from August 5–8, 2006.
Dan Harms of Elizabeth, Illinois; Jeremy Donald of San Antonio, Texas; Laurie Wilhite of Klickitat, Washington; and Wendy Miller of Chestertown, Maryland, received the scholarships. Tele Atlas gave each recipient $400 toward travel costs to San Diego, California. ESRI provided complimentary admission to the Education User Conference (EdUC).
The scholarship recipients will join more than 500 K–12 teachers, college and university instructors, school administrators, librarians, and museum professionals from more than
30 countries at the sixth annual EdUC. The honorees will share their experiences at the conference through posts to the ESRI UC Blog at http://blogs.esri.com/roller/page/ucblog.
The travel scholarships are part of Tele Atlas’ long-standing commitment to support education through a variety of programs. The company’s educational projects include activities such as tours, school presentations, and job shadowing along with developing and teaching courses at local middle schools and colleges.
“The ESRI Education User Conference is the premier place to go for teachers who plan to use geospatial technologies in their classrooms,” said Donald Cooke, founder of Geographic Data Technology and a Tele Atlas information scientist. “It’s a great place to meet other teachers, talk about what works in the classroom, and learn GIS skills. Since not all schools can afford to send teachers to San Diego, Tele Atlas is pleased to help make this experience affordable by joining ESRI in the EdUC scholarship program.”
Jack Dangermond, ESRI president, thanked Tele Atlas for contributing toward the EdUC scholarships and congratulated this year’s winners. “These scholarships make it possible for more people to attend the conference, share their work, and inspire one another,” he said.
Wilhite and Miller said this will be their first visit to the EdUC, where educators gather to attend training, view exhibits, and exchange ideas about how to incorporate GIS into coursework or create interesting science and museum exhibits.
“I’ve been excited to see what goes on, talk to other people, and learn how they use GIS at the college education level,” said Miller, the GIS coordinator at Washington College in Chestertown.
Miller works on projects such as mapping the historic trees at Washington College—founded in 1782—to create a brochure showing where to find the trees while walking across campus. She also gives lectures to students and teachers about how GIS can be applied to such diverse subjects as birding, anthropology, and economics. But Miller said she’s constantly seeking other innovative ways to incorporate GIS into disciplines such as music and drama. “I have teachers coming to me and saying, ‘I am interested in this technology, but what can we do?’” Miller said.
Wilhite, a 4-H club leader for the Klickitat Kanyon Kids and a teacher in the Klickitat School District in Washington, said she is thrilled to attend the EdUC. She said she looks forward to taking the ESRI labs that will help her brush up on her ArcView 9 skills. Wilhite and members of her 4-H club are using ArcView 9 and GPS to create an interpretive trail guide along the Klickitat River that will pinpoint the historic landmarks, native plants, and geographic features.
Other scholarship recipients include
· Harms, the GIS and computer-aided drafting instructor at the Jo Daviess Carroll Area Vocational Center in Elizabeth, who called the EdUC “an invaluable aid in developing and delivering GIS training.”
· Donald, GIS liaison and reference librarian at Trinity University’s Coates Library in San Antonio, who described his mission as working to incorporate GIS-based spatial analysis into as much of Trinity University’s curriculum as possible and helping students feel comfortable using the technology.
About Tele Atlas
Founded in 1984, Tele Atlas delivers the digital maps and dynamic location content that power the world’s most essential geographic solutions. The information is the foundation for a wide range of personal and in-car navigation systems, mobile, and Internet map applications that help GPS system users find the places, products, and services they need. Tele Atlas also works with business partners who deliver critical applications for emergency, business fleet, and infrastructure services. The company employs 2,300 full-time staff and contract cartographers in offices in 20 countries around the world. Tele Atlas is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (TA6) and on Euronext Amsterdam (TA). For more information, visit www.teleatlas.com.
About ESRI
Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit ESRI at www.esri.com.