Redlands, California—School systems across Europe will soon have access to the world’s leading online mapping software for delivering better geographic education to the classroom. Esri has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with European Schoolnet, an organization that works with multiple ministries of education to bring innovation to teaching and learning throughout Europe.
The MOU will be active for three years. During this time, Esri will advise the European Schoolnet team members on the use of ArcGIS Online, Esri’s cloud-based platform, as well as help them develop a series of related lesson plans. ArcGIS Online will be implemented in European Schoolnet’s Future Classroom Lab, a state-of-the-art project that allows educators to explore the latest developments in the evolving educational environment.
"The cloud-based capabilities of ArcGIS Online align very well with the other technologies we are using in the Future Classroom Lab," says Benjamin Hertz, project coordinator of European Schoolnet. "It is a great tool for teachers to help students become enthusiastic about geography and how it is relevant to many other subjects. Lessons with ArcGIS Online bring STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] education to a higher level."
Using the latest pedagogical technologies, European Schoolnet aims to bring innovation to teaching and learning and has become one of the key European organizations involved in exploring new educational tools and activities in the classroom.
"We are excited about the educational opportunities that can be explored by collaborating with European Schoolnet," says David DiBiase, Esri’s director of education for industry solutions. "The scaled-up approach of reaching out to so many educators is very interesting to us. We hope that by teaming up with European Schoolnet, we can make more students geospatially aware and help them understand the power of spatial analytics."
For more information on GIS in education, visit esri.com/education.