Staying Current and in Touch
GIS educators gather in San Diego

The Eighth Annual Esri Education User Conference (EdUC) once again provided more than 700 educators, administrators, researchers, librarians, and museum professionals with learning and networking opportunities.

EdUC is designed for those in the education community involved in both teaching and applying GIS for research and management. Presentations by Esri demonstrated enhancements in ArcGIS 9.3, ArcGIS Explorer, and ArcGIS Online.

"History and GIS" was the theme of two presentations at the plenary session. In her keynote address, Dr. Anne K. Knowles, professor of geography at Middlebury College and author of Placing History: The Value of Geography in History Education, shared her expertise with the use of GIS in historical scholarship. Charlie Frye, Esri cartography team manager, described how he used GIS to analyze battles of the American Revolutionary War from multiple perspectives.

For the balance of the conference, attendees could hear presentations that supplied ideas for teaching, described innovations in research, and provided strategies for launching or growing GIS programs. They could meet others with similar interests and could come away with the knowledge and skills to be more successful.

The 2009 Esri Education User Conference will be held July 11�14, 2009, in San Diego, California.