PI's
Eric Delmelle, Professor - Geography
Gail Eckwright, Humanities Librarian - Library
Bruce Godfrey, GIS Specialist - Library

GIS Instructors
Elizabeth Cahill

Programmers:
Ed Flathers
Zach Dwight
Joey Gentry

GIS Technicians
Joe Mierzwinski
Josh Tomlin

Funding Provided by an State Board of Education Technology Incentive Grant 2006/2007

A geographic information system (GIS) is an advanced technology that is used to visualize, analyze, and interpret geographic information. The dramatic rise in the availability of Internet mapping services allows users to overlay and display geographic data in a Web browser. Providing mapping capabilities in a Web browser makes geographic data more accessible, easier to use, and offer numerous opportunities to integrate spatial concepts into various disciplines. 

Our intention in this grant proposal is to advance geographic knowledge discovery within the classroom by enabling students to use Internet mapping in dynamic and interactive ways to engage them in understanding spatial relationships and landscapes. 

Arguably, the single greatest intellectual force and competitive advantage in the 21st century is the rapid assimilation of new knowledge to fuel innovation. Students will gain cutting-edge skills through access to new Internet mapping technologies. These technologies will empower students and educators to find creative and innovative ways to learn and apply GIS software to their academic discipline.

Integrating Technology into the Curriculum:

Internet mapping technologies are used to produce maps of spatially referenced data dynamically from geographic information. This portrayal of geographic information is represented as a digital image file, suitable for display on a computer screen. The advantage of this technology is that a user needs nothing more than a web browser to interact with geographic data. This user-friendly approach to geographic knowledge discovery is necessary to gain interaction and interest from students and to empower educators with the ability to introduce this technology in the classroom.

Enhance the Rate and Quality of Student Learning:

To realize the potential of GIS, users must be able to take advantage of its real power: analysis. The GIS-industry transition from the traditional "search and download data" model to a model that relies on attaching to spatial data services directly over the Internet opens up a plethora of teaching, learning, and productivity opportunities. Traditionally, GIS education has revolved around teaching methods that utilize desktop-based software. A mindset endures that spatial data used with this software must reside on the local computer. To acquire data, educators and students seek resources that provide them the ability to search-and-download information objects. The dramatic rise in the availability of Internet mapping technologies represents a fundamental shift in how data are assembled in a GIS. The complexities of locating and manipulating data on the user-side are transferred from the forefront to the background. Students and educators are provided a platform to interact with spatial information and perform GIS tasks faster. These new technologies allow novice GIS users to discover geographic information while advanced GIS users benefit from being able to rapidly assemble spatial data. The implementation of these Internet mapping technologies will result in a dramatic increase in GIS data access, as well as a context within which to use data, resulting in an increase in the rate and quality of student learning. 

Enhance Faculty Productivity:

Delivering geographic data and maps using Internet mapping technologies has the potential to provide educators with a welcoming entrance into the world of GIS. Faculty need not feel intimidated by a technology that is presented in a Web browser. Internet mapping technologies will allow educators to incorporate GIS into their research and teaching. Faculty will be able to more easily use geographical data in their research, thus increasing their productivity. Students will be able to complete projects and course assignments of greater complexity and higher quality in less time. 

Increase Access to Educational Programs:

The introduction of Internet mapping technologies will facilitate sharing, discovery, access, integration, and analysis of GIS data and eliminate redundancy, reduces cost and enhance collaboration and integration among all academic units at UI and throughout the state. As these Internet mapping technologies are introduced across disciplines, new learning communities among teachers, students, and others will be realized. Regardless of the arena from which a user brings experiences, the ability to rapidly assimilate new knowledge through the use of Internet mapping technologies will result in new learning communities.

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