GI-Learner

There'll be more on this project to come for the next few years, but here are the first details of a European project, funded under the Erasmus+ scheme, which I will be co-ordinating on behalf of my school, which is a partner in the project.

The projects is called GI-Learner, and is being led by someone who I have worked with on a number of projects: Luc Zwartjes from Belgium, who works in Ghent.

Here's a summary of the main points.

Many aspects of our economy and society are based on geoinformation and technologies: the majority of information has a geospatial component. Employment in the sector is rising rapidly, but few students leave school with a knowledge of geoinformation.
Many GI Science studies explore the idea of informatics, but not spatial thinking, and GI Science isn’t really taught in many schools. A Europe-wide training programme is needed with the capacity to raise awareness of the GI sector and create a geospatially literate workforce.

What we will do

Deliver material for rewriting/making the curriculum and educational programmes with the help of pupils, based around developing skills and knowledge useful for their future lives and employment in tomorrow’s society.

This will develop ideas of ‘digital literacy’, and digital integration (which concerns the appropriate use of digital tools, and the construction of ‘new’ knowledge).

We have got a range of excellent partners to work with us on the project, which will run for the next three years. I've worked with several of them before on other projects. Students will be involved in producing and trialling materials as part of the curriculum development.

Four schools

Sint-Lodewijkscollege, Bruges, Belgium 

King’s Ely – us :)

Bundesoberstufenrealgymnasium Salzburg, Nonntal, Austria 

Liceul Teoretic "Dimitrie Cantemir" Iasi, Romania

Two universities

Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain 

Universiteit Gent, Gent, Belgium

European Association of Geographers  (EuroGeo)

 – Prof Karl Donert & Elzbieta Wołoszyńska-Wiśniewska

Watch this space as the project develops over the next three years.

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