Conference attendees will include hundreds of school teachers, college and university instructors, school administrators, community leaders, librarians, and museum professionals from all over the United States and many countries.

EdUC presents an ideal setting for members of the education community to come together and share their experiences and knowledge. Coinciding with the ESRI International User Conference, there will be a myriad of events for attendees to learn about the latest developments in GIS and education. Hands-on workshops will focus on a variety of GIS software such as ArcView and ArcGIS extensions including 3D Analyst and Network Analyst, Internet mapping with ArcIMS and ArcWeb Services, and other workshops focused on specific content areas such as earth science and demographics. More than 100 paper presentations will highlight user experiences in areas of curriculum and program design, administration and planning, classroom instruction, community projects, GIScience, and more.

The conference will also include panel discussions including one dedicated to a new report from the National Research Council on spatial thinking in schools. An Education EXPO and Welcome Reception will provide an opportunity to connect with other attendees involved in GIS education while exploring the latest GIS products and services. The EdUC schedule will also include key sessions from the ESRI International User Conference as well as the Map Gallery, Academic Program Fair, and ESRI Showcase.

This year’s EdUC is framed by two powerful keynote speakers: Mr. David Rumsey and Dr. Michael Fay. Both expect to participate in the entire conference and will be on hand during the EdUC EXPO.

Rumsey is founder of the David Rumsey Map Collection, president of Cartography Associates, and a director of Luna Imaging. He also serves on the boards of the John Carter Brown Library and the American Antiquarian Society, is a trustee of Yale Library Associates, and is a member of the Stanford University Library Advisory Board. He is coauthor of the ESRI Press bestseller, Cartographica Extraordinaire: The Historical Map Transformed. Over the past 20 years, Rumsey has collected more than 150,000 maps, atlases, and pocket and children’s maps from the 18th and 19th centuries. A portion of his collection, one of the largest and most complete of its kind, is available to the public through his Web site, www.davidrumsey.com. Rumsey believes that learning geography is of critical importance for young and old alike and strives to make it fun. He will share insights on using technology and historical cartography for geographic learning.

Fay, a conservationist with the Wildlife Conservation Society and a conservation fellow at the National Geographic Society, has spent the past 23 years studying the African environment. He recently returned from an aerial research study dubbed the “MegaFlyover,” in which he traveled a flight path echoing his 2,000-mile trek through the Congo in 1997. Fay flew 100,000 kilometers in eight months, capturing more than 100,000 aerial photographs of African ecosystems. He will present a portion of his findings at the conference. The mission’s goal was to document, in fine detail, vegetation, large animals, and human presence and the interactions and relationships among them. Fay’s decades of ecological research led him to conclude that tackling sustainability issues is critical and GIS is essential to the task.       

For more information about the event, including registration information, visit www.esri.com/educ or call 909-793-2853, extension 1-1363. If calling from outside the United States, please contact your local ESRI distributor; see www.esri.com/international for a current distributor list.

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About ESRI

Founded in 1969, ESRI is the leading developer of GIS software with more than 300,000 clients worldwide. ESRI software is used in all 200 of the largest cities in the United States and in more than 60 percent of counties and municipalities nationwide. Headquartered in California, ESRI has regional offices throughout the United States, international distributors in more than

90 countries, and more than 1,700 business partners. ESRI’s goal is to develop comprehensive tools that enable users to efficiently manage, use, and serve geographic information to make a difference in the world around them. ESRI also provides consulting, implementation, and technical support services. ESRI can be found on the Web at www.esri.com.

ESRI, the ESRI globe logo, ArcGIS, ArcWeb, ArcIMS, ArcView, 3D Analyst, GIS by ESRI, www.esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.