New York State License Provides ArcGIS Access to All K–12 Students

Redlands, California - May 08, 2012 - With the recent signing of a statewide license for the unlimited use of Esri's ArcGIS software, more than 2.7 million K–12 students in New York State (NYS) now have the opportunity to learn and apply geospatial concepts.

"Many educators recognize the ability of GIS to enhance all classes, so the interest in using GIS in schools continues to build," said Charlie Fitzpatrick, Esri K–12 schools program manager. "Making GIS available to all grades, all subjects, and youth clubs enables students in New York to integrate knowledge and develop problem-solving skills that lead toward a vast array of careers."

The GIS license agreement includes administrative use as well as classroom instruction throughout New York's K–12 state system and is available to recognized state youth groups, such as the 4-H Club, scouting organizations, and Boys and Girls Clubs.

The license agreement was made possible through the collaborative effort of the New York State GIS Association, New York Institute of Technology (NYIT)/NYS Teacher Centers (NYSTC), and individuals from universities and organizations in New York. Together, this NYS Esri K–12 Consortium is responsible for initiating, coordinating, and promoting Esri GIS K–12 program activities and professional development for teachers throughout New York State.

"A growing number of educators are using the power of maps, the excitement of new technologies, and the relevance of real-world investigations to motivate students to learn science and prepare them to think critically and creatively," said Stan Silverman, director of NYIT's Technology Based Learning Systems (TBLS), which is managing the activities of the statewide rollout of the system. "The key is providing students, teachers, and administrators world class tools to view data through multiple lenses and allowing them to tackle interdisciplinary problems."

Amy Work, GIS analyst and education coordinator at the Institute for the Application of Geospatial Technology (IAGT) in Auburn, New York, serves as one of the individuals implementing the license throughout the state. "We hope to introduce new educators to the many benefits of using GIS in the classroom and provide those teachers currently using the technology with the opportunity to advance their efforts without worrying about costs," said Work.

The NYS Esri K–12 Consortium recently conducted three webinars to promote GIS awareness in the state's education community and will soon begin a series of teacher training sessions. Work is also encouraging New York's K–12 educators and GIS professionals to join Esri's GeoMentor program so that they can work together to support GIS education in the classroom. She believes that science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) classes, as well as history, English, and language arts, will benefit from the addition of GIS to the curriculum.

For additional information regarding the New York statewide GIS license, visit https://sites.google.com/site/nygisk12/

New York Institute of Technology offers 90 degree programs, including undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees, in more than 50 fields of study. A nonprofit independent, private institution of higher education, NYIT has 14,000 students attending campuses on Long Island, in Manhattan, online, and at its global campuses. Led by president Edward Guiliano, NYIT is guided by its mission to provide career-oriented professional education, offer access to opportunity to all qualified students, and support applications-oriented research that benefits the larger world. To date, 89,000 graduates have received degrees from NYIT. For more information, visit www.nyit.edu.

Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in geographic information system (GIS) technology, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news.

Esri ArcGIS Provides Quick and Easy Access to S-57 Data

Esri ArcGIS software can now be used to visualize S-57 data with the symbology that the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) requires. The IHO is an intergovernmental organization that supports safe navigation and protects the marine environment; S-57 is its electronic data transfer standard. The Esri S-57 Viewer can be downloaded at no cost; it allows users to quickly and easily display this data in electronic navigational charts (ENCs) with no data translation.
Esri S-57 Viewer is an add-on to ArcGIS for Desktop. The viewer allows users to

• Query and analyze S-57 datasets in a GIS-centric environment
• Overlay S-57 data with other mapping data, such as bathymetric, topographic, environmental, and satellite imagery layers
• Apply various IHO S-52 properties such as Color Scheme and Safety Contour Depth

Maritime data users can continue to leverage their investment in Esri technology by installing S‑57 Viewer to visualize and compare ENCs with their existing GIS data or data from other sources, such as ArcGIS Online. S-57 data can also be used in conjunction with specialized applications, like Esri Nautical Solution, which is used to produce and maintain ENCs and paper charts. Other navigational and nonnavigational products can be produced and shared including Digital Nautical Charts (DNC), Additional Military Layers (AML), Marine Information Overlays (MIO), inland ENCs, and other maritime information products. For more information, visit esri.com/s57.

Esri Selects Winners of ArcGIS Online Grant Program for Educators

Esri has awarded five grants to select university and college faculty members to create exemplary higher education course materials and implementations of ArcGIS Online. Grantees receive $10,000 (US) each, as well as assistance from curriculum development specialists on Esri's education solutions team.
ArcGIS Online is a cloud-based geospatial platform that enables individuals to create and share maps, apps, and map services. Later this year, Esri will introduce new features to ArcGIS Online, providing enhanced mapping and data sharing capabilities to support collaboration within an organization. Esri will include ArcGIS Online subscriptions in its educational site licenses at no extra cost.
"Our goal is to help early adopters demonstrate the potential of the ArcGIS Online platform to support spatial thinking and learning across the curriculum," says David DiBiase, director of Esri's education solutions team. "We believe this new platform will enable hundreds of thousands more students worldwide to experience the power of GIS."
The grant winners and their projects are as follows:

• Mark Lindberg, Len Kne, and their colleagues at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN) will evaluate how the software can be used to support teaching, research, and enterprise services across a large land grant university.
• Dr. Fred L. Miller and colleagues at Murray State University (Murray, KY) will develop and deploy business GIS exercises for marketing majors.
• Dr. Christopher Bone at the University of Oregon (Eugene, OR) will use the software as a platform for a new introductory course, entitled Our Digital Earth, to expose students to the geospatial data and technologies found in their daily lives.
• Ken Yanow at Southwestern College (Chula Vista, CA) will create a series of assignments for a suite of general education courses that will enroll a diverse population of 2,000 students per year.
• Dr. Eui-kyung Shin at Northern Illinois University (DeKalb, IL) will develop geographic curriculum materials that enhance spatial thinking and active learning for elementary preservice teachers.

Grantees will present their preliminary results during the 2012 Esri Education GIS Conference in San Diego, California, and implement them on campus during the 2012–13 academic year.
About Esri
Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in geographic information system (GIS) technology, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide, including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news.

Middle Tennessee Natural Gas Utility District Maps, Manages Network with Esri ArcGIS

Redlands, California - October 10, 2011 - The Middle Tennessee Natural Gas Utility District is taking advantage of the Esri Small Utility Enterprise License Agreement (SU-ELA) program to obtain ArcGIS technology for mapping and managing its underground network. The Middle Tennessee Natural Gas Utility District serves more than 55,000 customers in 21 counties of the state's rural middle region.
"ArcGIS provides the ability to efficiently and accurately map our natural gas system, and gives us detailed basemaps," said Sean Flatt, GIS mapping coordinator at Middle Tennessee Natural Gas Utility District. "Also, all of our personnel now have access to an internal web mapping application, using the ArcGIS API for Flex, which provides maps of our system and allows basic GIS tools and functionality."
ArcGIS is now deployed throughout several departments in the utility, including planning, construction, and engineering. Utility operators are relying on ArcGIS capabilities to perform ad hoc analysis of many company-wide objectives.
In the coming year, Middle Tennessee Natural Gas plans to expand its ArcGIS technology into mobile applications using ArcGIS for iOS. This app will provide field access to maps and data and will enable field-based reporting and data collection for yearly system maintenance projects. Operators in the utility home office will be able to monitor the progress of projects, and updates will no longer require manual entry into the database.
"The Esri small utility ELA has helped our GIS program take a huge leap forward," said Flatt. "With the ability to use the full ArcGIS system, we have been able to not only investigate but actually implement many products that we would have previously not even considered. The ELA makes it possible to let even the most occasional user have access to ArcGIS software."
Esri's SU-ELA program is open to utilities with 100,000 meters or fewer. Through the program, these small utilities receive unlimited deployments of ArcGIS software, as well as maintenance and support for products, staff training, passes to the Esri International User Conference, and Esri data models.
For more information on the Small Utility ELA program, including a webcast and podcast, visit esri.com/suela. To speak to an expert, call 800-447-9778, extension 2990.

About Esri
Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS technology, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news.