[Geo4All] Vision for an OSGeo education program

[Kurt Menke]

I've been super busy with a lot of trips this fall, so I haven't had time to respond to this, but I've been following (as best I can). It's a great discussion.

Also I apologize in advance if I've missed something along the way, and if this is off the mark or has already been discussed. 

Just as a reminder, the GeoAcademy was built for this. http://spatialquerylab.com/foss4g-academy-curriculum/  It is 32 labs worth of material!

One of the biggest hurdles to people teaching with FOSS4G is a lack of material. Teachers just don't have time to learn FOSS4G and built lessons/labs/curriculum around it. So our model was, "build it and they will come."  This has worked to some degree, with the material having been adapted by numerous professors.

Personally I've used this for: A) working professional needing to learn QGIS, B) college students learning GIS, and C) high school students learning GIS. It adapts really well.

It is licensed under the  Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license and is out there ready to be used.  Even if it isn't exactly what some want  it is a great starting place and can be modified and added to as needed. There is even a workbook for it. It's far easier to modify something that exists than to start from scratch. 

Importantly it has also been heavily vetted and is based on a standard (US Department of Labor’s Geospatial Technology Competency Model (GTCM)). It's updated to the current QGIS LTR and current version of GRASS. Another important aspect of it, is that it's about teaching GIS with FOSS4G, not just about learning how to use QGIS or GRASS.

For example, includes everything in Randy's list, except the web portion. 

The trickier parts to me are things like:
* how to work with different age/national groups 
* how to package it - it may need to be paired down
* who does what?
* how to present it on the web
* is there an online workspace or learning platform or just a package of educational material?

Boston does seem like an achievable test bed for something

Kurt 


**************************
Kurt Menke, GISP
Bird’s Eye View 
www.BirdsEyeViewGIS.com 
Work: 505-265-0243
Cell: 505-362-1776