{"id":187672,"date":"2012-07-23T01:38:07","date_gmt":"2012-07-23T01:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs2www.esri.com\/esri\/esri-insider\/?p=1354"},"modified":"2012-07-23T01:38:07","modified_gmt":"2012-07-23T01:38:07","slug":"envisioning-the-spatial-university","status":"publish","type":"insider","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/envisioning-the-spatial-university","title":{"rendered":"Envisioning the Spatial University"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Fulfilling the potential of geospatial technology<\/h3>\n<p>Spatial thinking and geospatial technologies remain unrealized opportunities for much of higher education. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There\u2019s now compelling evidence suggesting that spatial abilities prepare students for success in STEM coursework and early employment. However, no college or university includes such preparation among its overarching general education objectives.<\/li>\n<li>Despite the synthetic power of the spatial perspective, research discoveries too often remain segregated and hidden in disciplinary silos.<\/li>\n<li>For nearly a decade, the US Department of Labor has highlighted career opportunities associated with geospatial technologies. Still, relatively few higher education institutions offer advanced, practice-oriented educational programs to prepare students for such opportunities.<\/li>\n<li>Geospatial technologies enable students to perform valued service learning projects in their communities. Even among those colleges and universities that have institution-wide service learning programs, however, precious few prepare students to leverage GIS.<\/li>\n<li>Enterprise GIS infrastructures offer the potential to save money in campus planning, operations, and facilities management. Given the severe fiscal challenges that confront most higher education institutions, it\u2019s remarkable that so few institutions have realized this potential.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nThere are plenty of reasons why spatial thinking and geospatial technologies have yet to fulfill their transformative potential in higher education. However, it\u2019s likely that concerted efforts by a few key institutions could have a dramatic impact. Mindful of this, it is apparent that there are five characteristics of \u201cThe Spatial University\u201d:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Spatial thinking is included in the institution\u2019s general education objectives. Courses that prepare students to fulfill the objective are available across the general education curriculum.<\/li>\n<li>The institution hosts and disseminates multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research enabled by the spatial perspective and geospatial technologies.<\/li>\n<li>The institution hosts specialized certificate or degree programs whose curricula align with geospatial work force needs.<\/li>\n<li>Students are required or at least encouraged to participate in community-based service learning projects or internships, and they are prepared to use GIS and other geospatial technologies as part of those projects.<\/li>\n<li>An enterprise GIS infrastructure is in place to support campus planning, operations, maintenance, and sustainability.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some higher education institutions have several of these characteristics, and a few may have all five. However, no institution has made a point of declaring its commitment to fulfilling the potential of spatial thinking and geospatial technology. This is likely a missed opportunity. In an increasingly competitive higher education marketplace, we believe that a commitment to be a spatial university would be a valuable differentiator.<br \/>\nThe distinction is appealing primarily because of a genuine conviction that a spatially literate populace is essential for a sustainable future, as well as a belief that GIS technology can empower spatial thinking.<\/p>\n<h3>How would you describe the vision of a Spatial University?<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[275862],"tags":[162592,276802,276302],"class_list":["post-187672","insider","type-insider","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry-focus","tag-education","tag-higher-education","tag-spatial-thinking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Envisioning the Spatial University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/envisioning-the-spatial-university\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Envisioning the Spatial University\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fulfilling the potential of geospatial technology Spatial thinking and geospatial technologies remain unrealized opportunities for much of higher education. For example:\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/envisioning-the-spatial-university\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Esri\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/themes\/esri_newsroom\/placeholders\/Newsroom-Keyart-Wide.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Esri\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"WebPage\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/envisioning-the-spatial-university\",\n\t            \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/envisioning-the-spatial-university\",\n\t            \"name\": \"Envisioning the Spatial University\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"datePublished\": \"2012-07-23T01:38:07+00:00\",\n\t            \"breadcrumb\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/envisioning-the-spatial-university#breadcrumb\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t            \"potentialAction\": [\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"ReadAction\",\n\t                    \"target\": [\n\t                        \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/envisioning-the-spatial-university\"\n\t                    ]\n\t                }\n\t            ]\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"BreadcrumbList\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/envisioning-the-spatial-university#breadcrumb\",\n\t            \"itemListElement\": [\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t                    \"position\": 1,\n\t                    \"name\": \"Home\",\n\t                    \"item\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\"\n\t                },\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t                    \"position\": 2,\n\t                    \"name\": \"Envisioning the Spatial University\"\n\t                }\n\t            ]\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"WebSite\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website\",\n\t            \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/\",\n\t            \"name\": \"Esri\",\n\t            \"description\": \"Esri Newsroom\",\n\t            \"potentialAction\": [\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"SearchAction\",\n\t                    \"target\": {\n\t                        \"@type\": \"EntryPoint\",\n\t                        \"urlTemplate\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}\"\n\t                    },\n\t                    \"query-input\": {\n\t                        \"@type\": \"PropertyValueSpecification\",\n\t                        \"valueRequired\": true,\n\t                        \"valueName\": \"search_term_string\"\n\t                    }\n\t                }\n\t            ],\n\t            \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\"\n\t        }\n\t    ]\n\t}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Envisioning the Spatial University","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/envisioning-the-spatial-university","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Envisioning the Spatial University","og_description":"Fulfilling the potential of geospatial technology Spatial thinking and geospatial technologies remain unrealized opportunities for much of higher education. For example:","og_url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/envisioning-the-spatial-university","og_site_name":"Esri","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/themes\/esri_newsroom\/placeholders\/Newsroom-Keyart-Wide.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@Esri","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/envisioning-the-spatial-university","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/envisioning-the-spatial-university","name":"Envisioning the Spatial University","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-07-23T01:38:07+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/envisioning-the-spatial-university#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/envisioning-the-spatial-university"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/envisioning-the-spatial-university#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Envisioning the Spatial University"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/","name":"Esri","description":"Esri Newsroom","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insider\/187672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insider"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/insider"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insider\/187672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}