1. National Geospatial Technology Center of Excellence GeoTech Center Representing America’s Two Year Technical & Community Colleges Dr. Phillip Davis, Director

2. What is solved? Acceptance of Geospatial technology as a legitimate field of study for technical majors at the two community college level – Awareness of “geospatial” and spatial thinking Google Earth and MS Virtual Earth National Research Council Report and Thinking Spatially – More than 400 two year colleges nationwide have one or more GIS courses

3. What is almost solved? Acceptance of geospatial technology across the campus and disciplines – Adoption of GIS as a General Education elective at some campuses San Diego State University, Atlantic Cape Community College and several campuses in California – Unexpected success includes more secondary schools adopting Geospatial technology Bishop Dunn Catholic School in Dallas – Inclusion of geospatial technology in non-traditional academic disciplines (history, English, math,....) Usually as a tool for spatial analysis

4. What has failed? Seamless articulation with secondary schools and from two year programs to 4 year programs – Obstacle of NCLB mandates for pure academic courses – Obstacle of regional accreditation agency demands for secondary school teacher credentialing – Obstacle of ever-changing teacher pool – Problem of “where geospatial resides” within different institutions (Course Codes and Disciplines) Unexpected success of a middle school library- science teacher to complete our GIS certificates and continue on to become SACS certified!

5. What is missing? Number 1 missing component – A nationally accepted Common Core Competencies for GIS Technicians Basis for articulation and certification – Common Core Competency Model - Hot topic for many organizations GeoTech Center & Penn State (David DiBiase) USGIS – Second Edition of Body of Knowledge and other initiatives GISCI (GIS Certification Institute) basis for accepatance of credits and possible future exam

6. What is next? Need for national forum to achieve consensus on Common Core Competencies by all stakeholders for two year colleges – GeoTech is completing DACUM studies in 2009 – Validation with industry of DACUM results – Vetting with UCGIS, GITA, AAG, ASPRS, and GISCI – National Forum in 2010 Set of nationally acceptable CCC by 2010, 2011, 2012?