Friday, December 31, 2010

Improving Educational Geo Information Systems (EduGIS)

The Ingenieurbüro für Geoinformatik (GisEO) and the geoinformation service provider DELPHI IMM GmbH recently won the contract for the development and realization of a geo portal and web services to supply a comprehensive survey of educational information based on spatial data. The emerging web technology is planned to support education representatives, parents, students as well as national and international school partners in investigating the structure and performance of schools and after school care or day care facilities in the Land Brandenburg based on up-to-date maps. The supply of the web application will be free of charge and is scheduled to be completed by May 2011.

Representative international school achievement studies like PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) have not only set off an increasing public interest towards pedagogical school profiles and other performance data. Moreover, the number of online users visiting the website ‚School Portraits of Brandenburg‘ of the education server Berlin-Brandenburg is testament to the popularity of online services supplying detailed but transparent educational information. Yet, most of the present available Educational Geo Information Systems (EduGIS) show wide deficits in describing educational information in a space-related context. Consequently, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Land Brandenburg (Staatliche Schulamt Wünsdorf) has realized the missing or at least bad availability of educational based geoinformation for different user groups despite its indefeasible high impact on investment decisions and site questions. “Due to the large variety of educational opportunities for parents there is no greater challenge than choosing an appropriate school or day care center site. The supply of geo-coded school sites and after school care or day care center sites as web service will facilitate the individual decision process by delivering helpful and crucial information like for instance the school address, the name of the school authority or the distance from the child’s home. At the same time, we will implement a technology that avoids the redundant data capture and storage but allows the rapid and profound use of data in combination with other data sources (web services and attribute data),” states Rolf Lessing, Managing Director of DELPHI IMM.

In developing the geo portal and the web services in the course of a funded project by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) the Land Brandenburg will provide a completely free service package. Both education representatives and the public will obtain an interactive web platform to handle versatile tasks and issues in the field of educational information management. This represents a significant step towards a better information culture for the education system of the Land Brandenburg, which will succeed to meet the ever-increasing public demand for information on structure and capacities of the regional education sector. Finally, the project activities are scheduled to allow for a functional enhancement of the geo portal EduGIS at a later date.

Contacts:
Ingenieurbüro für Geoinformatik (GisEO) - Frank Schönburg
T +49 3378 8649-15
www.giseo.de

DELPHI IMM GmbH - Anita Diedrigkeit
T +49 331 62 000 26
www.delphi-imm.de

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