On Tuesday, April 8th, we travelled down island to the Annual ESRI Canada User Conference. We had been invited to speak to the 300 delegates who were gathered at the Victoria Conference Centre about our recent trip to Thailand. ESRI is one of the pre-eminent GIS software companies in the world and they were interested in hearing how GIS is being used in education.
While in Thailand, on the recent school EDGE trip, we had tracked our whereabouts every time we switched locations with a mobile satellite communicator, called inReach. Not only did it send texts back to Canada for daily check-ins, but it also recorded the latitude and longitude or absolute location. We were then able to import our data into ArcGIS, an online program mapping system, which can be used in a variety of different ways. We used ArcGIS to build a story map of our journey and added captions and pictures of our adventures to deliver it. Nina and I were pleased to present how ArcGIS had benefited our trip.
We acknowledge with respect the Coast Salish Peoples on whose traditional lands and waterways we live, learn and play. We are grateful for the opportunity to share in this beautiful region, and we aspire to healthy and respectful relationships with those who have lived on and cared for these lands for millennia.
Shawnigan Lake School is an independent co-educational boarding school for ages 13 –18 on Canada’s beautiful West Coast. Our diverse, interdisciplinary and innovative programming helps shape the next generation of global leaders.