Open Principles in Education – Building Bridges, Empowering communities

Dear colleague,

I have been invited to deliver a webinar by the Open Education community on 22 September, 2016 at 12.30PM – 1.30PM (UK time) and i would like to invite all interested to join.

I will use this opportunity to share our Geo4All experiences with the wider education community and build more synergies. Over 20 years back , i was a student in Civil Engineering in India and by pure chance i came across a short article in a magazine in my college library on the amazing Geographic Information System that is used by Town Planners . That was the first time i heard about the wonderful technology called GIS!  That time, there was no GIS where i studied but i was determined to get access to learn GIS . I still remember the struggles i went through to get access to GIS that time in India as there were very few universities who had GIS those days.  I was very lucky as by God’s grace i got some amazing opportunities later to learn GIS. So now it is my duty that others also get opportunity to learn GIS .

So through this webinar , i want to share why it is important that we protect Open principles in Education and the vision 2030 for Open Geospatial Science  [1][2] . This presentation will share experiences from “Geo for All” initiative on the importance of having open principles in education for empowering communities worldwide . Central to “Geo for All” mission is the belief that knowledge is a public good and Open Principles in Education will provide great opportunities for everyone. Though the members of our community hail from many different backgrounds, we all seek to eliminate the digital divide and empower all as full citizens and contribute to building up Open Knowledge for the benefit of the whole society . By combining the potential of free and open  software, open data, open standards, open access to research publications, open education resources in Geospatial education and research will enable the creation of sustainable innovation ecosystem . This is key for widening  education opportunities, accelerating new discoveries and helping solving global cross disciplinary societal challenges from Climate change mitigation to sustainable cities. Service for the benefit and betterment of humanity is a key fundamental principle of “Geo for All” and we want to contribute and focus our efforts for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We aim to create openness in Geo Education for developing creative and open minds in students which is critical for building open innovation and contributes to building up Open Knowledge for the benefit of the whole society and for our future generations. The bigger aim is to advance STEM education across the world and bring together schools, teachers and students across the world in joint projects and help building international understanding and global peace. More details at  http://www.geoforall.org/

Webinar details at https://www.alt.ac.uk/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=249

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We do not have the money /sponsorship power as some vendors but we do have amazing people power like you all  globally to make things happen. I thank you for your help in sharing Geo4All ideas. Ideas that  starts from nothing are very powerful and keeps expanding exponentially .

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Best wishes,

Suchith Anand

http://www.geoforall.org/

Geo for All – Building and expanding Open Geospatial Science

[1] http://www.geoconnexion.com/uploads/publication_pdfs/uk_v15i18-058-059-Op951AF3.pdf
[2] http://www.geoconnexion.com/publications/geo-uk/issue/sept-oct-2016/article/open-geospatial-science-and-vision-2030

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