The Spatial Technologies Unit in the faculty of Engineering at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) is offering geographical information systems (GIS) training to learners and educators at Woolhope Secondary School in Port Elizabeth.
"The project was introduced ahead of the introduction of GIS into the 2006 school curriculum for grade 10 to 12 learners and should enable learners to get a head start next year," says Dr Dalenca Pottas, head of the Applied Informatics Department in the Engineering Faculty at NMMU.
"Projects of this nature are necessary to assist schools in the transformation to the new curriculum and the training provided will be of great benefit to the learners and educators in the near future," she adds.
The addition of GIS to the curriculum will include general and functional concepts such as data acquisition and management, spatial analysis as well as remote sensing.
"These skills and also the practical application thereof will be taught during this course by making use of ArcView software," says GIS lecturer Ann Oliver.
ArcView is GIS software for visualising, managing, creating and analysing geographic/spatial data and is one of the most widely used desktop GIS software packages in the world, she adds.
The sessions at Woolhope take place on a weekly basis and will continue throughout 2005, with two educators and around 20 learners currently attending.
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