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Beyond Mapping Meeting National Needs Through Enhanced Geographic Information Science (2006) / Chapter Skim
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5 Afterword
Pages 59-62

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From page 59...
... In digital technologies generally, supply and innovation create new demand as much as they respond to existing demand. A great strength of GIS/GIScience today resides in the happy circumstances that GIS and GIScience were largely innovated in North America and applied most vigorously in the United States, giving the country a head start and a leading role in the continued development of the burgeoning technologies.
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From page 60...
... Institutional inertia has too often left GIS and GIScience scattered in various locations on each campus, leading to variations in GIS/ GIScience curricula that depend on which program is offering a course, despite the existence of model curricula and of recent models of centralized, coherent GIS/GIScience programs. Variations in approach and emphasis raise concerns regarding the balance between training students to use propriety software without much idea of what the software is actually doing, versus the education needed to know when and how software should be employed, and more important, when it will not yield valid or useful results.
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From page 61...
... AFTERWORD 61 scarce than in other specialties, and faculty members pursuing GIS/ GIScience will have significantly better than average chances of capturing external research support. Owing to their pervasive and increasing use in many aspects of economic, political, and social life -- as well as in environmental analysis-institutions that develop strong programs in GIS/GIScience will serve society well by educating students who will increasingly need a basic understanding of GIS/GIScience in order function effectively as citizens, by educating the teachers who will begin that process in elementary and secondary schools, and by hiring faculty members who can address the science policy dilemmas arising from the growing use of GIS and GIScience.
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