REDLANDS, Calif. – Global smart mapping leader Esri announced that it has extended its support of President Obama’s ConnectED initiative through 2019. Esri will continue to expand its wide range of curricula that integrates map-based concepts into primary and secondary school learning.
President Obama established the ConnectED initiative in 2013 to promote donated technology contributions that can equip U.S. schoolchildren with the tools they need to succeed in the digital future. During a visit to the White House in 2014, Esri president Jack Dangermond offered Esri’s award-winning cloud-based solution, ArcGIS Online, to every public, private, and home school in the United States. Since that time, Esri has donated more than $40 million in software, curriculum solutions, training, and support for K–12 institutions.
“Esri’s contribution to ConnectED has succeeded because it’s complemented by human investment,” said Dangermond. “Teachers have positively responded to the ready-to-use software and expert training that allow them to build custom curricula in Esri ArcGIS Online. We are pleased to increase that momentum with a new round of investment.”
Over 4,000 schools currently use Esri tools as part of their curricula. In addition to software, Esri provides brief geographically enabled lessons on subjects ranging from earth science to history. These lessons and associated maps are viewed over 50,000 times per month.
“Students learn best by engaging with content,” said Charlie Fitzpatrick, Esri schools program manager. “Esri offers an interactive experience that helps students scaffold the background knowledge and skills needed to engage in even more powerful project-based learning.”
Esri is working with its network of distributors around the world to bring programs like ConnectED to schools outside the United States. To learn more about Esri’s support of ConnectED or to access instructional materials, visit go.esri.com/pr-connected.
About Esri
Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. As the market leader in GIS technology, Esri software is used in more than 350,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news.
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