GIS at Connecticut College

Connecticut College received a grant with Wheaton College from the National Institute for Technology & Liberal Education (NITLE) to increase awareness of how GIS can be used in teaching at liberal arts colleges, particularly in disciplines that have not traditionally used GIS. Much time and skills are typically required to input data into GIS format and to use it. The grant will enable us to take advantage of the vast amount of data now available in electronic format, some of which is already in GIS-ready format, to help faculty and students access this valuable resource without the major learning curve.

We have taken a team-oriented approach to working with GIS. Each team consists of a librarian, an instructional technologist, and a faculty member. A call for participation was sent to the 37 schools in the Middle Atlantic/New England (MANE) region of NITLE. Teams are participating from Connecticut College, Colby College, Sarah Lawrence College, Trinity College, Wheaton College, and Williams College. In June 2003, librarians and instructional technologists attended a two-day workshop at Wheaton College. The workshop gave the teams an overview of GIS and how others use it in the curriculum; gave them the skills to locate GIS-ready data and to make other data GIS-ready; and gave them the skills to use GIS in class projects. In October 2003, faculty and their teams attended a one-day workshop at Connecticut College. That workshop provided an overview of GIS and how other faculty at liberal arts colleges have created and used small projects within their classes. Teams participated in hands-on use of GIS to download and begin to work with data.

The twelve teams, five of which are from Connecticut College, are developing GIS projects to be used within courses over the three semester period from September 2003- December 2004.