Most state licenses have started working with these subscriptions and are developing a sense of their power for education. They open up ArcGIS Online far beyond a public account, with more control of sharing, access to more data, much more powerful analyses, access to apps like Collector or Explorer, integration with ArcMap and Microsoft Office, access to Community Analyst, and lots more, with still more on the way.
Esri is also working with friends to step up their GeoMentor program. Folks at GISCI are promoting this to the GIS professionals in their network, and Esri will highlight this for the many thousands with whom they work. National Geographic is encouraging schools and educators to turbocharge their work by integrating support from these GIS professionals. States with statewide licenses are “front line visible” on the Esri K12 license map, and may be contacted by local reporters. Some individuals have shared stories or screenshots, or videos of their work with students. Esri wants to alert every single school to the power some have discovered — that students of all ages can use ArcGIS Online to build content background, problem-solving strategies, and key skills that will engage them in the community and support them in college and career with unlimited opportunity.
Please look at http://connected.esri.com. Share this address with everyone in your state. Explore the entire ConnectED page and see how you can help others get started. The ArcGIS Online Skillbuilder can help educators and kids see quickly where they are and where they can go, and move from geographically unaware to an AGO novice to an effective user, ready to become a geoanalyst with an Organization account. With summer training events just around the corner for so many of you, please keep these in mind.
More information will be coming from Esri soon.
