The main goal of the Geographical Technology Implementation Project (GIS-TECH) is to build both the capacity and infrastructure for training GIS technicians. To this end, the GIS-TECH project is modeled after the highly successful Cisco Networking Academy model, which Del Mar College has taught since 1999. Like Cisco, GIS-TECH creates a model academy that emphasizes a train-the-trainer curriculum and encourages mentoring of minority and female students into the GIS technology field. The GIS-TECH project will create a sustainable system to provide GIS training to secondary teachers, industry technicians and first responders. The mentoring component of the project is critical to providing effective and sustainable results. The GIS-TECH program provides mentoring in two distinct ways: 1) training of secondary teachers who will then become advocates for the GIS program in high school and 2) collaboration with the GO Force and TACHE minority recruitment and mentoring programs. The GIS-TECH project is also developing new, domain-specific GIS curricula. Leveraging the talents and efforts of experts in the field, the project is developing three new domain-specific GIS courses. The project provides a model for the seamless transition of GIS technicians from high school to community college to the university.
The intellectual merit of this project lies in its targeted approach to GIS education, focusing the computer technology aspects of GIS implementation and use that are normally missing from such programs. The broader impacts of the project lie in diversity of the project's intended student audience, which includes large percentages of Hispanic and female students.
