Abstract
Mapping by Haitian Students: OLPC to COSMHA
Track: Teaching with GIS Across the Curriculum
Authors: Nicholas Doiron
In Haiti, despite illiteracy and pervasive problems in government systems, students are using GIS technology to document and transform their communities.
Last year, students at Ecole Shalom in Croix-des-Bouquets received One Laptop per Child's little green laptops. Part of their digital education was discovering the possibilities of mapping and geotagging. Students have access to NOAA satellite imagery and an application to view Esri basemaps via WMS.
Older students are learning GIS, too. COSMHA (a UN-sponsored OpenStreetMap team) is holding meetings and training sessions at universities and sending trained mappers to distant parts of Haiti and across the border to the Dominican Republic.