The 2008 ESRI Education Conference kicked off this morning with the plenary session, held at the Marriott Hotel adjacent to the San Diego Convention Center.  The Education Team started the morning off, providing updates on K-12 and Higher Education, the Education Community website, and curriculum development and resources.

 ESRI Technical Marketing then wowed attendees with the latest and greatest enhancements to ArcGIS 9.3 and ArcGIS Explorer.  Productivity enhancements, bookmarks enhancements, resource center updates, HTML pop-up, and spatially enabled PDFs were demonstrated.  These new technologies concluded by showing the new RSS capabilities of ArcGIS Explorer, including demonstrations for use with BioBlitz and recent earthquakes.

 Angela Lee reviewed ArcGIS Online and the new ArcGIS Data Appliance.  ArcGIS Image Server updates and its future inclusion with Higher Ed site licenses was announced.  Improvements to AEJEE (relative paths, better color rendition) were reviewed.  ArcLogistics, for efficient fleet routing, was introduced.  ArcPad enhancements for mobile data collection and management were also highlighted.Ann Johnson

Charlie Fry, manager of the ESRI Cartography Team, shared his inspiring historical investigation in the presentation "Citing and Using Historical Sources in GIS".  Using several primary sources, Charlie has created an amalgam of historical locations draped across a tapestry of historical base maps.  Charlie's historical study focused on using GIS to tell the story of Bunker Hill and much of the Revolutionary War from multiple perspectives.

Dr. Anne K. Knowles, Professor Geography at Middlebury College, capstoned the morning's events as she explored the rich relationship between history and GIS - expanding on her expertise of historical scholarship and teaching history with GIS.  She explored the use of GIS to investigate the Dust Bowl, Gettysburg, the Holocaust and other significant historical events.

This afternoon, attendees can visit the GIS EXPO and Hands-On Learning Center, attend concurrent sessions, and later in the evening, participate in the GeoTeasure Hunt!