This new decade seems a fitting time to reflect upon the past and anticipate the future. Few other things in GIS have changed as much over the past decade than Web GIS. During the first year in which I used the World Wide Web (1993), one of the things that most captured my attention was the Xerox Corporation’s Palo Alto Research Center’s (PARC) Map Viewer. It retrieved interactive information on the Web, rather than simply providing access to static files. I remember what a marvel it was to zoom, select layers, and even change the map projections all through a web browser, displayed on my screen, a large 12-color Tektronix terminal connected to a Unix minicomputer. My web browser, Mosaic, sent an HTTP request to the Web server at Xerox, which generated new map and sent it back to my browser.

Since then, Web GIS has greatly expanded in the themes it covers, the scales it offers, and the tools it provides. In education, Web GIS can be used effectively in instruction, administration, and policy. In GIS instruction, students use Web GIS to investigate invasive species (such as the origin and spread of zebra mussels with the National Atlas, on http;//www.nationalatlas.gov), precipitation patterns (via the Geospatial One Stop on http://www.geodata.gov/), or below, the median age of their community versus those of a college town or a retirement community (via creating choropleth maps on ESRI’s Mapping For Everyone, on http://www.esri.com/mappingforeveryone).

In Computer Science and GIScience programs, students can create maps in ArcGIS Desktop and serve them using ArcGIS Server, or they can create web pages showing mashups created from easily-accessible APIs such as JavaScript, Flex, or Silverlight. In administration, Web GIS can support campus needs in infrastructure, campus safety, recruitment, and more, serving staff, faculty, and students. In policy, Web GIS can be used as a decision support system to gather stakeholder input and to show results of where funds and programs are targeted.

I invite you to explore the endless possibilities of Web GIS in education.

--Joseph Kerski, ESRI Education Manager