Abstract
Abstract. Geospatial tools in a Web 2.0 environment can encourage citizens to engage with and influence their environment through online participation. In the field of geomatics, today’s students have to develop competencies in current technologies and learn how to adapt to continuously and rapidly changing technologies and applications. At the same time, we live in a globalized world where we increasingly deal with people from different backgrounds or have to commute to unknown places and environments for work. In this paper, we report about the experiences of students and lecturer participants from Germany and South Africa in a summer school on geomatics and participation, held in Karlsruhe, Germany, in July 2016. The starting point was to learn about nature conservation in Germany, particularly about the Rhine floodplains close to Rastatt. Mobile mapping apps were developed for this area with the aim of supporting conservation efforts. Confronting the participants with a new geographic area, a software development environment unknown to them and group work with participants from both universities has led to interesting insights beyond getting to know the partner university. From an evaluation of the summer school by participants, it was evident that the summer school succeeded in raising interest for participation in the student exchange programme and that participants expect clear guidance on the objectives of different activities. The balance between socializing and work provides a unique atmosphere for effective teaching and working, making a summer school such an enjoyable experience for students and lecturers.
Highlights
Changing technologies provide new opportunities in the field of geomatics
We report about the experiences of students and lecturer participants from Germany and South Africa in a summer school on geomatics and participation, held in Karlsruhe, Germany, in July 2016
Many South African students do not have the financial means to participate in an exchange programme and are not always aware of bursary opportunities for student exchange, except those provided by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD1). The aim of this project, funded by the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung (BWS), is to raise awareness and to encourage students from both countries to participate in student exchange programmes, while at the same time providing students with an opportunity to benefit from the combined expertise at the two universities and learning how to develop mobile mapping apps for participatory sensing in application fields typical for the country visited
Summary
Changing technologies provide new opportunities in the field of geomatics. Among these, geospatial tools in a Web 2.0 environment can encourage citizens to engage with and influence their environment through online participation. According to Reichenbacher (2012), maps are the mostused information on the mobile Internet. This development has led to the term ‘geoinformation society’ for today’s society where maps and other geomedia are used to structure information and to construct spatial meaning (Vogler, 2016). We report about the experiences of students and lecturer participants from Germany and South Africa in a summer school on geomatics and participation, held in Karlsruhe, Germany, in July 2016. The students developed four mobile mapping apps for participatory sensing in the Rastatter Rheinaue, a nature conservation area 25 km south of Karlsruhe. Participation Summer School programme and provides an evaluation by relating experiences of lecturers and students.
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