HomeGeomatics, land use planning and resource management in tropical environments
Geomatics, land use planning and resource management in tropical environments
Géomatique, aménagement du territoire et gestion des ressources en milieu tropical
Issues, challenges and propects for distance learning
Enjeux, défis et perspectives de la formation à distance
Published on Friday, January 29, 2021
Summary
To celebrate the 10 years of the professional GAGER master's degree, the Geomatics laboratory of the University of Ngaoundéré is organizing from September 22 to 24, 2021 a hybrid international conference (face-to-face and remote) on the theme: “Geomatics, land use planning and resource management in tropical environments: stakes, challenges and perspectives of distance learning”.
Announcement
September 22 to 24, 2021
Argument
Among the challenges facing the tropical world for its development, education and training are paramount. The importance of these challenges is all the more critical as tropical countries, particularly those south of the Sahara, have undertaken reforms aimed at professionalizing university courses. However, faced with the massive and rapid increase in their student population, in-person educational formats are increasingly showing their limits. The inadequacy of infrastructure, the limited number of qualified and committed human resources, their concentration in the main cities, the isolation of many regions, and security issues (limiting access to training sites) require the adoption of new training approaches to meet demand. Thus, tropical universities are called upon to transform themselves and to open up to approaches that are better adapted to the contexts of these current challenges.
Distance learning (FAD) and open distance learning (ODL) are presented as solutions to remedy this situation. As a space for innovation, the digital world is also the vehicle for a new circulation of ideas and scientific and technical advances.
If the University's primary responsibility is to appropriate these technologies and knowledge, it is also its responsibility to share them with society. Teachers are, of course, the primary agents of this institutional and social appropriation. Still, it is also increasingly the responsibility of students, whose skills integrate the digital world's requirements (AUF, 2014). This development has considerably modified the way the University itself functions and its modes of governance. The administration and teaching within the FOAD GAGER Master's program at the University of Ngaoundéré is a remarkable example of this. We are celebrating its 10th anniversary with this scientific meeting.
Distance learning: the cas of the master GAGER
Defined by Glikman (1994)6 as the transmission and acquiring of knowledge implemented outside of the physical presence of the trainer and the trainee in the same place during training. Distance Education was initiated in the 1720s in America by Caleb Phillips. It gradually evolved from a postal correspondence system to an online virtual learning system starting in 1999 (e-learning), passing in turn through learning by radio and television. Distance training, beyond the means of knowledge transmission, has also evolved in its form to give rise to categories such as FOAD and MOOC. The Master GAGER of the University of Ngaoundéré (Cameroon), whose experience is shared here, falls within the first category.
It is not always easy to distinguish WADT from other forms of distance learning. For UNESCO, WAADF is characterized by "freedom of access to the pedagogical resources made available to the learner, without any restriction, namely: the absence of admission conditions, itinerary and pace of training chosen by the learner according to his/her availability, and conclusion of a contract between the learner and the institution." The European Commission sees it as "distance learning that allows everyone to work independently, at their own pace, wherever they are, in particular, thanks to e-learning."
According to the specialized website eduscol7, FOAD is based on a tripartite foundation: the integration of information and communication technologies, adaptation to the individual, and modularity of training. It is therefore distinguished by a training system that takes into account the needs of the learners, "articulating the training content with various services"8 (tutoring, forum, exercises or simulations, virtual classes, resource centers, video courses, tele-presential...), which frees up constraints of place and time.
Genesis and description of the master GAGER
The MASTER in Geomatics, Development and Resource Management (GAGER) is the result of an open and distance learning project developed since 2006 by the Geomatics Laboratory of the University of Ngaoundéré in Cameroon. The initiative of this training responds to a strong need for professionals in geomatics in Central Africa in particular, noted by the observations of the scientific manager of this laboratory. Benefiting from strong interest and support from the administrative hierarchy of the said University (the Rectorate), and the training courses were launched in 2010 with 19 trainees.
This Masters program is transversal to the natural, exact, human and social sciences. It mainly extends the Masters and Master I in geography, natural sciences, and computer science. It focuses on the applications of geomatics understood as "computer processing of spatially referenced data". By combining geographic sciences and computer science. Geomatics involves all disciplines interested in digitized geographic information (agriculture, planning, cartography, environment, geodesy, geography, geology, hydrology, pedology, topography, remote sensing, urban planning, etc.). This Master 2 welcomes MASTERS 1 students and staff from professional environments equivalent to Bac + 4 (Four years Post-Graduate).
It gathers geo-referenced data that can be analyzed, updated, and presented in several forms: individual, cartographic, thematic, and synthetic. It is an information system containing subsystems for the capture, storage, extraction, manipulation, analysis, and display of spatially referenced data. It is a revolution in the field of spatial analysis.
Master 2 is intended to professionalize the discipline. To achieve that goal, it focuses on applied geomatics methods and tools for the integrated management of territories and the environment. It, therefore, trains students in "geomatics, cartography, territory and resource management," executives specialized in the organization, storage, processing, and management of geographic and environmental data. The originality of this training lies in its cross-disciplinary nature, which predisposes graduates to jobs in a variety of sectors. This positioning gives the training greater flexibility and adaptability to the job market's evolution in this emerging field.
This MASTER prepares students for the professions of planning and management of resources based on geographic information. Graduates from this training, directly operational, can adapt to a wide variety of fields of study, both within local authorities and with service providers (design offices), environmental managers, research institutes...
Focusing on the technological and professionalization aspects, the skills developed respond to the policy of the CEMAC Heads of State within the framework of the LMD system, implemented by their Head of Government and applied by the Ministers of Higher Education. These skills are directly related to geomatics in the broadest sense and to everything that concerns the life of a company or a local authority and its positioning concerning others. Emphasis is placed on innovation, technology watch, knowledge of advanced technologies in the collection, storage, analysis, and management of environmental data.
Technicians with dual skills may hold positions as project managers in private or public companies or as heads of technical services in municipalities in various fields, but for which maps, plans, spatialized digital information and computer science are the main tools.
The courses provide students with a double competence in the field of geographic sciences on the one hand and the management of digital spatialized information on the other hand.
In this world where techno-pedagogy profoundly modifies the teacher's task, the organization of teaching, the conception of learning, and even the way in which the learner appropriates knowledge, the importance of ICT in training is today an inescapable fact that it is essential to document scientifically, as their integration into the teaching system now seems irreversible, but not without pitfalls.
There is every reason to believe that the technologies are at the heart of a more global and profound transformation of society with the emergence of what is now called the digital economy, which in turn is linked to the development of a knowledgeable society.
However, the integration of ICTs into the work of the teacher cannot be seen as a mechanical process. In concrete terms, it raises the fundamental question of the preparation and training of teachers in the optimal use of ICT in relation to the improvement of the quality of student training.
Thus, from an analytical perspective of research and practices, with the goals of comparison and debate, this international Conference on the ten years of open and distance learning of the Master's degree in Geomatics, Planning and Resource Management (GAGER) at the University of Ngaoundéré, intends, on a theoretical level, to present papers aimed at better understanding the process and the different impacts of Geomatics and ICT in university training.
The program of the Conference includes training in the tools of land use planning, resource management and pedagogical uses of ICT, the transfer of techno-pedagogical skills in practice, and the impact of ICT on the work of the teacher, in connection with the learning of students.
The central theme of this International Conference is also based on the most recent international literature results in the fields of territorial planning, resource management, and distance learning. How do ICTs contribute to training in Spatial Planning and Resource Management? How are techno-pedagogical tools capitalized for university training in general and for professional training in Spatial Planning and Resource Management in particular? These are the questions underlying this scientific meeting in Ngaoundéré. We can thus see that the professional knowledge at the basis of teaching is varied and that it calls not only on cognitive knowledge, theoretical and disciplinary knowledge, but also on practical skills, actionable knowledge, as well as skills and attitudes specific to this profession where teachers and tutors interact at all times with learners.
This variety of professional knowledge makes it possible to situate the pedagogical integration of ICT in relation to a broader scientific issue concerning the cognitive, epistemological and pragmatic foundations of teachers' work and training.
- The axes below underscore the issues that will be addressed during this meeting.
- Axis 1. Digital technologies and higher education.
- Axis 2. Evaluation systems in distance learning.
- Axis 3. Geomatics and land use planning.
- Axis 4. Geomatics, exploitation, and management of resources.
As an epilogue to this International Conference, a round table will bring together specialists from various backgrounds to discuss the issue of MOOCs and their integration into curricula, teaching and e-learning platforms made available to teachers and learners by universities, the professional identity of teachers faced with the mediatization of training systems, etc...
In this sense, the papers presented will highlight that the integration of ICTs cannot be isolated from the other dimensions of teaching and the more global skills that underpin practices.
Speakers will be asked in turns these questions and will be invited to answer them in pairs, previously selected by the moderator. Conference participants will also be encouraged to share their questions and perspectives throughout the online communication platform Telegram feed.
Submission guidelines
A biography of a maximum of 10 lines is requested from the author(s) of the article.
The style of writing should be simple, accessible, and well-illustrated. Short sentences are highly recommended for this purpose.
Proposals for full articles are due by April 25, 2021
at the following addresses: rigager2017@gmail.com, ndjeuto@gmail.com, michel.tchotsoua@ensb-univ-ndere.cm , narcisse.talla@ensb-univ-ndere.cm
Complete submitted articles will be sent immediately to a triple expertise sequence. The reviewed papers will be returned to the authors on May 15, 2021. Only the authors of articles previously positively appraised will have to integrate corrections, if requested. The return of the said corrected papers is scheduled for June 30, 2021, at the latest. The International Conference will be held at the University of Ngaoundéré from 22 to September 24, 2021.
For the citations of authors in the text, the authors of the papers must mention the name(s) of the author(s) cited in their proposal followed by the initials of their first name(s), the year of publication, the number of the page of the extract of the text, and reproduce precisely the words of the cited author, but between quotation marks and in italics.
Authors should ensure that the quotations contained in their text do not exceed four lines in A4 format; that footnotes include the full name of the author they quote, the title of the work (in italics), the publishing house and city, the year of publication and the page number. When citing an article, they must specify the full name of the author, the title of the article (in quotation marks) followed by the book or journal in which the article was published (in italics), the number of the journal, the volume, the year of publication and the number of pages. Photos and maps must be in JPEG image format. Tables, photos, and figures (graphs, drawings, maps) are numbered in Arabic numerals (Table 1; Photo 2; Figure 3) in the order in which they appear in the text. They should be referred to or cited in the text by their number in parentheses: (Table 1), (Photo 2), (Figure 3). Bibliographic references will be listed in alphabetical order. All references must be called or cited in the text (APA).
Registration and participation
Anyone wishing to participate in the International Conference must register in due form and pay the registration fee for participation from July 1, 2021 via the following link: http://labogeomatique-un.org/conf.
Patronage
Minister of State, Minister of Higher Education
Scientific Committee
The scientific committee evaluates communication and poster projects. It is the only one empowered to choose projects according to their quality and interest in the objectives pursued. The scientific committee participates in elaborating the final program of the Conference and in the publication of the proceedings.
General Chair
- TCHOTSOUA Michel, michel.tchotsoua@ensb-univ-ndere.cm, University of Ngaoundéré, Cameroon.
Deputy Chair
- TALLA TANKAM Narcisse, narcisse.talla@ensb-univ-ndere.cm , University of Ngaoundéré -ENS Bertoua, Cameroon
Members
- AOUDOU DOUA Sylvain, aoudououa@yahoo.fr, University of Maroua, Cameroon
- ASSAKO ASSAKO René Joly, rjassako@yahoo.fr, University of Douala B
- ALGAH Sounders NGUH, juniorsa20020@yahoo.cn.uk , University of Buea, Cameroon
- NDAME Joseph Pierre, ndamejoseph@yahoo.fr, Université de Ngaoundéré, Cameroun
- BASKA TOUSSIA Daniel Valérie, baskatoussia@yahoo.fr ,University of Maroua, Cameroon
- BRING Christophe, bringchristophe@yahoo.fr MINEPDED, Cameroon.
- FOGWE Zephania NJI, nfogwez@yahoo.co.uk , University of Bamenda, Cameroon.
- MAÂTOUK Mustapha, maatoukm@gmail.com , Geoinformation Engineer at the Faculty of Sciences and Techniques of Tangier, Morocco
- MADJIGOTO Robert, rmadjigoto@yahoo.fr , University of Ndjamena, Chad.
- MBAHA Joseph Pascal, pascal_mbaha@yahoo.fr , University of Douala, Cameroon.
- NGOUFO Roger, Ngoufocew08@yahoo.fr , University of Yaoundé 1, Cameroon
- OKANGA-GUAY, m_okanga_guay@yahoo.fr , Laboratoire de Géomatique, de Recherche Appliquée et de Conseil, Pôle Scientifique FLSH, Université Omar Bongo, Gabon
- RAIMOND Christine, http://www.prodig.cnrs.fr/spip.php?article19 , University of Paris 1 Pantheon, PRODIG.
- RUDANT Jean Paul, Professor, rudant@univ-mlv.fr , master IG Marne and IASIG Douala Cameroon
- TABOPDA WAFO Gervais, gervais.tabopda@design.gatech.edu , Adjunct Professor, School of City and Regional Planning, Georgia Institute of Technology. USA
- TCHAWA Paul, ptchawa@yahoo.fr , University of Yaoundé 1, Cameroon
- TSAYEM DEMAZE Moises, moise.tsayem-demaze@univ-leman.fr , Full Professor, HDR, University of Maine, France.
- WOUNFA Jean Marie, wounfajeanmarie@gmail.com , Senior Lecturer, University of Ngaoundéré, Cameroon.
- YEMMAFOUO Aristide, ayemmafouo@gmail.com, University of Dschang, Cameroon.
Organizing Committee
General Chair
- TCHOTSOUA Michel, Scientific and Pedagogical Manager of the GAGER’ Master, University of Ngaoundéré.
Web chair:
- TALLA TANKAM Narcisse, ENS de Bertoua.
Heads of Commissions:
- ANABA BANIMB Christian Robert, University of Ngaoundéré, Finance.
- DZENE Joseph and NOLEDJE Felix, University of Ngaoundéré, Public Relations.
- MABOULOUM Anne Marie, University of Ngaoundéré, Logistics.
- NDJEUTO TCHOULI Prosper Innocent and KOUEDJOU Landry, University of Ngaoundéré, Reception and Accommodation.
- MVU NGUOFEYUOM Marie and DOURKANGOU Yafet, University of Ngaoundéré, Secretariat.
Members:
- BATOURE BAMANA Apollinaire, University of Ngaoundéré- Cameroon
- BOUBA Dieudonné, Université de Yaoundé 1, Cameroun
- FENDJI Jean Louis, University of Ngaoundéré, Cameroon
- FOFIRI NZOSSIE Éric Joel, MINEPDED, Yaoundé, Cameroon
- FOTSING Janvier, University of Buea, Cameroon
- GANOTA Boniface, University of Maroua, Cameroon
- GBESSI Éric, Water and Forest Officer, Geomatician at the Ministry of Environment and Forest Resources, Togo.
- KAGOMBE Timothé, MINEPDED, Yaoundé, Cameroon
- HADIZA KIARI Fougou, Université de Diffa, Niger
- LATE Boniface, Mbouda Polytechnic Institute, Cameroon
- LILA Bibriven, University of Ngaoundéré, Cameroon
- MEDIEBOU CHINJI, Université de Yaoundé 1
- MENA Sylvère Marin, University of Ngaoundéré, Cameroon
- MOHAMADOU Guidado, MINESUP, Yaoundé, Cameroon
- PETNGA NYAMEN Simon Pierre, University of Ngaoundéré, ENS de Bertoua - Cameroon
- YAYA MOHAMADOU, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Subjects
- Africa (Main subject)
- Zones and regions > Africa > Sub-Saharan Africa
- Mind and language > Epistemology and methodology > Mapping, imagery, GIS
Places
- CDTIC - Université de Ngaoundéré
Ngaoundéré, Cameroon (237)
Date(s)
- Sunday, April 25, 2021
Keywords
- géomatique, aménagement du territoire, gestion des ressources, cartographie, formation à distance, FOAD, MOOC
Contact(s)
- Michel Tchotsoua
courriel : michel [dot] tchotsoua [at] ensb-univ-ndere [dot] cm - Narcisse Talla Tankam
courriel : narcisse [dot] talla [at] ensb-univ-ndere [dot] cm
Reference Urls
Information source
- Michel Tchotsoua
courriel : michel [dot] tchotsoua [at] ensb-univ-ndere [dot] cm
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Geomatics, land use planning and resource management in tropical environments », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Friday, January 29, 2021, https://calenda.org/835960
