Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
14.4
Strategies for Dissemination of GIS in Geography
Education
The new national curriculum dictates active implementation of GIS, especially in
senior high school geography education.
The value of GIS lies in its contribution to society. GIS has transitioned from a
geography information “system” to a “science,” and it is predicted that this will
move toward a focus on “service” (Yano
2001
). Geographic information has become
a part of our everyday lives and through a variety of media, its use has changed the
manner in which business is conducted. The inclusion of GIS in the National
Curriculum Standards, with a focus on senior high school geography, refl ects recent
changes in society.
However, the diffusion of GIS in education is confronted by barriers. One obstacle
is that geography teachers do not have equal access to computers. Instead, subjects
like Information have fi rst priority for computer use. The second issue is that teach-
ers inexperienced in GIS have diffi culty developing resources and materials for lec-
tures and interactive exercises. Teachers need standardized knowledge of information
and communication technologies (ICT) as well as concepts unique to GIS (e.g., how
to save data and the fi le formats).
The following section provides possible solutions and policies that may help to
promote GIS in senior high school geography education.
14.4.1
Lesson Plans Using Textbook-Based 50-Minute Lessons
Ito (
2010
) introduced the concept of virtually free, textbook-based 50-minute lesson plans
to be used as GIS teaching materials. Developed with a modest budget, these resources
encourage use of free GIS software and statistical data within a 50-minute period. These
lessons move students from constructing maps to the activities of comparison, analysis,
and observation, to acquire the knowledge and skills required in geography studies.
Data are cleaned and ready for immediate use, so that students do not need to
gather nor spend many hours processing data, which are time-intensive tasks. With
endless application opportunities that is tied back to the teaching unit, students
become interested in manipulating data with GIS software and look forward to their
next opportunity for such practical work. Through active visual recreation or data
manipulation, such as classifying data based on a set of specifi c conditions (e.g., the
top ten countries or countries below an average value in a category), students begin
to create individual maps and interpret the mapped data. Through these exercises,
they become profi cient at summarize and communicate their results. Each successive
class builds on knowledge and skills learned from previous activities in a single unit
of a 50-minute period lesson. In contrast to Information courses that involve multiple
teachers or teaching assistants, practical work for GIS generally requires only one
teacher who can lead up to 40 students in a class. Generally, the teacher demonstrates
steps and ideas for the activity, which students observe before doing the hands-on
