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The History and Application of GIS in Educationby Tom Baker, KanCRN Systems SpecialistGIS and Education History Geographic Information Systems and public K-12 education first experienced a taste of unity in 1992 with the publication of a paramount article by Robert Tinker, now of the Concord Consortium. Tinker's work exposed the possibilities of representing data with digital maps in many curricula. He described the power, flexibility and intrigue that maps offered to 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students studying various aspects of the environment as a part of the KidNet Project. Tinker also describes the significance of kids "Ground truthing" data, whereby students, using a map, verify the attribute data of a map or satellite image. He suggested that these data confirmations makes the processes of ground truthing and mapping "alive and immediate, providing motivation… for mastering experimental techniques, and for pursuing detailed investigations of interactions". Furthermore, Tinker noted "GIS software provides a critical link between the immediate and personal level of field observation and global effects and concerns" (Tinker, 42). Trials and tribulations of GIS in K-12 Education In their 1996 study of GIS and K-12 learning, Audet and Abegg corroborated many of Tinker's comments. They offer a few observations key to learning GIS in the classroom, including the ability for teachers to differentiate and hierarchically categorize problem-solving styles of students. They also documented the significant role that GIS terminology and concepts play in the acquisition of GIS skills. They continued by adding that "GIS supports problem-solving, but is difficult to predict [consistent achievement]". These findings and others seem to suggest that GIS is, at the proper developmental level, an effective tool for the instruction of students for data analysis. Many other distinct advantages of GIS technology exist for K-12 students. Spatial literacy and geographic competence, defined as the ability to recognize the location or topology of map points and attributes, are two such advantages. Interpersonal skill development fostered through cooperative grouping and an enhanced "sense of existence of the wider world" often follow from the proper implementation of GIS instruction. Finally, the understanding of scale and resolution seems to be a critically important task for students, most readily nurtured through the use of GIS (Mackaness, 1994). Contents:
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