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The History and Application of GIS in Education
by
Tom Baker, KanCRN Systems Specialist
Standards for Excellence
A leading advocate of GIS in K-12 education has been the National Center for
Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA). In a report to the ESRI User's
Conference of 1998, Palladino, NCGIA's Education Project Manager, outlined the
challenges and benefits of GIS in K-12 classroom. Among the positives he
suggests that now there are easier, more cost efficient methods for obtaining GIS
software, hardware, and data sets. Among the challenges, Palladino cites an
unequal distribution of computing resources among schools, and a lack of
pre-service teacher training that includes spatial literacy, non-traditional
teaching techniques, and computer skills training (Palladino, 1998; Palladino,
1994). The efforts of the NCGIA are worth noting, as it is one of the few
organizations that have attempted to establish and promote a scope and
sequence of Geography and GIS Education, with their Core Curriculum materials.
Additionally, NCGIA is facilitating the development of the Secondary Education
Project (SEP), a curriculum designed to develop and pool instructional materials
and disseminate them through teacher workshops (NCGIA SEP, no date). Similar
efforts have been undertaken by the University Consortium for Geographic
Information Science (UCGIS) to create a standardized GIS curriculum. However,
this curriculum is actually intended for GIS practitioners (Obermeyer & Onsurd, no
date).
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This article is the property of Tom Baker - tbaker@kancrn.org (c)2000. All rights reserved.
Any copying or reproduction of the article in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.
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