A Manifesto on Mobile Computing in Geographic Education*

Abstract

Mobile, location-aware computing technology is widely available. In this article we sketch out a manifesto on mobile computing in geographic education (MoGeo) for consideration and debate within the geographic community. At the core of our argument is the idea that emerging mobile computing technologies will allow teachers to bring the classroom and pedagogic materials into the field, and that the resulting in situ educational experience will enhance learning by contextualizing the complex and abstract concepts that we teach. We provide a set of key principles that can guide the development of field experiences for students using these new technologies.     

A Review of “The Power of Place”

Two qualitative case studies, one focusing on K-12 teachers and the other on middle school students, explore key factors associated with using Geographic Information Systems in the classroom. In both studies, access to appropriate hardware is a critical barrier. Time is another critical barrier—time to learn the GIS software and time in the curriculum to incorporate GIS as a learning experience. In both case studies, learning the technology at the expense of learning spatial analysis was a danger, suggesting the need for conscious focus on the goal of using GIS to learn how to “do geography.”     

Integration of Geospatial Science in Teacher Education

Abstract

One of the primary missions of our university is to train future primary and secondary teachers. Geospatial sciences, including GIS, have long been excluded from teacher education curriculum. This article explains the curriculum revisions undertaken to increase the geospatial technology education of future teachers. A general education class introducing geospatial technology to the general student body has been developed, a cartography class has been modified to provide applied geospatial experience explicitly for future teachers, and a service learning partnership with local K–12 schools has been established where students are working with teachers to integrate geospatial sciences in their academic programs.     

Image Building in the Metro Centers: Some Implications

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that:

(1) High school and college teachers and their students are most likely to achieve success in the field when they are armed with a conceptual framework, a plan for discovering the framework and a body of instructional theory.

(2) There are distinct differences between field teaching or training and field experience.

(3) During a time when many students are dissatisfied with classroom instruction, field experience can revitalize geography teaching in colleges and high schools.

(4) Field experience can create concrete images which are likely to be meaningful for many years.     

GIS In-Service Teacher Training Based on TPACK

Abstract

This article introduces the geographic information systems (GIS) in-service teacher training, focusing on the intersection of technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) for successful implementation of GIS in the classroom. Eleven social studies teachers in Georgia learned GIS technologies, inquiry-based learning, and social studies so that they could create technology-enhanced and inquiry-based lessons using GIS technologies. This article reports participating teachers’ opinions and attitudes of the TPACK-based GIS training. It also reports useful pedagogical methods of introducing GIS technologies to students and additional support for teachers to help them use GIS in their classrooms more often.     

A Manifesto on Mobile Computing in Geographic Education*

Mobile, location‐aware computing technology is widely available. In this article we sketch out a manifesto on mobile computing in geographic education (MoGeo) for consideration and debate within the geographic community. At the core of our argument is the idea that emerging mobile computing technologies will allow teachers to bring the classroom and pedagogic materials into the field, and that the resulting in situ educational experience will enhance learning by contextualizing the complex and abstract concepts that we teach. We provide a set of key principles that can guide the development of field experiences for students using these new technologies.     

The Implementation and Effectiveness of Geographic Information Systems Technology and Methods in Secondary Education

Abstract

Geographic information systems (GIS) technology and methods have transformed decision-making in society by bringing geographic analysis to the desktop computer. Although some educators consider GIS to be a promising means for implementing reform, it has been adopted by less than 2 percent of American high schools. The reasons behind the interest in GIS, its slow implementation, and its effectiveness in teaching and learning are unclear. To address these concerns, this research describes the extent to which GIS is being implemented in American secondary education and assesses the effectiveness of lessons that use GIS. A survey of 1,520 high schools that own GIS software, along with experiments and case studies in three high schools, provided primary data for assessing the implementation and effectiveness of GIS.     

Telegraph Messenger Boys: Crossing the Borders between History of Technology and Human Geography

Abstract

Historians of telegraphy have traditionally focused on the system-builders who invented wire communications technologies and incorporated them into profit-making enterprises. Geographers of communications have traditionally traced the changes that the telegraph network wrought on the rank-size of cities and the speed of business. Both have ignored the history of the telegraph messenger boys and the “lived geography” of the telegraph network. This article summarizes a study of telegraph messengers as both active components of technological systems and laboring agents within produced urban spaces, bringing together the fields of both history of technology and human geography.

     

Lesson Plans in Geography

Abstract

This article advocates that geography teachers undertake field studies of human systems with their students. A field trip process is described that helps teachers to guide students to explore and analyze a real human system with the expressed goal of building skills that can transfer to and complement a wide range of geographic learning tasks identified in Geography for Life: National Geography Standards 1994. Students are taken to a human system, such as a supermarket or a hotel. In groups, students interview as well as tour with a representative of a key department of the human system. Using teacher-supplied materials, groups create models or visual schematics of the whole human system they studied. The model must show the complex as a collection of interdependent elements with distinct functions. The learning outcomes achieved by students are a collection of geographic skills ideal for transfer to subsequent geographic investigations of urban places and or regions.     

Geography in the International Baccalaureate

Abstract

The International Baccalaureate Organiz-ation (IBO) is doing much to promote the teaching of geography in schools. Since its establishment in 1968 to provide a common curriculum and university entrance credential for children of a geographically mobile international com-munity, it has evolved and now includes schools in national systems all over the world. As part of the curriculum group Individuals and Societies, geography is the-matic in organization, human in focus, and comprehensive in coverage. The geo-graphy syllabus can prove challenging to both teachers and students. Workshops are provided in each region to introduce new teachers to the assessment standards and practices of the IBO.     

Geography Education Across the Atlantic at the Geographical Association

Abstract

The Geographical Association (GA) is an international association of over 10,000 geography educators headquartered in Sheffield, England. The National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) and the GA have similar goals. The GA's annual conferences provide an excellent opportunity to begin geography education partnerships between the NCGE and the GA. Operating exhibits and teaching workshops on geographic information systems at the last three Geographical Association conferences at universities in England afforded the opportunity to network with teachers and pave the way for future collaboration.     

GIS in the K-12 Curriculum: A Cautionary Note

Two qualitative case studies, one focusing on K-12 teachers and the other on middle school students, explore key factors associated with using Geographic Information Systems in the classroom. In both studies, access to appropriate hardware is a critical barrier. Time is another critical barrier—time to learn the GIS software and time in the curriculum to incorporate GIS as a learning experience. In both case studies, learning the technology at the expense of learning spatial analysis was a danger, suggesting the need for conscious focus on the goal of using GIS to learn how to “do geography.”     

Exploring Obstacles toEducational Reform: Observations from Finding a Way

This paper examines teachers' expressions of concerns and resistance to the idea of making their classrooms gender equitable. The observations made here arose in the context of the National Science Foundation-funded National Council for Geographic Education Finding A Way project. During Finding A Way summer institutes, teachers were asked to look critically at themselves and reflect on their classroom practices. From their journal entries and personal narratives, it was found that teachers frequently experience powerful emotional responses and cognitive dissonance when asked to address issues of equity in their classrooms. Dissonance, ambivalence, and resistance surfaced most often over the “request” that they become proactive. We found that Finding A Way was most successful with those teachers who were willing to assume the role of “change agents” and who were personally invested in the outcome. Heretofore, professional development research in geography has been remarkably silent on the issue of teacher resistance to educational reform initiatives.     

Fifteen Year Follow-Up Geography Skills Test Administered in Indiana, 1987 and 2002

Abstract

After fifteen years of geographic education efforts, a baseline geography skills test was repeated in Indiana. In 2002, 2,278 students in college freshman geography courses were tested with a revision of the National Council for Geographic Education Competency-Based Geography Test, Secondary Level Form II. The test measured geographic ability in map skills, place name location, physical geography, and human geography. As in 1987, the 2002 test gathered personal information from each student on age, gender, travel experience, and prior geographic education. Test scores were lower by two percent in 2002. Travel and lifetime experience are again the best teachers of geography as opposed to high school geography course work. Significant performance differences persist between gender and ethnic groups. Arts and science students perform significantly higher than students from education, business, and other schools. Test results underscore the need to emphasize more intentional classroom focus on state standards and preparation of classroom teachers.     

Index to Volume 102

Abstract

Findings of a study that investigated conditions associated with introducing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) into pre-college curricula are described. Questionnaires, field observations, and interviews provided the principal data sources. Key implementation issues were organized into a conceptual model that integrates factors connected with educational applications of GIS. This article also introduces the GIS Readiness Survey, a self-administered questionnaire that enables potential users to assess the status of conditions associated with the classroom introduction of this technology.     

Geographical Publications

Abstract

Project Marco Polo provided the opportunity for teachers and students to experience Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean firsthand through the lens of a geographer, archeologist, and oceanographer. The National Geographic Society and U.S. Navy collaborated to provide meaningful applied geography field experiences for teacher and student participants. In addition, participants developed a global perspective which enabled them to better understand the interrelationship of the region's diverse cultures and lands.     

Nordic innovation models: Why is Norway different?

ABSTRACT

The study objective is to assess why official statistics give the impression that Norway has low levels of innovation compared to other Nordic countries. The author examines innovation practices in Denmark and Norway to demonstrate that this is not the case. The results reveal that official statistics are misleading and that Norway has a high level of innovation but spends relatively less on scientific research. A further finding is that in Finland and Sweden innovation is heavily based on science and technology, whereas Denmark and Norway are clearly more pragmatic and base their innovation more on a ‘doing, using, and interacting’ (DUI) post-science, technology, and innovation (STI) approach. Additionally, in Denmark systems are led by small and medium-sized enterprises, whereas in Norway they are led by large enterprises. The author discusses the explanations for such differences in national and regional ‘innovation systems’ among countries that appear to outsiders to have a lot in common. He concludes that, by contrast, the ‘insiders’ are aware that they are quite distinctive societies that are evolving notably divergent developmental pathways. A key and probably controversial conclusion is that in the contemporary post-specialisation and post-cluster era the DUI systems have advantages over the STI-led ones.     

Agnotology as a Teaching Tool: Learning Climate Science by Studying Misinformation

Abstract

Foreign travel for secondary school teachers is beneficial for enhancement of classroom curriculum. The dual nature of the U.S. Navy-National Geographic co-sponsored trips is key to enriching the global geography perspective in the classroom. A travel study to Japan provides in-service benefit for teacher peers and community groups by enhancing geography through the link between the natural and social sciences.     

An intelligent expert system shell for knowledge-based Geographical Information Systems: 1. The tools

Abstract

An intelligent expert system shell for the development of knowledge-based geographical information systems (GIS) is examined in this two-part article. Basic concepts and the overall architecture of the shell are discussed in the present part. Fuzzy logic and expert systems technology are demonstrated to be appropriate methods for approximating human reasoning and enhancing the level of intelligence in GIS. The shell can be employed as an effective and efficient tool for developing knowledge-based GIS.     

Integrating multi-criteria evaluation with geographical information systems

Abstract

Geographical information systems (GIS) provide the decision-maker with a powerful set of tools for the manipulation and analysis of spatial information. The functionality of GIS is, however, limited to certain deterministic analyses in key application areas such as spatial search. The integration of multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) techniques with GIS is forwarded as providing the user with the means to evaluate various alternatives on the basis of multiple and conflicting criteria and objectives. An example application based on the search for suitable sites for the disposal of radioactive waste in the UK using the Arc/Info GIS is included. The potential use of a combined GIS-MCE approach in the development of spatial decision support systems is considered.