Four Strategies for GIS Educators
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02-26-2015 11:30 PM
by
JosephKerski
A new article in ArcNews entitled Four Guidelines for the New GIS Professional not only offers insights for those new to the field of GIS, but also for educators who teach the subject and who use it as a tool to teach history, geography, earth science, and other subjects.
The article identifies four strategies that can ensure that a GIS professional remains at the forefront of this profession: (1) Build a strong platform; (2) Extend the platform across the organization; (3) Leverage existing GIS investments; and (4) Be active in the GIS community. I believe that educators can use the "building and extending the platform" strategies as an encouragement to spread spatial thinking and GIS beyond their own classroom walls. If you are at a university or community college, that might mean giving a few presentations each academic year to colleagues across campus, in history, language arts, biology, or another discipline that is maybe a bit outside your comfort zone. Spatial thinking has a way of bringing diverse disciplines together around the "whys of where", solving problems, and providing career pathways for students. If you are at a primary or secondary school, it might mean a presentation at a faculty meeting where you discuss why you are using GIS in your instruction, or having your students discuss their work at a school assembly, or conducting a hands-on workshop for educators in another school or the neighboring school district.
Leveraging existing GIS investments implies that, like anything worthwhile in education, teaching with GIS requires time and effort. These efforts will be longer lasting and more impactful on students if they are conducted in collaboration with your education colleagues on your campus or in your school district, or with colleagues far away who share similar interests. And finally, being active in the GIS community is important for geospatial educators, to garner support for your efforts from administrators, to share instructional practices, data, maps, and apps, and to share your stories so that others will be inspired to use these approaches and tools in their own instruction.The article points out four ways that the "GIS technology ecosystem" is rapidly changing, including cloud-based GIS, the widespread use of web mapping, the increasing adoption of open data, and the app revolution. What do these and other changes mean for the GIS educator?
The article reminds us that this is an exciting time in GIS. New applications and a growing awareness of the power of GIS are accelerating the need for skilled people in this field. Web mapping and visualization have opened the world's eyes to the power of the spatial visualization of information and are transforming how people understand the world. You, as a GIS educator, are key in making this happen, by enabling students to visualize, question, analyze, and interpret our world.
The article identifies four strategies that can ensure that a GIS professional remains at the forefront of this profession: (1) Build a strong platform; (2) Extend the platform across the organization; (3) Leverage existing GIS investments; and (4) Be active in the GIS community. I believe that educators can use the "building and extending the platform" strategies as an encouragement to spread spatial thinking and GIS beyond their own classroom walls. If you are at a university or community college, that might mean giving a few presentations each academic year to colleagues across campus, in history, language arts, biology, or another discipline that is maybe a bit outside your comfort zone. Spatial thinking has a way of bringing diverse disciplines together around the "whys of where", solving problems, and providing career pathways for students. If you are at a primary or secondary school, it might mean a presentation at a faculty meeting where you discuss why you are using GIS in your instruction, or having your students discuss their work at a school assembly, or conducting a hands-on workshop for educators in another school or the neighboring school district.
Leveraging existing GIS investments implies that, like anything worthwhile in education, teaching with GIS requires time and effort. These efforts will be longer lasting and more impactful on students if they are conducted in collaboration with your education colleagues on your campus or in your school district, or with colleagues far away who share similar interests. And finally, being active in the GIS community is important for geospatial educators, to garner support for your efforts from administrators, to share instructional practices, data, maps, and apps, and to share your stories so that others will be inspired to use these approaches and tools in their own instruction.The article points out four ways that the "GIS technology ecosystem" is rapidly changing, including cloud-based GIS, the widespread use of web mapping, the increasing adoption of open data, and the app revolution. What do these and other changes mean for the GIS educator?
The article reminds us that this is an exciting time in GIS. New applications and a growing awareness of the power of GIS are accelerating the need for skilled people in this field. Web mapping and visualization have opened the world's eyes to the power of the spatial visualization of information and are transforming how people understand the world. You, as a GIS educator, are key in making this happen, by enabling students to visualize, question, analyze, and interpret our world.
Visualize, question, analyze, and interpret: Four key parts of teaching and learning with GIS.
