Sleepwalking into the Future: A World Without Spatial Thinking and Analysis
The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in education around the world is a relatively recent phenomenon. Settled almost entirely since 1990, the landscape is marked by pedagogical and technological trailblazing by enterprising educators who have overcome numerous challenges to teach about GIS and teach with GIS. They do so to promote spatial thinking throughout education. They have done so in a wide variety of settings, to students of all ages from primary, secondary, college, university, and after-school programs, in lecture halls, computer laboratories, on mobile devices, and in the field. Our Esri education team has been actively supporting these educators and this movement since 1992, in partnership and in collaboration with the community of educators, globally.
For all of the variety of the ways GIS is being used in education, a remarkably small number of themes are common. In the paper and set of 3 videos below, I identify those themes that have helped to create a growing, vibrant international GIS education community. These include a focus on problem-solving, inquiry-driven pedagogical techniques that use real-world data and geotechnologies to analyze spatial patterns on a local to global scale. They focus on classroom, community, and careers, and promote scholarship, citizenship, and artisanship. Yet despite progress over the past 35 years, not only do challenges remain, but forces are acting that could confine spatial thinking in education to a relatively small part of educational practice and research through 2030. These forces include an overreliance upon standardized assessments, budgetary constraints that curtail necessary components such as fieldwork and IT support, a lack of a curricular fit or home for GI (Geographic Information), and a continued reliance on funding and staffing educational institutions by disciplinary and departmental models which at times hinder interdisciplinary tools and approaches such as those offered through GIS.
The videos and paper makes recommendations about what needs to happen to advance the use of GIS in education at all levels. This includes establishing a disciplinary home for GIS throughout education, an increased emphasis on portfolios and other authentic assessment instruments, and the funding and establishment of a center that promotes research in the implementation and effectiveness of GIS in education. The future of GIS in education will also be impacted by community science or volunteered geographic information, the Web GIS environment, mobile computing, open data portals, and open application programming interfaces (APIs). Spatial analysis with GIS addresses the essential issues of the 21st Century. Natural and human-caused hazards, urban sprawl, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, public safety, water quality and availability, biodiversity loss, healthy economies, and other key and complex issues of our time can be better understood through the spatial framework.
Spatial thinking and analysis must take place throughout education, not only to have a positive impact on teaching and learning, but also on society as a whole, to benefit people and the planet. If this does not occur, we will be on uncertain footing in education, and we will be on precarious ground as a global society. As I state in the following series of videos, and in a paper that follows, without spatial thinking and spatial analysis in education and in society, we will essentially be sleepwalking into the future.
Part 1 of 3: https://youtu.be/7PaEEJOENHI?si=SlYFdIYYLIHb-Wwm
Part 2 of 3: https://youtu.be/YOv8REdT2go?si=0avo5KMQ1X34rtGD
Part 3 of 3: https://youtu.be/nXuzxDVFkE8?si=hHCjd4-vZyE2Wifd
https://gispoint.de/fileadmin/user_upload/paper_gis_open/537510017.pdf is a complete article, expanding on the themes in the videos that I have authored on this subject, for those who want to dig deeper into what I feel is an important topic.
What do you think we should be doing as a community to actively support, promote, and encourage spatial thinking and analysis in education, with implications for the greater society?
I welcome your comments!
--Joseph Kerski