Technology In Education - Term Paper Example

Technology In Education During the decade of the 1980s, computer technology entered many areas of everyday life in developed countries. However, to find computers being used in the classrooms at least in the United States-was, not at all a common sight. In fact, it was unlikely and occurred only at the high school level and in limited situations (Palladino, 1993; Aitken and Craine, 2009). Now, in the new millennium, educators have the basis to believe that computer technology is used in the school. Computers have given educators a new language, new problems, and other ways of looking at education. Most schools now want to adopt programs in their systems that will make all their student's computer literate. Basic Definition and Application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) A geographic information system is a package consisting of four basic parts: an adequately powered computer, software (built-in procedures and instructions), geographic data (in a variety of formats), and the accessing and using the data (Schuurman, 2004). In the broadest sense, GIS can be defined as a powerful set of computer-based tools for collecting, storing, retrieving and displaying spatial information (Schuurman, 2004). Another way of saying this is that GIS is a tool for mapping and analyzing what is and what happens on earth. However, GIS is more than "computer maps" - it provides the power to link databases and maps and to show dynamic displays. More significant is that it gives the user the tools to imagine, explore or investigate, and overlay databases in ways that are not possible with traditional spreadsheets. Education, government, and business use GIS to improve on making their decisions and on managing the information (McMaster and Usery, 2005). Why Use GIS In the Classroom The robust hardware, powerful software, spatial data can be powerful tools for an active explorer. Schools can take advantage of this "new geography" in many ways (McMaster and Usery, 2005). With relatively little financial investment by a school, GIS can be incorporated into current curricula, at each grade level and subject. GIS can give support and increase the value of existing activities and does not need a separate and 'isolated place in the curricula. With GIS the teacher and students have a new means to look at and analyze information. Also, the student's higher order thinking skills (e.g., observing, questioning, exploring, evaluating) can become a focus (McMaster and Usery, 2005). However, even more, significant than the powerful technology and tools with GIS, there is a wholly new emphasis and opportunity in the educational philosophy or paradigm for increasing individual exploration (NCSU.edu, 2002). In everyday life, answers are defined by people's questions and the parameters that are given. At present GIS software and data do not provide "the" answer. Instead, GIS offers ways to look at alternative responses to situations and problems that are specific (ESRI, 1998; ESRI, 2008). Interdisciplinary projects can be one important and effective use of GIS: mathematics, social studies, language arts, science are some examples of how this system can be helpful for the exploration of students. However, to relate GIS to the curriculum of these and other fields, there must be the "dimension" of a "location" that can be explored. An example of how GIS can be used in an interdisciplinary way is the use of a middle school teacher in North Carolina, Barbara Duke. This teacher used this technology to create a project for the students in a literature unit on Mark Twain. This unit could be related to Mark Twain's travels. The students of her class tracked the distance of Twain's travels by using tools of the ESRI Arc Voyager Project and. probed the database to find places located throughout the world where the author had traveled (NCSU.edu, 2002). Schools can employ GIS across the curriculum to engage students and teachers in the activities, issues, and needs in their local communities; they can learn as well to participate in activities that make them global citizens (ESRI, 1998; ESRI, 2008). Developments in GIS in Secondary Education Learning in the classroom can, no doubt, be supported by Geographic Information Systems especially in the cases where the students themselves initiate explorations for specific information in both the areas of the natural and social worlds. Teachers can educate through project basing work to encourage true understanding by developing the technical and intellectual tools (access, analysis, reporting) for assimilating information. Research supports the idea that these tools can increase the performance of both students and teachers. Both Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and scientific inquiry in the classroom can be aided by using GIS. By doing so, dispersed environmental data can be both collected and displayed (Dede, 1998). Once the mapping of data is completed it is possible for students to look at other areas of application and research; that is, once they are able to establish patterns and other products of analysis. Classroom use of GIS is able to encourage students to form questions and hypotheses for additional scientific inquiries. In other words, they are becoming young scientists. In general, as the 1980s saw more and more use of GIS, there was interest in exploring broader use of the system. This interest extended to its possible use in the schools. Thompson suggested, in a paper in 1987, that there are important considerations for educators if GIS would be part of the curriculum in schools, i.e., how it would be taught and what the content of such classes might be. In other words, he advocated that methodology and curriculum have to be considered. Poiker (1985), on the other hand, was more concerned that qualities of the software used with GIS be reviewed with respect to their value for classroom use, and both he and Walsh advised the "manual GIS" techniques (e.g., overlays) before proceeding to use computer-based GIS (Walsh, 1988). Digital maps could, according to Robert Tinker (1992), represent data for diverse curricular areas. In the KidNet Project, fourth, fifth, and sixth-grade students did a study of the environment using GIS maps. Tinker described the interest of the students in this activity as well as the importance of what he termed "Ground- truthing data" in which students were able to show the "Truth" or validity attributes given to maps or satellite images. He went on to say that these "data confirmations" make the activity using GIS motivating for acquiring good experimental methods, and also for investigating the interaction of elements and data (p.42). In addition, Tinker explained that the software used allows there to be a connection between the field observer and what is happening at the global level. The movement to employ GIS in the schools is like any other movement that would bring changes to an operating system. For there to be the success, there must be support outside the system that is most affected, i.e., the school and classroom. In the case of GIS, there have been inputs from a variety of sources, including companies, organizations, grant programs, etc which are contributing to the continued use and success of GIS in K -12 education. Some of the more important inputs, as they have developed over time, appear below in chronological order. The Geographic Alliance, which was set up in 1986 by the National Geographic Society, is a network of geography instructors with the purpose of increasing support for these teachers' efforts to better communicate their interests and share ideas that are individually created, such as classroom activities. At the state level, there will be an alliance to increase understanding of geographic concepts and information for the population of the state (NGS, 2005). Even if each state has its own program, every alliance is in support of GIS teacher training through newsletters that share teachers' ideas. Additionally, they help teachers form partnerships with other practitioners to exchange data and assist with additional teacher training. Geography Awareness Week takes place each year in November. It is sponsored by the National Geographic Society and promotes the understanding of geography for students and society in general. A consortium of universities in the United States organized the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) in 1988. Its purpose is to promote research in geographic information. A by-product of the NCGIA mission was to do activities that use education and outreach to the public to train professionals in GIS to answer the need for more people to have GIS skills. In 1990, the Center presented a "core curriculum" that would serve as a model for organizing the scope and sequence of a GIS undergraduate course. However, even though the efforts of the NCGIA were promoting GIS education in the core curriculum, many thought it was produced without attention to basic or fundamental educational principles such as pedagogy for relating to the effective and cognitive. Some compared the curriculum to "reading a military training manual" (Audet, 1993). Further classroom teachers at the high school level found the curriculum too "dense" and "technical" for their use (Palladino, 1998). For these reasons, the Secondary Education Project (SEP) began in 1992 with two purposes: 1) finding those GIS programs that now exist, and 2) starting new ones. This SEP-I was made up of a model institute for teachers, which would develop, test, and circulate materials for K-12 (Palladino, 1993). Unfortunately, NCGIA could not get the funding for either developing or continuing this SEP-I plan. Therefore, the project was unable to produce more than abortive attempts at attaining its purposes (Audet, 1993). In a study that looked at the incorporation of GIS into the geography curriculum in an Ontario high school, Maynard (1999) found that teachers and students needed considerable time in becoming acquainted with the even the simpler hands-on portion of GIS education. In December of that year, the GIS lab in the School of Geography and Geology developed the McMaster GIS High School Outreach Program; it was designed to encourage the use of GIS in high schools. Another focus of the program was to provide training and other forms of assistance to teachers at the high school level. Their activities have included: workshops to train in the use of the GIS software, ArcView and, organizing a GIS Day. According to Deane Maynard, project director, the outreach program has involved more than 1,750 high school students and teachers in their project (Maynard, 1999). The National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) has been in the forefront of promoting GIS in the K-12 curriculum. An overview of its positives and negatives were described by the Education Project Manager, Palladino, of NCGIA during the ESRI User's Conference of 1998. As a benefit, he offered that methods for obtaining GIS hardware, datasets, and software are more both easier and generally less expensive than before. However, on the downside, Palladino indicates that schools' computing resources are not equally distributed. There is also, he states, the problem of pre-service training of teachers for using GIS, i.e., nontraditional methodology, spatial literacy, and general computer skills (Palladino, 1998; Palladino, 1993). The NCGIA has contributed to the field of GIS education through core curriculum materials that set forth and promote a scope and sequence for both Geography and GIS Education. The Center is also aiding the Secondary Education Project in developing a curriculum for designing and pooling materials for teacher training workshops (NCGIA, 1999). Perhaps one of the best indicators of the coming to maturity of GIS in education is the organization of professional conferences around this interest. In January of 1994, educators at the pre-college level attended the first annual conference on educational applications of GIS. EGIS, as the interest group and conference has become known, is now a recognized umbrella group for a number of educational and professional subgroups and interests. Subdivisions fit into a framework of cognitive, pedagogical, curricular, and software issues (EDGIS, 1995). Applications of GIS in education is expanding rapidly, and this growth is expected to continue. As students have the possibility to use Internet-based mapping, the technology for remote sensing, etc., they are becoming skilled in using GIS. Applications such as Geodesy and ESRI's ArcVoyager, through more user-friendly characteristics, allow students more immediate access and lessen the amount of time needed to acquire the skills to operate them. The interface of the Geodesy package, for example, is designed specifically for its targeted K-12 students (Radke, 1999). Geographic Information Systems are highly motivating for both teachers and students, both for learning and for data analysis in and out of the classroom. Still, teacher training in the technical skills and pedagogy needed to effectively guide students in learning how to use and apply GIS applications. Unlike before, when the GIS software was more rigid and complex, the necessary software, hardware, and data sets for GIS· analysis are now generally available to schools (e.g., student application Geodesy and ArcVoyager). It is expected that this trend of expansion in the use of GIS tools for instruction will continue. GIS at the high school level Integrating GIS study within real-life situations is a motivating factor in the curriculum of GIS at the high school level; relevancy is key to capturing the interest of these students. Once the original explorations of regions and topics are covered, their searches can be expanded to those that look at their study in terms of job markets or other studies. That is, students, can begin to realize that features and aspects of a region can be integrated, and how these are interrelated. Additionally, the roles of the guidance counselors and teachers can be enhanced through GIS applications that allow them to expose the students to those jobs that employ people with the GIS skills, such as marketing, urban planning, environmental engineering, etc). Educators can also acquaint these students with how such workers would collect, utilize and display the resulting data. The role scripting (the language) plays in customizing ArcView GIS software, in the way it operates and appears, is important at each grade. It is possible to manage or manipulate the software so that functions that are visible are limited to one or two. Also, tasks can be predetermined so that the student explorer can examine and analyze more effectively and easily. When the teacher facilitator provides the basic direction re menu, tools, and task, it is possible for even very young students to be successful using the interface of a GIS, even though such interfaces may be thought of as being design for adults (ESRI, 2008). GIS use at the middle school level At the middle school level, students can learn to explore a particular occurrence (such as a weather pattern) over space. Students can look at such human traits as population or physical features such as lakes and see how the two such traits and features relate to one another. At this level, students can begin to examine features within a region and discovery the complex nature of the qualities that define and either separate or bring together certain areas. The middle school level is an excellent time to emphasize the integration of more than one discipline in using GIS technology (ESRI, White Paper, 1998). GIS in Different Subjects Students at every level and in a variety of subjects can profit from becoming trained in and using GIS. Teachers, along with their students, in subject areas other than geography can use GIS to examine, explore, and discover a very broad selection of topics. Regardless of the subject, the important elements of learning are discovery through exploration and the development of critical thinking. Social studies classes are very natural beneficiaries of GIS technology. Since data are collected and made available on a daily basis, issues, problems, current events, conflicts, and so forth, students are able to explore how conditions may be affected by certain factors (e.g., events) over time and space. Users are allowed to consider the impact on cultures of technology and the amounts and kinds of information over time. In mathematics classes, map projections can be explored, and students can practice using markers that are either absolute or relative in locating objects. Also, functions for spreadsheets, graphing, and charting can be used to study mathematical relationships of various elements or factors that can be found differing from one place to the other. Science classes are able to analyze relationships by looking for conditions in other places that have patterns that are similar to the local environment - such as, water quality, the fertility of the soil, amphibian health. By changing the information gotten through satellite imagery, users of GIS technology can become aware of how such alteration can impact visible patterns. Ground mapping can then be placed with an overlay of these images so that students can examine how the environment and its inhabitants influence one another. In language arts classes, reading exercises can be enhanced by combining these with maps that allow the student to explore the nature of the area they are reading about. Likewise, students in social studies or geography classes can have supplemental exercises that involve using language to describe - orally and in writing -- the characteristics of a place or an analysis of relationships they find. Art students can profit in some unique ways from the use of GIS technology. Human expression in its unending variety of artistic venues can be explored through this powerful tool. Because of the great variety of ways data can be presented with GIS, the impact of this variety on unskilled users in terms of his or her interpretation of patterns, colors, and so forth must be examined. GIS, in skilled hands, can integrate with an infinite variety of combinations the sound file, actual movie, a scene that is unfolding, a still picture, and so on (ESRI, White Paper, 1998). Conclusion In conclusion, there is a great importance of using the technology (GIS) in the teaching and learning processes in k-12 education. Previous studies showed that the use of technology (GIS) in learning helps in: Increasing student motivation. Students need encouragement to explore geographic information. Because GIS software allows students to be creatively interactive, they are more likely to become engaged in learning activities. Also, one of the key factors in student use of GIS is the teacher. When teachers are enthusiastic about the uses of GIS, he or she will communicate this enthusiasm to the students. What can be determined by the above is that GIS can greatly enhance the education of k-12 students and teachers as they work together in developing overall thinking and academic skills as they develop information about their community and the world. References Aitken, S. and Craine, J. (2009) ‘Into the image and beyond: Affective visual geographies and geographic information science’. In M. Cope and, ed. S. Elwood (eds) , ed. , Qualitative GIS: A Mixed Methods Approach. London: SAGE. pp. 139-55. Audet, R. H. (1993). Development a theoretical basis for introducing geographic information systems into high school: Cognitive implications. Boston University, School of Education. Dede, C. (Ed). (1998). Introduction. In Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) Yearbook: Learning with Technology. Alexandria, VA: Association for the Supervision and Curriculum Development. EdGIS, (1995). First national conference on the educational applications of GIS: Conference Report. Washington, DC. National Science Foundation. ESRI, (1998). GIS in K-12 Education. An ESRI White paper. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED396699.pdf ESRI, (2008). GIS in K-12 Education. Retrieved from http://www.esri.com/library/brochures/pdfs/k12broch.pdf Maynard, B. A. (1999). Project Manager, GIS Laboratory. School of Geography and Geology. (ESRI). GIS and Mapping. McMaster, R.B. and Usery, E.L. (2005) A Research Agenda for Geographic Information Science. Florida: Taylor & Francis. National Center for Geographic information Analysis (NCGIA). (1999). NCGIA GIS Education Conferences and meetings. Retrieved from http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/conf/conferences.html National Geographic Society (NGS). (2005). What Works In Geography Education. Retrieved from http://www.nationalgeographic.com/foundation/pdf/what_works_complete.pdf NCSU.edu (2002). Why use GIS in the classroom. Retrieved from http://www.ncsu.edu/gisined/text-why.html Palladino, S. (1993). A role for geographic information systems in the secondary schools: An assessment of the current status and future possibilities. Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley. Palladino, S. (1998). K-14 GIS: A review of eight years of NCGIA efforts. Proceedings, 18th Annual ESRI User Conference. San Diego, Califo Poiker, T. K. (1985). Geographic information Systems in the geographic curriculum. The Operational Geographer, 8, 38-41. Radke, S. (1999). GEODESY: An Educational Series for Youth. Retrieved from http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc96/TO350/PAP316/P316.HTM Schuurman, N. (2004) GIS: A Short Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Tinker, R. F. (1992). Mapware: Educational applications of geographic information systems. 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