gi technologies in secondary school education as the key...

302

GI Technologies in Secondary School Education as the Key to Responsible Spatial Citizenship

Elzbieta WOLOSZYNSKA and Monika RUSZTECKA

Abstract

Modern society is depending increasingly on spatial information (geoinformation), which can only properly be used by people possessing geo-understanding skills. This paper pre-sents the experience of UNEP/GRID-Warsaw Centre deriving from the two educational projects promoting use of geoinformation and GI technologies in secondary school educa-tion addressed at school teachers (The EduGIS Academy) as well as students (The Geoconsultation+). According to the research results the development of “spatial thinking” by citizens requires changes in the Polish education system.

1 Introduction

The classic Polish proverb says – “What little Johnny does not learn, big John will not know”. This wise statement perfectly interprets the relation between the teaching process taking place in schools and its influence on the student’s life, especially in the context of his/her future professional and social activity. School education should not only be un-derstood as the simple acquisition of the greatest amount of knowledge determined by the core curriculum of a subject. Its essence is to develop the ability to use knowledge in practice – adjusting such methods with the aim to allow young, absorbent minds to develop their interests and cognitive skills.

Modern society depends on the huge amount of information, particularly with a spatial component – related to a specific location. It is gathered by (or with the involvement of) a huge number of observers, interpreters, measuring tools and can be made available through different GI (geoinformation) tools: geoportals, map applications, virtual globes, 3D anima-tions, GIS (Geographic Information Systems) software used for conducting spatial analyz-es. However, only people possessing geo-understanding skills, which include reading and interpreting maps and other geovisualization, critically approaching the data, conducting spatial analyses, drawing and reflecting conclusions (GRYL, JEKEL & DONERT 2010), are able to properly use geoinformation. This ability is crucial for developing a spatially literate society.

Spatial literacy could be an important argument for the wider introduction of geoinforma-tion classes into the school and non-school education curricula, just as no one doubts the need for IT education in general. The needs of a new generations increasingly require changes in the education system – putting more attention to the development of specific student-focused skills (GI skills) that for example provide the ability to find appropriate (geo)information and use it in practice, instead of providing pupils with ready solutions.

Jekel, T., Car, A., Strobl, J. & Griesebner, G. (Eds.) (2012): GI_Forum 2012: Geovizualisation, Society and Learning. © Herbert Wichmann Verlag, VDE VERLAG GMBH, Berlin/Offenbach. ISBN 978-3-87907-521-8.

GI Technologies in Secondary School Education 303

The development of a new type of a citizen is required – the “spatially thinking” one. How-ever, it is not a simple task. There are a lot of questions related to this issue. What is the list of skills required? How and when the teachers should and can develop those skills among their students? Which GI tools might be used?

2 Theory Versus Practice – Using GI technologies at School – An Opportunity for the Student’s Development

An essential element required for building a knowledge-based society, well prepared for current and future challenges, is the early and proper development of students’ interest in the surrounding world, and their competences in studying it. The youngsters should be well motivated and prepared to explore fields important to the knowledge-based economy, so that in the future they will become competent, well-educated and creative professionals.

Every three years, PISA (OECD Programme for International Student Assessment)1 evalu-ates the state of knowledge and skills of 15-year-old students in participating countries all over the world. All domains essential for full participation in the society are taken into account e.g. reading, mathematical and scientific literacy as well as problem solving, which enables an examination of cross-curricular competencies. The results of the latest PISA 2009 Report indicate that Polish students do well in explaining natural phenomena (knowl-edge) but still miss out on the integration of knowledge and skills allowing to understand the global phenomena or to solve problems. A Problem Based Learning philosophy is still missing (UNEP/GRID-WARSAW CENTRE 2011). During lessons the students often receive already processed information instead of having to discover it on their own by solving problems, interpreting and analyzing data, formulating hypotheses, planning and executing experiments, drawing conclusions. Consequently, the students often cannot cope with situa-tions requiring independent, creative thinking. This statement was confirmed by the analy-ses of the results of the 2012 junior high-school final exam provided by the Educational Research Institute (IBE) in Warsaw.2

An attempt to resolve the above-mentioned problems was the original incentive for launch-ing numerous educational projects implemented by UNEP/GRID-Warsaw Centre (http://www.gridw.pl). Two of them, conducted in 2010-2011, provided a chance to support the development of geo-understanding skills among students as well as in a group of teachers as responsible for expanding the interest of future citizens. The above activities were targeted at different audiences (typical school education and non-school project sup-porting public consultation processes). However, they were strictly connected, because only the full cooperation of teachers and students can improve the quality of our new digital society.

1 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is an international study which began in the year

2000. It aims to evaluate education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old stu-dents (http://www.pisa.oecd.org).

2 Educational Research Institute (IBE) is an institution conducting interdisciplinary research concerning the functioning and effectiveness of the education system in Poland, preparing reports, expert opinions and carry-ing out advisory function. IBE is supervised by the Polish Minister of National Education (http://www.ibe.edu.pl/en).

E. Woloszynska and M. Rusztecka 304

2.1 How to start an adventure with GI? Guidelines for the teachers in the EduGIS Academy project3

Geoinformation technologies are a living and evolving environment. Available spatial data resources or geoinformation software/applications change rapidly and constantly increase in numbers. This is why it is so important for teachers to share their experiences with other interested educators in order to stay up-to-date. As the famous saying goes, the hardest thing is to start. Therefore, the main goal of the project4 was to popularize the use of information and communication technologies (ICT), as well as geoinformation (GI) in teaching science and in environmental education in secondary schools. To achieve this goal, the EduGIS Working Group was established. It mainly involved methodological con-sultants from the Regional Teacher Training Centers in Poland, who also worked as teach-ers in secondary schools. In the framework of the project, they participated in two work-shops which helped them to develop their GI skills (use of geoportals, dedicated GIS soft-ware, field training with GPS devices).

Fig. 1: EduGIS Group members during field training with GPS devices (left) and GIS software training (right) (source: UNEP/GRID-Warsaw archive)

These workshops were crucial for other activities carried out under the project. Members of the EduGIS Group, with the support of representatives of the Ministry of Education, and experts in the field of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from Poland and Norway (Gjøvik University) also had a chance to:

prepare a list of GI skills that should be developed among students of the secondary school education level, based on the Norwegian list of ICT competences5,

3 English version of the project website: http://www.edugis.pl/en. 4 The project was implemented with support from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Financial

Mechanism of the European Economic Area and Norwegian Financial Mechanism under the Scholarship and Training Fund.

5 The list of GIS skills can be downloaded from the project website: http://www.edugis.pl/en/images/stories/pdfy/EduGIS-GIS-related-skillsPL-ENG.pdf .


analyze the presence of GI skills in Polish biology and geography core curricula (find-ing provisions obliging teachers to pay more attention on geospatial issues),

compile a “GIS knowledge base” – gather a list of different spatial data resources to be used by teachers and students,

propose different scenarios and ideas for educational projects showing possibilities of using spatial data and GI tools in the classroom.

All the ideas developed by the Polish teachers were broadly discussed with their Norwegian adolescents invited to take part in the project activities in the course of specially organized meetings held in Gjøvik (Norway) and in Warsaw (Poland). The EduGIS Group members also had the chance to participate in a geography lesson with Norwegian youngsters. This helped them to formulate some pros and cons of different approaches to the GI education in Poland and Norway, and define some recommendations for teachers in both countries.

Fig. 2: EduGIS Group meeting with Norwegian teachers at Gjøvik University (left) and a lesson with the Norwegian youth at Gjøvik High School (right)

One of the main tasks of EduGIS Group was to confirm the reliability and suitability of the new teaching approach developed under the project – the use of geoinformation tools as a new method of discovering the world and enhancing a deeper recognition and under-standing of processes. All lesson scenarios (plans) had been developed on the basis of the above motto. Some of them had been tested during workshops:

with a group of Polish secondary school students (approx. 200 people) – participants of the GLOBE Program symposium, so called GLOBE GAMES;

with a group of Polish-Norwegian young people ( approx.20 people).

The results of the project were compiled in the guidebook entitled GIS at school. Guide-book for biology, geography, and science teachers available on the project website (http://www.edugis.pl/en/for-teachers/guide). It includes guidelines for teachers who wish to start their school adventure with geoinformation. They were also presented during the National Workshop for Teachers (two editions) and received great interest. More than 50 teachers participated in this activity. The EduGIS Academy project clearly demonstrated that introducing GI tools into teaching scientific subjects can be easy and fun for teachers, as well as very attractive and inspiring for the student, provided the educators are open to the use of new technologies. The above statement has been confirmed by the EduGIS Group members advice addressed to their colleagues: “A difficulty arising when preparing classes with geoinformation is to overcome the barrier of our own ignorance on GI tools


and their application. Participation in training is helpful but nothing can replace our own work and search for practical solutions.”

Fig. 3: Lesson with the Polish-Norwegian group (left) and one of the digital maps used during the lesson prepared with the use of the OpenSource GIS Desktop applica-tion (source: UNEP/GRID-Warsaw archive)

2.2 Young people in the public participation processes – responsible citizen-ship: The Geoconsultation + project

Spatial management is one of the key tasks performed by self-governance in municipalities in Poland. According to the Polish law the provisions of the local spatial management plans have to be discussed and agreed upon with the citizens. GI tools, e.g. map applications, geovisualization tools and 3D animations help to present and explain the nature of planned changes. Hence these techniques are often used in communication between local authorities and local community members. Therefore, there is a need to increase spatial awareness among Polish young people (future citizens). This was the reason for the implementation of a project addressing students aged 13–18 (secondary schools) entitled “Dialogue, compro-mise, public participation – school education for sustainable development of local commu-nities within protected areas” (in short – Geoconsultation+).6

The main goal of the project was to help the students of 50 schools from all over Poland to feel more “public spirit” and encourage them to actively participate in the spatial planning process. Each Geoconsultation+ team (constituted of some twenty people) proposed their own “dream investment” to be carried out in the municipality e.g. construction of a new sports and leisure complex, a shopping mall, or the revitalization of an old park. The students analyzed data from different sources (local spatial management plans, infor-mation on protected areas and sites, etc.), chose different optional potential locations for their investment, marked them on a map, and created simple 3D visualizations including not only the object itself but also its surrounding areas. All these materials were used to prepare meetings with e.g. self-governmental and nature conservation authorities, local community members, convened with the aim to discuss the investment and to reach con-sensus.

6 The project was co-financed by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management.


Public consultation sessions were conducted with the use of different participative tech-niques, including Web-GIS. Spatial information was presented on a specially developed geoportal (http://geokonsultacje.edu.pl/geoportal). It was not only a tool for the simple data visualization; a module for placing “geo-comments” had also been implemented. Each comment could be referenced to a specific object/location – an existing one, or the new one recently drawn/marked on the map. The use of GI tools helped youngsters to present the information in a comprehensive manner, to gather the comments of all actors involved in the public consultation process, and to immediately analyze it in order to prevent and avoid potential conflicts. During the public consultations some of the investments proposed by the students were considered to be quite important and feasible, supported by the citizens and due to the above were sometimes implemented by the local authorities.

Fig. 5: Location of one “dream investments” on a base of a local spatial management plan (source: http://geokonsultacje.edu.pl/geoportal) (left); 3D visualization of the “dream investment” of the secondary school in Katy Wroclawskie Environ-mental Education Centre (source: http://geokonsultacje.edu.pl/geoportal)

3 Conclusion and Outlook

Any developments in the school system should always aim at benefitting the students, and, more broadly, the society as a whole. From this perspective, the advantages of introducing GI technologies into school education curricula can easily be visible (UNEP/GRID-WARSAW

CENTRE 2011):

strengthening the objective and accurate perception of the World (with our senses en-hanced by new technologies) which is beneficial for building positive student attitudes;

making inspiring, stronger (motivation-wise) connection of thoughts, plans and activi-ties with the environment, region, country (also understood as the homeland in the spiritual, abstract sense). Use of the GI technologies builds a very positive relationship with nature, society and democracy, showing their necessary coexistence within one space;

improving knowledge, both simple and in-depth, of the terrain in all scales, because the space perceived in various dimensions, and its attributes are the topic of any GI ex-ercise;


strengthening the importance of information, including spatial information, that has real, economic value.

Geoinformation technologies are one of the least expensive ways to satisfy the curiosity about the world. For the user, they are convenient and attractive tools. They fit into the principles of sustainable development and may accelerate interest in using computers. Such interest is widespread among school students and youngsters. Information technology les-sons are frequently on top of the list of requested extra-curricular activities. Of course, this fascination brings well-known threats that cannot be ruled out in the case of GI tools. How-ever, as such are fully connected to reality, an uncritical dependence on GI technologies is less likely. Moreover, geoinformation technologies require continuous verification of the acquired information and making syntheses with the surrounding World as well as knowledge of nature, moral standards and, finally, common sense, indispensable for the proper education process. This way GI tools can help us to develop more “spatially-aware” citizens.

References

DONERT, K. (2010), Education for Spatial Citizenship. Where does Geography stand? Pres-entations at the IGU/CGE Symposium in Istanbul, July 8-10 2010, Fatih University. http://www.eurogeography.eu/conference/istanbul-2010/spatial-citizenship-istanbul-web.pdf.

GRYL, I., JEKEL, T. & DONERT, K. (2010), GI and Spatial Citizenship. In: JEKEL, T., DONERT, K., KOLLER, A. & VOGLER, R. (Eds.), Learning with Geoinformation V. Wichmann Verlag, Berlin/Offenbach, 2-12.

PISA 2009 REPORT (2010), http://www.oecd.org/edu/pisa/2009. UNEP/GRID-WARSAW CENTRE (Eds.) (2011), GIS at schools. Guidebook for biology, geog-

raphy and science teachers.

gi technologies in secondary school education as the key...

Documents