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GIS Software (Geographic Information Systems)
GIS software is not something every teacher has come across and while I
am posting this page, I don't consider myself to have done more than
touch the surface of the potential of this software. I will be coming
at
the discussion of GIS at this site from the perspective of both a
beginner
and as a teacher who might not have any discipline-specific imperative
to incorporate it into my classes. So, why even look at GIS? Why am I even bringing it up as a topic? Because GIS offers tremendous potential to provide an environment wherein students can tackle real problems, handle real data, and get genuine opportunities to handle charts, graphs, and maps to develop the critical skills necessary for visual quantitative literacy. At the same time that I have named those items, I've come across examples where teachers have been using GIS to teach concepts in literature, mathematics, physical education, nearly every area of science, art, technology, social studies (of course!), and just about anything else you can think of including home economics! From the perspective of uneasy beginners, is GIS easy to use? No. Is it worth the little bit of extra effort? Yes. How's that for honesty?! The good news is that you don't have to know everything to use it. In fact, that's the approach I'm taking. There are some amazing things this software can do in the hands of a raw beginner that they will get a real kick out of. That experience will be the point at which they are going to want to go further. There's a good chance that real GIS fans are going to take a look at what I will provide at this site and write to tell me that I've missed the point, and the power, of this software. It won't be that I've missed the point, it will be that I've ignored it. I'm going to focus on the nifty elements that just might get you and your students to try this out - even if you have never thought about it before and have always avoided maps, charts, and graphs. There are some things you can do with this that I really want you to consider. To the experts and major fans of GIS, you have my apologies in advance for the way in which I will deliberately distort, and even downplay, some of the classical uses of GIS. My goal is to stimulate interest in teachers who might otherwise never even look at this as part of their toolkit. They'd be missing something if that happens. At the ESRI.com site, they have come up with a phrase that truly captures the importance of getting involved with GIS software. They refer to it as the "spreadsheet for the 21st century." We're going to continue to face an every-increasing deluge of information. And while we have the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, it will be even more accurate to say that a picture is worth a thousand spreadsheets. The transformation of data into information and information into knowledge can only come about if we have a generation of students who have the tools they need to make sense of data and see patterns that would otherwise be lost in a sea of numbers. |