Learning to Think Spatially (2006) / Chapter Skim
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8 An Assessment of GIS as a System for Supporting Spatial Thinking in the K-12 Context
8 An Assessment of GIS as a System for Supporting Spatial Thinking in the K-12 Context
Pages 166-216
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the requirements of a system for supporting spatial thinking, (2) the criteria for the design of a support system in the K12 context, and (3)
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Based on the results of this analysis of the current status of GIS in K12 education, Section 8.5 examines organizational models for redesigning GIS software to fit the needs, constraints, and opportunities of the K12 context. 8.2 THE CAPACITY OF GIS AS A SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR SPATIAL THINKING For current GIS software products to support the teaching and learning of spatial thinking in the K12 context, they must have the capacity to (1)
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The following sections discuss the extent to which current GIS software products meet each of these three specific requirements of a support system for spatial thinking. 8.2.1 Capacity to Spatialize Inside a typical GIS, space is defined by a combination of geometry, projection, and registration data.
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GIS does a fine job if the data are geospatial; 2. GIS provides limited support for the spatialization of nonspatial data; and 3.
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Yet GIS are not yet as graphically advanced as information visualization systems (e.g., Advanced Visualization System, Data Explorer) because not all visual variables are under the direct control of the user.
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8.2.3 Capacity to Perform Functions As an engine for performing transformations, operations, and analyses, GIS displays its full power for supporting spatial thinking. The earliest GIS was developed in response to the need to make accurate measurements of the size, shape, and characteristics of areas from large numbers of paper maps (Foresman, 1998)
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172 LEARNING TO THINK SPATIALLY FIGURE 8.2 Two screenshots from Earthviewer. This web site allows users to zoom smoothly from global to submeter resolutions and to combine data from a patchwork of coverages.
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However, system designers could help students perform analyses with the provision of age- and task-appropriate assistance in the form of wizards, which would guide students through the morass of functionality and options exposed on standard user interfaces. There is one potential exception to the statement that GIS has more analytical capabilities than most students will ever need.
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2. The capacity of most GIS software to perform functions is greater than K12 students require.
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This analysis involves the "electronic stacking" of thematic layers of spatial data (e.g., human population, land cover, soils, hydrology) on "top" of each other so that the geographic positions within each layer are precisely registered to all the other data layers in the database (Figure 7.4)
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8.3 THE DESIGN OF GIS AS A SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR SPATIAL THINKING IN THE K12 EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT Chapter 6 identifies 10 general criteria considered as desiderata for the design of a support system to aid spatial thinking in K12 education. Here, the committee examines each of these criteria and assesses the extent to which current versions of GIS satisfy them.
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· Student-centered inquiry benefits from guidance and feedback. GIS software lacks reflective wizards to provide directed feedback.
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Even more valuable these days, when society expects K12 education to devote attention to social ends, is a tool that can help students address real-world problems. GIS can enable students to address real-world issues and, at the same time, help to break down
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initiative (http://www.cast.uark.edu/east/) has built on this philosophy by supporting schools with GIS software, data, training, and advice and has achieved success in involving K12 students in public arenas.
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Thus, GIS can be a software system to integrate knowledge of economic processes and demographic processes as they simultaneously impact an area or influence its future. However, although GIS can, in principle, facilitate learning transfer across school subjects, there is insuffi
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FIGURE 8.6 Hazardous trees: trees in poor or dying condition. cient research for us to make a definitive statement about the efficacy of GIS in fostering learning transfer from one subject to another (see also Chapter 4)
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However, existing, industrial-strength GIS software packages are too rich as a general tool for the K12 context. Table 8.4 gives the committee's assessment of GIS as a support system for spatial thinking through its capacity to meet educational goals.
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The GIS software built by the vendor community is industrial-strength. Designed almost entirely for and by experts, this professional-level software draws from many diverse, powerful technologies and sophisticated knowledge domains that include geography, database design, programming, statistics, remote sensing, geodesy, surveying, spatial analysis, and geometry.
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(See Box 8.4 for a description of some advantages of component-based system architectures.) The component-oriented approach may make it easier to design developmentally and educationally appropriate GIS software for the K12 context.
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It is customized in terms of its functionality to give novice users a graduated experience with some of the capabilities of GIS. Consisting of four ramped levels, ArcVoyager takes users from a simple beginner interface called "Exploring Key Concepts: Teach Me" to a fully functional GIS program called "Creating New Worlds: Turn Me Loose." The program interface and its GIS functionality become gradually more complex as students move through the four levels, allowing learners the opportunity to increase their mastery and comfort level before progressing to the next level.
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. Section 2402 of Public Law 107-110 focuses on improving the academic achievement of differently-abled students through the effective use of technology.
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. The challenge of making GIS accessible to the full range of learners is daunting in its complexity and will require many initiatives including those that "provide school teachers, principals, and administrators with the capacity to integrate technology effectively into curricula and instruction that are aligned with challenging State academic content and student academic achievement stan
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For example: · Assisting Visually Impaired Learners. Current GIS rely heavily on visualization at all stages -- from input to output.
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Although both the hardware and the software to enable these nonvisual interfaces exist, no current GIS incorporate anything but keyboard or standard mouse interfaces or provide anything but tabular, numerical, text, or visual map-diagram output. Thus the potential exists to make GIS more accessible to the visually impaired.
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Current GIS software products were developed as specialist tools for use in government, industry, and higher education. In such environments, software vendors could assume that sophisticated users were willing to invest considerable time and money in learning how to use a software product and how to customize its interface and functionality as needed.
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1. Existing professional-level GIS software products are not developmentally and educationally appropriate for the K12 context.
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Even if teachers had the time and expertise to customize the GIS software, customization would be occurring at the wrong scale, at the retail or school scale, not the wholesale or vendor scale. For wholesale, systemic change, GIS vendors have to develop products that can be readily deployed by the K12 community.
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At the same time, however, vendors should develop new GIS software packages that are more easily adopted with minimal training by teachers. With more intuitive and user-friendly software, teachers should grow more comfortable with using GIS to support inquiry-based instruction.
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Novice users attempt to run a process without remember ing to specify the active theme. When an unexpected result occurs, users are often baffled until they are reminded by more experienced users to check which theme is active.
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AN ASSESSMENT OF GIS AS A SYSTEM FOR SUPPORTING SPATIAL THINKING IN THE K12 CONTEXT 195 FIGURE 8.12 Active and inactive themes: one active theme. FIGURE 8.13 Active and inactive themes: two active themes.
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Figure 8.14 shows an ArcView 3 logical query window that provides no formal assistance in construction of the query; in this case, the user has single-clicked in the field column at the left, generating the suite of alternative values at right, but there is no firm clue about the nature of the statement desired in the space below. Figure 8.15 shows an ArcView 8 logical query window that operates in a similar fashion but at least provides a modicum of formal assistance with the statement immediately above the box where the query is to be constructed.
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AN ASSESSMENT OF GIS AS A SYSTEM FOR SUPPORTING SPATIAL THINKING IN THE K12 CONTEXT 197 FIGURE 8.15 Logical queries: query windows in ArcView 8. FIGURE 8.16 Logical queries: select by theme.
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The "magnify/plus" tool in ArcView 3 operates like a zoom tool in many other software packages. Thus, users click once in the map space to zoom in a specified amount and move the clicked spot into the center.
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AN ASSESSMENT OF GIS AS A SYSTEM FOR SUPPORTING SPATIAL THINKING IN THE K12 CONTEXT 199 FIGURE 8.18 Zooming in: standard procedure for defining a box to create a rescaled map. FIGURE 8.19 Zooming in: what happens when a user clicks in a site and accidentally wiggles before releasing the mouse?
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One solution is to run Windows emulation software on the Macintosh, but this adversely affects system performance. Another option is to move away from locally hosted GIS software and to access GIS functionality via an Internet plug-in working with a remote application server.
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graphics resolution with 64,000+ colors, running Windows XP/2000/NT4/ME/98/95, 600 MB hard drive space for Idrisi software and data ESRI's ArcView Software Windows (ArcView 8.3) : Pentium III or faster PC (http://www.esri.com/industries/k-12/bundle.html)
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Finally, administrative support means providing meaningful, ongoing professional development rather than one-shot training events. Professional development may take the form of peer coaching, released time for curriculum development, funding for on- and off-site training, or hiring spatial technology consultants to mentor new users.
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Therefore, a GIS designed to support spatial thinking in the K12 context would have to run on the types of hardware often found in schools. Besides the existing gap between the computing environment available in the typical K12 setting and the demands of the latest generation of professional GIS, stumbling blocks to the implementation of GIS are the ever-increasing expectations about teacher performance and frequently inflexible school infrastructures.
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have been developed for professionals in business and government and, in education, for the higher education market. The lack of GIS software designed for the K12 market is perhaps not surprising given the relative lack of penetration of GIS into school education.
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For example, some teachers have to obtain permission to install GIS software and students must apply for permission to use certain directories on the computer in order to complete their work and save their personal settings. These kinds of stumbling blocks create barriers to the adoption and integration of technology into the school curriculum.
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8.4.3 Instructional Support Teacher training is fundamental to the successful implementation of GIS as a support system for spatial thinking. Pre-service and in-service teachers should acquire training in basic GIS skills (see Box 8.6)
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(GIS is not restricted to the geography classroom: indeed its greatest impact will be in school subjects such as science and mathematics.) In addition to appropriate teaching methods and subject matter competency, these teachers have acquired basic GIS skills.
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Consequently, there is no leverage to integrate a suite of low- and high-tech tools to support spatial thinking as part of a larger mechanism for systemic change in American schools. If written, spatial thinking standards would provide an opportunity for spatial thinking to be recognized as crucial across the curriculum in K12 education and would specify what students must know and be able to do throughout their school careers.
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Each module comes with a tutorial and data set as well as instructions on how to view data and conduct analyses using GIS. ESRI has developed materials that both promote its GIS software and support the teaching of science, social studies, and community-based studies through GIS.
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The final unit, investigating the local environment, provides students with an opportunity to conduct field work and to use geographic and attribute data from their own community to investigate a local environmental issue. Each unit has a culminating activity that allows students to analyze data and develop a set of recommendations using GIS.
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AN ASSESSMENT OF GIS AS A SYSTEM FOR SUPPORTING SPATIAL THINKING IN THE K12 CONTEXT 211 FIGURE 8.22 A page from ESRI's Geography Network web site from which users can access a huge collection of geospatial datasets.
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Clearly, it will be difficult to integrate GIS and other support tools into the instructional process without the muscle of national spatial thinking standards and assessments. If spatial thinking standards were enhanced by the addition of GIS content and performance benchmarks or indicators, it would reinforce the concept of teaching with GIS instead of teaching about GIS.
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1. Nearly all schools have access to instructional computers and network connections to run some current versions of GIS and have the connectivity to download data.
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Because most communities are unfamiliar with GIS, they are unlikely to recognize the educational value of GIS before schools demonstrate what they can accomplish with GIS. 8.5 MECHANISMS FOR THE REDESIGN OF GIS EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE A redesign of GIS software is a key step if GIS is to succeed as a tool for supporting spatial thinking in the K12 context.
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The collaborative model views GIS software development as a collaborative process, underpinned by an open foundation of standards and basic functions.
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. 8.6 CONCLUSION As might be expected with any piece of complex software that has evolved over time, GIS has both strengths and weaknesses as a system for supporting spatial thinking.
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