The effectiveness of geospatial practices in education

Abstract

Geospatial technologies (GST) has long been used in education in many countries. Teachers and students from around the world are using desktop and Web GIS, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Google Earth, and many other location based services available from the Internet in teaching and learning various school subjects such as geography, environmental sciences, social sciences, history, biology, and mathematics. Potentials of GST for teaching and learning have been identified in many studies. GST provides teachers with a dynamic platform where they can incorporate inquiry-based, student-centered and many other constructivist teaching methods in their lessons. Geospatial practices has a great potential for students to equip them with versatile knowledge and skills as well as to improve their achievements in lessons. Although a great majority of the literature expresses many different benefits of GST for education, some studies raise concern about its effectiveness by addressing the need to find the proper methods for its implementation. This chapter first evaluates the potentials of GST for teaching and learning and then discusses whether geospatial practices are actually effective mainly for secondary education by looking at different concerns and questions raised in the related literature.