GIS in Secondary Education in Hungary—Experiences in Lessons and in a Study Group

Abstract

Two central themes in public education today are first, how to motivate students, and second, what tools help to support more effective learning in the classroom. Geoinformatics has been implemented in several countries’ educational systems to address these themes, which could be the case in Hungary as well. Using Geoinformatics in education has started slowly, but at this time there are more and more international examples in this special field assisted by several international organizations. These entities provide data and software for teachers, and in some places, training, and textbooks to help developing projects that engage the capabilities of information technology to conduct spatial analysis to help students. That is why many countries have also incorporated basic GIS applications into their national curriculum. Month after month many innovations are displayed in different languages in the world (although most of in English); we could take advantage of these novel education methods in Hungary. In Hungary, there are few opportunities to implement geoinformatics in school. That is why—based on internationally well-established experiences—I implemented and tested numerous good practices of online web applications to introduce GIS in education. In addition, I established a GIS study group at II. Rákóczi Ferenc High School where I obtained new insights.