The power of the globe and geospatial technologies to empower teachers and students in the digital age

Abstract

Geospatial technologies for exploring and analyzing the world are no longer restricted to a few skilled scientists and professionals—they are widely available and ready to use in schools. Geospatial technologies include the computer hardware and software used to collect, import, manipulate, store, analyze, and display geospatial data. Included are such technologies as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing tools, and other visualization systems. Such technologies have become available to nearly everyone through various mobile devices. Over the past decade, demand for such devices has skyrocketed as a way to manipulate and display geospatial information. For example, the integration of GPS data with digital maps has led to handheld and dashboard navigation devices used daily by millions of people worldwide. The ability to swiftly and dynamically represent the Earth’s geographic, scientific, social, political, economic, as well as a variety of other types of data visually and from different perspectives is the future of Generation R. But schools need to develop competencies necessary for using and creating geospatial data to inform a responsible Generation R citizen. This chapter examines an example of a middle school in the United States where geospatial technologies were used to empower teachers and students through the telling of their own historical story. In this “how to” example, teachers and students started with dendrochronology (tree-ring analysis), and teachers and students gained equally from learning about their own school, a former premier black high school during the pre- and Civil Rights era in a growing and changing capital city in the South. Geospatial tools expanded the scope of topics that the teachers and students were able to explore and prompted interdisciplinary science learning. This example provides a rich context for the discussion of how geospatial technologies can be implemented to enhance authentic learning and assessment in schools.