GE + IM = GISHE ?
Geographic Education and Information Management:
some Canadian experiences
Robert Maher
Independent consultant, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Outline of Keynote as presented September 5, 1996
GEOGRAPHIC EDUCATION
- Geographic Education is more than teaching Geography. It is the spatial
context within which we pose our questions.
- It goes beyond a single discipline.
- It has ties into Howard Gardner's seven types of thinking.
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
- Information Management is more than Information Technology.
- It concerns database design, loading and maintenance of databases, their
access and ownership.
- It links to Geographic Education when our problems are about spatial
databases.
- This means maps, images and methods of recording and storing location.
PRESENTATION OUTLINE
- teaching GIS at the Community College e.g. College of Geographic Sciences
(COGS), Lawrencetown, Nova SCotia.
- professional education in government e.g. Ontario Ministry of Natural
Resources
- GIS education consulting e.g. Statistics Canada, Nova Scotia
DEPARTMENT OF MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS
- Action and Future Direction
- Conclusion
EXPERIENCE FORMAT
- History
- Context
- Lessons
- Today
COGS: HISTORY
- 1980 Nova Scotia Land Survey Institute
- Federal funding for training Scientific Computer Programmers
- Bring in Computer Technology for benefit of other professions i.e.
surveying, cartography and community planning
- Later name change from NSLSI to COGS
COGS: CONTEXT
- design of one year post-graduate diploma GIS program followed other
programming programs
- focus on programming and database skills
- practical orientation with external cooperative projects
- fixed curriculum
COGS: LESSONS
- prerequisite disciplinary knowledge
- intensive skill development
- employment motivation
- connections to government and industry
- inadequate treatment of 'information systems' methodology
- inadequate treatment of geographic problem solving
COGS: TODAY
- similar curriculum with options
- different vendor relations
- move from one year to two year program
- continue to serve technical niche marketplace
OMNR: HISTORY
- 1980's use of GIS for digital cartography: Ontario topographic base maps
and forest inventory mapping
- 1990 pilot projects in Cambridge and Timmins for operational District use
of GIS
OMNR: CONTEXT
- Vendor of Record with ESRI Canada for all GIS technology
- Educational partnerships with colleges and universities
- focus on ecological sustainable management
- organizational downsizing and change in mandate
OMNR: LESSONS
- partnerships with Sir Sandford Fleming College and ESRI Canada
- relationship between GIS and other Information Technology
- outsourcing of training and education
OMNR: TODAY
- business re-engineering
- relocation and organizational change
- loss of human investment
- new client server technology
- new Natural Resources Values Information System under development
STATISTICS CANADA
- federal agency responsible for the census
- long time user of GIS
- separate Geography Division
- need Training and Education Plan
- link census concepts with geographic concepts
- use GIS as an educational delivery vehicle
- need to develop educational products
NOVA SCOTIA DEPARTMENT OF MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS
- provincial agency responsible for land records management
- partnership with ESRI Canada and NovaLIS
- need training and education plan
- rationalize business functions: land registration. assessment and mapping
ACTION AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
- Data Liberation Initiatives
- Keep learning new tools
- Promote geographic concepts: questions of distribution and spatial
processes
- Design educational products at the same time as the application system
- Define new programs e.g. Community based GIS and Environmental Management
- Enhanced partnerships with changes in instructional technology
CONCLUSION
- Geographic Education and Information Management are two conceptual
frameworks
- For GIS in Higher Education, we need to teach both contexts, recognizing
that the content will come from elsewhere.
- Content includes Applied Sciences and INformation Technology
- In relation to the landscape David Quammen says that the 'object-ground
relations have reversed'. Perhaps GIS will help us develop a new
perspective on this old problem.
Dr. Robert Maher
Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
bmaher@cycor.ca