Teaching Geography with GIS in Ontario's Secondary Schools
Bob Sharpe and Angela Crechiolo
Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Until recently GIS has been limited to the resources and students
of postsecondary institutions. This situation is now changing in
Ontario. In the early 1990's, the Ontario Ministry of Education
adopted mandates to develop guidelines for the integration of
computers into all areas of the secondary school curriculum.
Although the process is now well underway, teachers have been
frustrated by limited access to hardware, insufficient pre-
service training, and by the paucity of teaching resources.
There is a growing literature on teaching GIS at the pre-
collegiate level, but it lacks clear guidelines that apply GIS
functionality to the teaching of geographic concepts and skills
at the pre-collegiate level. This paper first outlines aspects
of the history and current status of GIS in Ontario schools by
describing various efforts to promote the use of GIS in the
classroom. It then describes the research undertaken at Wilfrid
Laurier University to foster GIS education continuity between
post-secondary institutions and secondary schools. In
particular, it proposes a model of curriculum and teaching
exercises for the integration of GIS into the geography
classroom.
Angela Crechiolo
Waterloo-Laurier Graduate Program in Geography
Wilfrid Laurier University
and
Bob Sharpe, PhD
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies
Wilfrid Laurier University
Waterloo, Ontario
N2L 3C5
fax: 519-725-1342
e-mail: bsharpe@mach1.wlu.ca