Accepted Abstracts 
 
 

Friday Luncheon Speech

Rebuilding the Top of the Pyramid: Providing Technical GIS Education to Support Both GIS Development and Geographic Research

Professor Duane F. Marble
Department of Geography
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio 43210
email: marble.1@osu.edu

It has been nearly a quarter of a century since the first formal courses in GIS appeared in a U.S. geography department. We strongly oriented these early courses toward the geography/computer science interface since the availability of GIS technology then was generally of the "if you want it, you must build it" variety. As a result, many geography students of that era were well equipped to make substantial contributions to the development of GIS technology as well as to the advancement of geographic research. This second element represents a critical and generally unrecognized aspect of geographic tool development: as we try to significantly improve our tools, our attention is often directed toward major theoretical problems that have been neglected or overlooked in the past. Examples in the GIS context include the explicit handling of temporal components within spatial models as well as the need to more clearly understand the dimensionality of our spatial analysis operations.

Over the ensuing years the focus of GIS education in geography has changed and, regrettably, the discipline is now turning its back upon its initial high-return focus in the GIS arena in favor of turning out "real" geographers who are often only capable - at best - of routinely manipulating GIS packages designed by others. This disciplinary posture is, I firmly believe, bad for geography as a research discipline, bad for the GIS industry and bad for the hundreds of thousands of individuals and organizations who are finally finding out that "geography really matters" through their exposure to highly useful GIS technology.

My presentation will develop these points within the context of the triangle diagram of GIS education that I first presented at the initial OSU meetings in GIS in Higher Education. Some suggestions for correcting the present imbalance in GIS education within geography will be set forth.


 
The Use of Project Oriented GIS Education and Training in an Urban Setting.

Robert T. Aangeenbrug
University of South Florida
Tampa, FL 33620-8100
fx 813-974-4808
bobaa@luna.cas.usf.edu
 

The GIS laboratory is used as a link ro the employer/user community in our introduction to GIS class. A regular set of lectures and textbook are used for the course; amajor part of this four credit program is the laboratory. Early in the semester a project discussion is held and examples from the past five years worth of class projects are discussed. Students are encouraged to submit a pre-proposal by the fourth week of the 14 week semester. By week eight an initial presentation outline is discussed and critiqued in class. The project is due one day before the final presentation. This is a fifteen minute presentation to a professional panel of jurors. They critique each presentation. The jury grades each project on five dimensions: presentation style and effect, clarity of purpose, documentation, cartographic quality and scientific merit. A sample of twenty five projects will be presented to frame a discussion of the scope and results from the project presentations.

 

 
Development of a Precision Agriculture Education Network Between K-12, Community Colleges and Universities

Terry Brase
Agriculture and Food Technology
Hawkeye Community College
1501 East Orange Road
Waterloo, Iowa 50704
FAX 319.296.1028
E-mail: agfdtech@hawkeye.cc.ia.us
 

Precision farming, the application of GPS / GIS technology in agriculture, is becoming increasingly popular. However the education for precision farming has been slow in coming. Several universities, community colleges, and even K-12 schools have ventured into precision farming educational activities or curriculum, but for the most part, these have been independent.
Hawkeye Community College received a grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a 2-year Associate Degree in Agriculture Technologies, which it has implemented. A Phase II grant has been approved to disseminate this information to other schools. A network of community colleges linked to area K-12 schools and universities in 6 midwest states will be formed. Together these schools will develop a curriculum that is coordinated and articulated between the various educational levels, relying on current available curriculum materials.
The presentation would include the description of the current curriculum, the network structure, and proposed outcomes. The presentor will require an overhead projector.

 

 
Mountains: Interdisciplinary Curriculum That Actively Involves Students in Problem-Solving and Construction of Knowledge About Their World

Rebecca R. Head
Teacher, Pinson Elementary School
Doctoral Fellow, The University of Alabama
email: care of 103300.1065@CompuServe.COM
 

NGCE standards emphasize that students learn about their world through active participation in problem-solving. Interdisciplinary curriculum is a vehicle for meeting this goal. This presentation demonstrates interdisciplinary curriculum that is based in Geography Standards, The World in Spatial Terms and Places and Regions. A Hand-out includes lesson plans with objectives and hands-on activities for subjects taught in elementary classrooms. Lesson plans can easily be adapted to span grades K-5.

 

 
Building Foundation for Spatial Analysis: The First Two Years

Shamim Naim
Univeristy of Wisconsin at Waukesha
1500 University Drive, Waukesha, WI 53188
Phone: (414)521-5498
Fax: (414)521-5491
Email: snaim@uwc.edu
 

The need to deliver the key spatial concepts which should form the basis for GIS education is recognized by academic and non-academic users of GIS technology. In a comprehensive university environment the educators make sure that their students get necessary information and training. The problem arises when a GIS curriculum is implemented on a two year campus or a community college. These institutions are serving increasing number of undergraduates in their first two years of college education. It is difficult for them to meet the demand because of staffing problems. Often one or two member departments have to make hard choices to deliver 'technique' courses at the expense of 'content' courses. To address this issue, undergraduate curricula could be redesigned and vertically integrated by introducing an introductory course that will serve as a prerequisite for other courses in geographic analysis series. An outline of such a course is presented as a step towards the inclusion of geographic information sciences at the introductory level. This course, "A Survey of Geographic Techniques, Skills, and Applications", will serve as a prerequisite for additional courses in spatial analysis field.

 

 
Perspectives on GIS Education for Professional Development

Sarah Cornelius and Ian Heywood
UniGIS
Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences
Manchester Metropolitan University
John Dalton Building
Chester Street
Manchester
M1 5GD, UK
tel. +44 161 247 1578/1572/1581
fax. +44 161 247 6344
emails: s.cornelius@mmu.ac.uk and i.heywood@mmu.ac.uk

Three areas of current interest in education are:

Unigis, a worldwide network of Universities cooperating in the design and delivery of GIS courses, is well placed to investigate these issues with respect to GIS. Unigis students are mainly professionals, in employment, who undertake their studies by distance learning whilst continuing to work. The Unigis postgraduate Diploma/Msc in GIS makes extensive use of electronic media and students are required to have access to the Internet to obtain Web based materials, and are also provided with disk and CD based educational resources.
A survey of Unigis students has recently been undertaken to establish the education and training needs of geographical information professionals; to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the Unigis distance learning programme in GIS and to set a development agenda which meets the needs of GIS professionals into the 21st Century. Findings which will be presented here address issues such as motivating students to study, coping with changing technology, and the relevance of GIS skills for the working environment. The lessons learnt from this survey will be relevant for others developing life-long learning programmes, distance learning courses, or using electronic media for course delivery.

 

 
GIS in Community Colleges - Where We Stand

Michael Phoenix, PhD
ESRI Manager of University Relations
380 New York St.
Redlands, CA 92373
Phone: 909-793-2853 ext. 1970
Fax: 909-307-3039
Email: mphoenix@esri.com
 

This paper will present an overview of the state of GIS education at two year colleges in the US & Canada. There are over 250 two year schools (in 45 states) that are doing something with GIS, up from only about a dozen 2 years ago.
This explosion in interest in GIS technology reflects a growing interest at the two year schools in providing high tech training and education. It also reflects the demand for continued professional education. This trend is shown by the fact that the majority of students in GIS classes at two year schools are professionals that already have four year degrees and jobs.
The importance of these facts to community colleges that are starting or planning to start a GIS program will be discussed. Information on related initiatives such as training or curriculum grants will also be presented.

 

 
Geographic Information Systems - Educating the Civil Engineering User

Dr Wm. H. Sprinsky
Pennsylvania College of Technology
I College Avenue
Williamsport, Pa 17701
Phone: (717) 321 5536
E-mail: WSPRINSK@PCT.EDU
 

At Pennsylvania College of Technology, we believe in current, applications-intensive technical education. We recently received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Curriculum (ILI) grant. The major thrust of implementation reflects the revolution caused by technology in civil engineering and survey. We give each student not only the theory but actual experience with the projects and equipment that are the "bread and butter" of Civil Engineering practice.
In the area of Geographic information Systems (GIS), the merger of information from different sources, often in different formats, is the norm in civil engineering technology practice, using GIS-based systems. We have recognized and kept up with this trend. We purchased the MGE Mapping and Geographic Information System (GIS) from the Intergraph Corporation, which we feel best suits our educational needs.
This presents course designers with balancing education in the basics with training in modem applications. We teach the use of the tool o f GIS in the student's second semester in a course (CET122 Topographic Drawing and Cartography) with other tools required in later courses. Students learn about the State Plane Coordinate System after being introduced to Latitude/Longitude, Geodetic Datum and conformal projections. Concepts such as Scale (point and nominal) and convergence are covered, as well as transformations from geodetic to plane coordinates. Students' practical introduction to GIS technology draws on the common experience of a classic civil engineering project, that of widening a road in a built-up area.

 


 
The design and development of courseware on database design for international distance education

Yuxian Sun, K. Winnups, and I. Wilbrink
Department of Geoinformatics
International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC)
P.O.Box 6
7500 AA Enschede
The Netherlands
Fax: 31-53-4874335
E-mail: yuxian@itc.nl
 

The development of multimedia and telecommunication technology has provided tremendous potential for changing the means and improving the efficiency in education. It is especially important in the international higher distance education environment. This paper describes the experiences in the design, development, and evaluation of a multimedia courseware produced at ITC. The subject of the courseware is database design and the target user group is mid-career professionals who work in geoinformation production or application organizations, mostly in developing countries. This courseware can be run both locally on CD-ROM and via World Wide Web on the Internet. The following major issues regarding this courseware production are discussed:
  1. The advantages and disadvantages of this courseware comparing to the traditional lecturing/practical manner.
  2. The importance of teaching database design to GIS major students and the relationship between the subject of database design and other GIS-related subjects.
  3. The design considerations in structuring the contents of the courseware with special attention to the possibilities and limitations provided with authoring tools.
  4. Special consideration in designing and developing the interface of the courseware for the students who come from totally different cultural backgrounds, located all around the world.
  5. The logistic and technical possibilities of integrating the courseware with World Wide Web.
The evaluation of the courseware among ITC students has indicated a favorable support to learning using computer courseware. However, interaction with a human lecturer is an essential element in an international distance education environment, and therefore proper telecommunication infrastructure must be established first to achieve good education result.

 

 
GIS Computer Laboratory Materials: Comparing Structural Approaches

Richard A. Scott
Department of Geography and Anthropology
Robinson Hall
Rowan University
Glassboro, NJ 08028
Fax: (609) 256-4918
E-mail: SCOTTRAT@SBS.ROWAN.EDU
 

This paper presents two approaches to organization of laboratory manual materials and examines their advantages and disadvantages. Both approaches use a "concept, workshop, problem" model of organization. Each laboratory unit explains the concepts to be learned, provides the student with a workshop designed to illustrate the concepts, and then requires the student to demonstrate mastery through successfully solving a GIS problem.
The first approach explains the concepts to be mastered, then leads the student through a detailed step-by-step workshop [click here, now press this key] that models how the software implements the concepts. After completing the workshop students solve a locational problem that is vsimilar to the problem used in the workshop.
The second approach combines explanation of each concept with explanation of how the software implements the concept. The workshop that follows the explanations presents a bare bones outline of the steps required to complete the workshop problem [overlay the flood prone layer with the landuse layer]. After completing the workshop students demonstrate mastery of the concepts and their implementation by solving a locational problem. Students evaluations and success in solving the laboratory problems indicate that although students feel more comfortable with the first approach, they seem to learn more deeply with the second.

 

 
The Status of GIS Technology in Teacher Preparation Programs

Richard H. Audet
Roger Williams University
One Old Ferry Road
Bristol, RI 02809
401/254-3357
Fax: 401/254-3286
rha@alpha.rwu.edu

Sarah Witham Bednarz
Department of Geography
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas 77843-3147
409/845-1579
Fax 409/86-4487
s-bednarz@tamu.edu
 

Many educators advocate the inclusion of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a core technology in K-12 classrooms. Studies have identified barriers that to the implementation of GIS technology at these educational levels. One of the key barriers is the development of GIS skills among practicing teachers. If preservice teachers are taught with and about GIS during their teacher preparation programs, they will be ready to incorporate this technology into their curricula as they begin their teachers careers.
Over 675 colleges and universities are members of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE), the umbrella organization for teacher certification programs. This pool of schools, departments, and programs of education was surveyed to assess the extent to which Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software is incorporated into teacher education. Follow-up interviews were conducted to develop case studies of institutions using GIS.
The findings of the study indicate that: 1.) only a handful of teacher preparation programs intentionally expose preservice undergraduates to GIS technology, 2.) some preservice teachers encounter GIS in environmental science or geography courses, and 3.) there is considerable interest in incorporating GIS into teacher preparation programs. Preliminary conclusions regarding the conditions needed to implement GIS in teacher preparation are summarized.

 

 
Scale - The Key Spatial Concept in GIS Education

Weihong Fan
Natural Science and Mathematics
The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
126 Seminole Dr., Absecon, NJ 08201
(609)748-1983 (Phone)
(609)748-5515 (Fax)
E-mail: fanw@pollux.stockton.edu
 

As GIS increasingly being accepted by general public as a powerful tool in peoples decision making processes, it becomes GIS educators job to help general public understanding the geographic data and interpreting the results of a GIS application correctly. This task is very challenging because GIS educators face students with very different backgrounds (e.g. geographers, ecologist, foresters, managers, planners, business men, etc.) and knowledge levels (e.g. high school, undergraduate, graduate, etc. ). It is essential to identify the key spatial concepts that should and can be taught for the variety audience. This paper will present a preliminary research on one of the key spatial concepts -- scale -- and its education. A pedagogical model that intensifies the learning of baseline knowledge and skills, and increases student independence of thought in science will be discussed.

 

 
Relevance of Geographic Information Systems Technology in a Community College Curriculum

John Williams, M. Akram, and N. Browning
Glenville Community and Technical College
Glenville, WV 26351-1292
Phone 304-462-4135
FAX: 304-462-4407
E-mail: LAND@GLENVILLE.WVNET.EDU
 

Glenville State Community and Technical College is located in Central West Virginia. The area is characterized by low per capita incomes, a high rate of illiteracy, and predominantly rural based communities. Faculty in the Glenville State Community and Technical College have been working to meet the training needs of industry in the areas of business technology, environmental technology, forest technology, and land surveying since the early 1970's. These programs are evaluated annually to make them more responsive to changing socio-economic conditions of the community served by Glenville State College. A new program option was developed in 1997 to introduce geographic information systems (GIS) technology into existing associate degree programs.
A curriculum was developed to incorporate GIS technology in the areas of business technology, environmental technology, forest technology, and land surveying. Two courses were developed to introduce this technology to the students. First, an introductory course was designed to cover the fundamentals of GIS technology. Then, an intermediate level course was developed to encompass applications of this technology to specific academic disciplines.
The applications of GIS technology were demonstrated in the above programs by providing students with an opportunity to work on a project relevant to their discipline using GIS technology as a decision making tool. Projects included: determining the feasibility of locating new retail and grocery stores for business technology; environmental impact assessment and water quality modeling in environmental technology; forest management and growth models for forest technology, and development of a pilot-scale land information system in land surveying. It is expected that the introduction of GIS technology in a community college curriculum will increase interest in associate degree programs and provide students with interactive opportunities to apply this technology across academic disciplines.

 

 
GIS Education for Developing Countries: Bringing about Desirable Change

Christine E. Dunn
Department of Geography
University of Durham
South Road
DURHAM, DH1 3LE, UK
Tel: +44 191 374 2491
Fax: +44 191 374 2456
E-mail: C.E.Dunn@durham.ac.uk
 

GIS is a product of the West and its development has been strongly influenced by the private sector. With the use of GIS in developing countries now steadily increasing there is an urgent responsibility to address issues of appropriate 'training tran sfer'. With many training programmes adopting a 'technology-led' approach, the need to avoid a 'blind' transfer of technical skills has been largely neglected.
This paper discusses an approach based both on educating students in the political, ethical and socio-cultural aspects of geographical information and on training them in the use of GIS for applications where change for the better in poo rer countries can be brought about. Staff actively involved in development and/or GIS research have developed a postgraduate modular programme in 'Geographical Information for Development' at Durham University. The course not only considers the positive contributions which GIS can make to 'development', but also explores the potential pitfalls of adopting a technology which originated in industrialised countries and which is often promoted as a quick 'techno fix'. To this end, we focus on the concept of geographical data as social constructs, an idea which presents challenges for some of our students.

 

 
Collaborative Curriculum Development in Geoprocessing Using Distance Learning and The Internet

Daniel L. Civco
Department of Natural Resources Management and Engineering
The University of Connecticut
E-mail: dcivco@canr1.cag.uconn.edu

Donald J. Leone
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
The University of Hartford
E-mail: leone@uhavax.hartford.edu
 

This paper documents the planning, delivery, and results of an experimental distance-based course -- Introduction to Geospatial Analysis – in which lectures were delivered via interactive compressed video (ICV), with laboratory instructions and course syllabus accessible on our web site at The Center for Geospatial Analysis Technology and Education, or GATE. Students involved were seniors and first year graduate students in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Hartford, and seniors in Natural Resources Management and Engineering from The University of Connecticut.
The syllabus for the course was divided into six main categories: maps, projections and coordinate systems; acquisition of digital geospatial data; remote sensing fundamentals; scanning and rectifying remote sensing imagery; raster and vector GIS operations; and decision support systems in GIS. Lectures were presented once a week using ICV technology. Support material developed by the authors was available on GATE, as well as through links to other geoprocessing-related sites. Background and in structions for laboratory procedures, with links to outside references, were also posted on GATE.
Our experience has shown that ICV presentations need to be constructed and delivered carefully and need to involve the audience in some proactive way. Also, links to other sites need to be selectively chosen so that students are not overwhelmed the by the sheer volume of Web-based information. Overall, through the blending of various electronic delivery technologies with traditional hands-on laboratory projects, the course proved very successful. Based on this positive distance education experience, the authors are designing a second course in the GATE curriculum.

 

 
Multimedia Computer Based On-Line-Training in GIS and Remote Sensing

Yuxian Sun and Wolfgang Kainz
Department of Geoinformatics
International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC)
P.O.Box 6
7500 AA Enschede
The Netherlands
Fax: 31-53-4874335
E-mail: yuxian@itc.nl
 

This paper describes the design and development of two multimedia computer based training (CBT) packages on GIS and remote sensing. They are produced at ITC in the framework of the European Telematics Application Program project ET-1017 - PRONET (PROfessional NETwork). The main objectives of the RPONET project is to develop and demonstrate an integrated training and support service network for professionals who seek out and follow advances in their field in order to remain competitive. The design of the CBT templates ensures that it contains domain, learner, didactic and communication components. Besides learning the contents of the CBTs, users may also access, over the INTERNET or ISDN infrastructure, other services provided at each one of the three Access Service Points (ASP) - one in Greece, one in Spain and one in the Netherlands (ITC). These services include: Tutoring support - users may contact tutors for clarification or further discussion on the contents of the CBTs. The means of communication may be email, white board, text/audio/video conferencing etc. Information databases - users may access this on-line information databases for up-to-date information on the development of GIS and remote sensing technology and some services such as courses, literature, software etc. Special Interest Group - Each ASP will help to set up electronic discussion groups for the users who have interest on certain aspects of GIS and remote sensing.
Currently the development of CBTs has completed and the other service infrastructures are in their later stage of implementation.

 

 
A Model GIS Laboratory for Higher Education in a Developing Country: The Example of the GIS Lab

Sylvester Abumere, Olusegun Areola & Bola Ayeni
Department of Geography
University of Ibadan
Ibadan, Nigeria
E-mail: uigislab@infoweb.abs.net
 

A major problem facing the development of GIS in higher education in developing countries of tropical Africa is the lack of foreign exchange to purchase the necessary hardware and software. Yet another problem is that of equipment maintenance and the purchase of necessary spare parts and consumables once the systems are set up. The GIS Laboratory at the Department of Geography, University of Ibadan, Nigeria provides a model of how these problems can be overcome through well-articulated bilateral agreements and relationships between institutions in developing countries and those in developed countries. The laboratory has been set up and supported thus far through the Universities Development Linkages Program(UDLP) funded by the United States Agency for International Development(US AID). This Program(now discontinued since de-certification of Nigerian government by the USA) links four higher institutions in the state of Iowa, USA with four institutions based in southwestern Nigeria. The Iowa institutions comprise the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, University of Northern Iowa, and Des Moines Area Community College. The Nigerian institutions comprise the University of Ibadan, the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research and the Ibadan Polytechnic.
The establishment of the GIS Laboratory began with two full years of capacity building involving (1) awareness and training seminars locally to identify research priorities in the areas of spatial decision support systems and environmental monitoring and management and establish a need for GIS technology as a decision-making tool in a problem-solving environment; (2) training and refresher courses for local staff both locally and in the participating institutions in Iowa on hardware and software with a view to drawing up realistic configurations of both hardware and software and peripherals for the proposed GIS Laboratory - local staff had the opportunity to practise with various types of software and got briefings on the capabilities of individual systems and software; (3) the provision and adequate furnishing of laboratory space locally; followed by (4) actual purchase and installation of equipment. The choice of software is aimed at establishing a system that allows the integration of various software for both vector and raster data with import/export capability. This gives a full GIS capacity. The major installed software in this integrated system include ATLAS GIS, ArcCAD/AUTOCAD, IDRISI and ALEXANDER. Other software include MAPINFO, TRANSCAD, MAPTITUDE, and ArcView.
The potential for research is enhanced by the continuing cooperation of the eight institutions and the wide spectrum of research interests they represent. In order to ensure effective utilization of the facilities, the laboratory has embarked on the training of post-graduate students most of whom are drawn from government agencies and corresponding institutions in the private sector. In an environment where awareness is still rather low this is considered important to the adoption and development of GIS in both government and non-governmental agencies in Nigeria.


 
Bridging the Gap between GIS Employment Needs and GIS Education and Training

Don Samuelson and I-Shian (Ivan) Suen
Grays Harbor College
1620 Edward P. Smith Drive
Aberdeen, WA 98520-7599
Phone: (360) 538-4177
FAX: (360) 538-4299
E-mail: dsamuels@ghc.ctc.edu
 

Grays Harbor College has recently developed an Associated in Applied Science (AAS) degree in GIS and a GIS certification program. The main objectives of these programs are: (1) to prepare interested students for employment in the GIS field; and (2) to allow the person who is already in the GIS workforce, to upgrade his/her GIS knowledge and skills. To meet the challenge, GHC has undergone a DATA/DACUM process to link employment needs to its GIS program.
DATA means Develop A Task Analysis and DACUM means Develop A CurriculUM. The DATA/DACUM process is designed to:
This paper will describe the DATA/DACUM process for GHC's GIS program, the outcomes generated by the process, and GHC's effort to integrate them into its GIS curriculum development.

 

 
What are beyond buffering and overlay when teaching GIS for Spatial Analysis?

David Wong
Geography & Earth Systems Science
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
Tel: 703-993-1212
Fax: 703-993-1216
E-mail: dwong2@gmu.edu
 

An important component in a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) course or curriculum is teaching students to use GIS to perform spatial analysis. Most teaching materials on this topic tend to focus on rudimentary spatial analytical functions in GIS such as buffering and overlay, and the structure of the material is very much function-oriented. Very little emphasis is put on the fact that because most GIS capture pertinent spatial information required by most spatial analytical techniques and models, and therefore GIS can be powerful tools to perform spatial analysis. It is important to point out to students what are the pertinent and fundamental spatial information we can derived from GIS and how they can be used for spatial analysis beyond buffering and overlay. Thus, techniques in geostatistics and spatial statistics can be introduced to students in GIS courses logically. In this paper, I identify several key geographic information elements captured by most GIS. When these elements are explicitly stored or captured by GIS, I demonstrate that these elements serve as the bases of a suite of spatial analytical procedures and statistics. Students in both GIS and quantitative methods courses should realize how these fundamental elements of spatial information can be utilized in spatial analysis.

 

 
Learning with GIS - The Case of Urbanworld

Derek Thompson
Department of Geography
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
301-405-4063
301-314-9299 (fax)
E-mail: dt11@umail.umd.edu
 

The demonstration will show the special pedagogic system, UrbanWorld, being created to improve undergraduate urban geography and planning education. Implemented as an ArcVIEW (TM) application, UrbanWorld has a customized GUI, tools for student productivity, electronic submission of assignments, a portfolio concept for student work, several learning units, prepared assignments, a knowledge base for visualization skills, metadata, spatial analysis tools, etc. It represents one, generalizable, attempt to exploit GIS as enabling technology for fostering affordable and effective active and authentic leasrning environments for undergraduate education involving geographic databases and spatial reasoning.

 

 
Identifying Key Geographic Information Systems Concepts - What the Texts Tell Us

Susan M. Macey
Southwest Texas State University
Department of Geography and Planning
Southwest Texas State University
San Marcos, TX 78666
FAX: 512-245-8353
E-mail: sm07@swt.edu
 

The recognition of the value of GIS as a tool in a variety of application areas has grown dramatically in the last decade. Concomitantly, there has been a rapid expansion in educational offerings to keep up with the demand for trained personnel. It has been nearly a dozen years since the first widely recognized text on geographic information systems (GIS), Burrough's "Principles of Geographic Information Systems", was published in 1986. For several years, few books to rival this text were produced. The last five years has seen a marked growth in the number of GIS books that could be used as texts. Through an analysis of the contents of over two dozen of these books, this paper seeks to determine the key concepts their authors view as important to the field. Both a longitudinal and cross-sectional approach will be taken in the analysis. First, texts will be classified according to their orientation in terms of level (novice to expert), and approach - applied versus theoretical. Then the nature of the subject matter presented, in terms of depth and breadth of topic coverage, will be examined.

 

 
Abstract for Vaughn Lewis, Bruce Ramsay and Robert Fyans

Vaughn Lewis and Bruce Ramsay
University of Dundee
Dundee, DD2 1NN
Scotland, UK
Tel: +44(0) 1382-344404
Fax: +44(0) 1382-345415
E-mails: v.a.lewis@dundee.ac.uk and b.ramsay@dundee.ac.uk

Mr Robert Fyans
Lineplan Ltd, Powerline Consultants
Ruthvenfield Road
Perth, Scotland, UK
Tel: +44(0) 1738-626232
 

GIS is rapidly developing as the necessary information manager for many organisations, and it is increasingly important that workers in various departments within an organisation become proficient in GIS. One of the main problems of implementing GIS has been the difficulty involved in customising it for different requirements.
Component software technology has been recently created to enable software developers to seamlessly, cheaply, and rapidly, develop complete software solutions by integrating different pieces of software, using minimal code. This technology can facilitate rapid developments of customised GIS environments and is particul arly promising for use in educational institutions where funding for software development is very limited.
This presentation will show how component technology is being used to develop a GIS environment for the electricity supply industry, which may be used in a managerial context or for training. Current applications focus on asset management and system planning, with intended usage in an active industrial context and within a University based MSc programme in Electrical Power Engineering and Management. The package is very flexible and can be customised for various applications by simply integrating appropriate software components into the environment.

 

 
Partnership in GIS Education: Building Capacity in a Disadvantaged Society

Tracey Morton
Department of Geographical Sciences
Vista University
Pvt Bag X9, Bertsham, 2103
Soweto, South Africa
27 11 938-1305 (fax)
E-mail: MRTON-T@sorex.vista.ac.za
 

Previous experience of learning GIS applications demonstrated that working solely through the tutorials in the manual was unsatisfactory. Students need to do projects that involve the manipulation of data through the use of GIS applications and to be exposed to the theoretical aspects of GIS, so that GIS would be taught in a socially responsible manner. There were, however, severe logistical problems with introducing such a system, in terms of the availability of hard and soft ware, teaching hours and teaching staff. Thus, a programme was developed by myself, whereby, students would go out to businesses and government institutions currently using GIS applications to get "hands on experience". While this curriculum is still very much in the experimental phase, it is hoped that it proves to be of value, to students, the Geography Department and the various GIS users who participated. This paper outlines how the establishment of partnerships with various GIS users was undertaken and also includes a report back on the fruits of the partnership, from the perspectives of the students, the university teaching staff and the GIS users who took part in the programme.


 
GIS Partnerships and Service Learning

Lewis Rogers and Chris Semerjian
Division of Natural Sciences and Technology
Gainesville College
P.O. Box 1358
Gainesville, Georgia 30503
770-718-3862
E-mail: csemerji@hermes.gc.peachnet.edu
 

Gainesville College in Gainesville, Georgia was recently awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation and Phi Theta Kappa for the development of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) curriculum in two-year colleges. GC is the first two-year institution in the state to develop a GIS program of study. In the development of the program, GC has established service learning partnerships with local industry and government. Students are exposed to the power of GIS through real-world projects that address local problems and issues. Further, these projects are providing internships and possible future employment for GC students. Currently, service learning partnerships are established with the Elachee Nature Science Center, the Georgia Mountains Regional Development Center and the Hall County Board of Education. Future partnerships will include the United States Forestry Service and Jackson Electric Membership Corporation. Service learning is a natural in GIS education. It is a powerful learning experience that provides an obvious benefit for the community and prepares students for r ponsible citizenship and productive employment.

 

 
The Need for GIS Education in Mauritius

Jaishree Beedasy
Faculty of Engineering
University of Mauritius
- currently a Fulbright Scholar at:
Department of Geography
Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
Phone: (814) 862 8758
E-mail: jxb71@psu.edu
 

Lack of trained personnel is a major problem facing the implementation of GIS in Mauritius. Situated 800 kilometers off the east coast of Madagascar, Mauritius has a land area of 1865 square kilometers and a population of one million. Rapid industrialization and economic growth have created considerable pressure on the provision of housing, transportation, community facilities and recreation. Many institutions have realized that the proper application of GIS technology would be of tremendous help in managing and monitoring resources to sustain the development of the island. The implementation of GIS in Mauritius is coming mainly from the outside, as foreign technical collaboration and aid. After the departure of the foreign consultants, the projects are 'orphaned' and are left at a standstill. In several institutions approved projects never even get started although costly hardware and software have already been acquired . These lie idle because of lack of trained personnel to work with them. The University of Mauritius does not run any GIS course yet and as a first step is considering to hold a seminar on GIS and a training session on ARC INFO with the help of foreign consultants. The University is developing its own physical and human resources to be able to run GIS courses to meet the country's need. Problems such as administrative barriers, lack of collaboration among institutions and a scarcity of organized spatial data are also discussed in this paper.


 
It's Not Plows, Cows, and Sows Anymore: Developing GIS Educational Partnerships with the Cooperative Extension Service

Scott A. Samson
Rural Sociology
University of Kentucky
Garrigus 500
Lexington, Kentucky 40546-0215
Tel: (606) 257-3767
Fax: (606) 257-4354
E-mail: ssamson@pop.uky.edu
 

The Cooperative Extension Service provides an outreach mechanism between a Land Grant university and the community. Traditional crop and livestock Extension programs at the University of Kentucky are complemented with community and economic development initiatives with the rural, farm and non-farm constituency. GIS educational opportunities in the University are linked with the Extension community development programs in several traditional and non-traditional forms. Some of these opportunities are: internships and graduate assistantships to assist with community planning; continuing education workshops for county agents, non-government/non-profit community development organizations, and local government agencies; training 4-H youth to compile community resource inventories; and implementation of a vocational education program with a local facility of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. These outreach opportunities associated with GIS provide students with "real world" perspectives, assist in the development and/or refinement of university-level curriculum, and provide communities with another tool for local empowerment.

 

Enhancing general professional awareness of GIS by improving educational GIS tools for secondary school teachers

Dominique Vanneste
Institute for Social and Economic Geography
Catholic University of Leuven
de Croylaan 42
B - 3001 Heverlee (Leuven)
Belgium
Phone: 32-16-322442
Fax: 32-16-322980
E-mail: dominique.vanneste@geo.kuleuven.ac.be
 

In 1996 a survey (via questionnaire) has been executed as to have an insight in the way private firms in Belgium are handling their spatial data. One of the stricking results is how little knowledge one has about the analytical possibilities of GIS (e ven when using some 'graphic' system), about the need of education of people working with GIS and the restraint in terms of budget and time, spend on a GIS. There seems to be a need for learning and teaching GIS outside the academic arena. Sought are new ways to enhance GIS education within secondary geography education to get both teachers and students acquainted with GIS.
One cut-and-dried solution for secondary GIS education was developed by the KULeuven. A pakkage of complete lessons on city regions, human impact on the environment etc is offered containing e.g. didactic structuring of contents, FAQs and materials an d data to be used. Another solution is found in the adaptation of a multimedia introductory GIS practical on CD-ROM, developed by e.a. OU and KULeuven and aimed at students in higher education. A tailor-made version of this self-tuition practical will be used in training of teachers in secondary education.

The GIS Workbench: a Metaphor for Development of GIS Distance Education

Angelique Lansu, Truus Roesems and Rob Nadolski
Open University of the Netherlands
Faculty of Natural Sciences
P.O. Box 2960
6401 DL Heerlen
The Netherlands
tel: +31 45 5762808/5762359
fax: +31 45 5762709
E-mail: Angelique.Lansu@ouh.nl
 

The GIS workbench: the computer working environment, consisting of GIS software, hardware, lifeware and conneced to the outside GIS expertworld by Information- and communication technologies is an ideal metaphor by designing GIS education. To cope with divers student groups by absence of sufficient GIS teachers, the idea of a workbenchpractical is linked to distance learning methods. The interactive GIS practical on CD-ROM described is developed to be studied at the students own computer learning envir onment with access to Internet. The practical can be studied independently of place, time and pace of study, with tutoring designed within the material. The GIS practical teaches students the professional use of geographic information in various application fields. In addition, this computer based learning program will contact students with eachother and the professional GIS world through computer confer encing and Internet. The didactic model followed in the course is a combination of embedded learning, collaborative learning, and discovery learning. The practical is designed by the Open university in cooperating with some GIS educational institutions of the Netherlands, Belgium and UK. The participants (authors) cooperate with means of specially developed authoring tools and computer conferencing. Ma nuscript versions of the modules are updated by FTP with access restricted to authors and editors.

 

Demonstration of an multimedia introductory practical: the DTM module

Truus Roesems and Angelique Lansu
Inst. Social and Economic Geography - KU.Leuven
de Croylaan 42
B - 3001 Heverlee (Leuven)
Belgium
Phone: 32-16-322434
Fax: 32-16-322980
E-mail: truus.roesems@geo.kuleuven.ac.be
 

Demonstration of an educational module on Digital Terrain Models (DTM), developed as part of an international project to develop a multimedia introductory practical in GIS. The project Geo Information Sytems: an introductory practical is part of the Consortium on the Innovation of Higher Education, founded by the Dutch and Flemish state departments of Education, partners are GIS educational institutions from Belgium, the Netherlands and UK. The modules (a.o. DTM, remote sensing, strategic decision making) of the computer-based learning (CBL) program are aimed to students in higher education to offer a self-tuition practical on CD-ROM with a hand-on training in GIS technology. The DTM module shows DTM concepts, illustrated with examples and exercises in IDRISI. The CBL program guides the students through the lessons on necessity of DTMs, DTM data models etc. and the Idrisi software to be used by didactic techniques as feedback (text and images) on the assignments, a hypertext glossary and hints.

 

 
Incorporating GIS into the Professional Work of the Agricultural and Forestry Technicians: the Columella Project

Carlos Alvarez, Rafael Crecente & Urbano Fra
Department of Agricultural and Forestry Engineering. EPS.
Campus Universitario
Lugo. 27002 Spain
Fax: 011-34-82-241835
E-mail: proyca@lugo.usc.es
 

The Columella Project, organized by the Escuela Politecnica Superior of the University of Santiago de Compostela, comes from the ADAPT initiative of the European Social Fund of the European Union. The ADAPT initiative tries to adapt and improve business competitivity through technician training within a global objective of a quality of life improvement.
The Columella Project aims specifically the agricultural, forestry and food sectors in the autonomous region of Galicia (NW of Spain). It seeks to train and update the knowledge of these professionals in new techniques, technologies and processes, so that through their activity they can influence this sector.
One of these technologies is the application of GIS to rural planning and management in the land field as well as in the business management. This paper reviews experiences and results of GIS training and work. Courses have been taught to professionals coming from the government, university and business sectors, for whom the use of this tool was something new.
Several applied GIS projects have been also developed, with examples as agricultural business management, land consolidation, distribution of raw resources and production collection.

 

 
GIS Education - Accessible to all Disciplines

Les Doak
Cypress College (NOCCCD)
9200 Valley View
Cypress, California 90630-5897
Phone: (714) 826-2220 x185 vm x714
Fax: (714) 229-1869
E-mail: ldoak@fullerton.edu
 

GIS education and training is becoming more accepted and wide spread throughout levels of academia. During this period of rapid expansion, teaching methods and learning styles have not had a thorough hearing or discussion. GIS courses currently are taught either to the content of a specific discipline or to a set series of lab exercises which are product or concept specific. These methods pose an access problem or an enrollment problem to newly established programs at all levels. Cypress College, in the North Orange County Community College District, has designed, over a six year period, a method of teaching GIS which addresses these potential problems. Utilizing active learning and SCANS methods, each Cypress College GIS course is fully accessible to students of any category, at any level, from any discipline. Students are encouraged to develop a semester project of their own choice, from personal, discipline, or work related interests, which will, when completed, demonstrate their technical and conceptual understanding and proficiency commensurate with the expectations of the specific course in which they are enrolled. Active Learning and SCANS methods will be reviewed, with specific applications to various levels of GIS education or training. Specific classroom and lab operating procedures will be discussed. Course organization and structure will be examined.

 

 
CD-ROM on Estonian Geography as a GIS-based Contribution to the "Tiger's Leap" Programme

Juri Roosaare
Institute of Geography
University of Tartu
46 Vanemuise St.
Tartu EE-2400, Estonia
Phone: +372 7 465 827
FAX: +372 7 465 825
E-mail: roosaare@ut.ee
 

Last year an ambitious project of total 'computerisation' of Estonian schools, called "Tiger's Leap" was launched by Estonian President. It is supervised by Estonian Ministry of Education, is financed by different - both state and private - foundations and consists of several subprojects (http://www.tiigrihype.ee). For one among these, a team headed by the author is going to create for Estonian schools a vernacular tutorial CD-ROM on Estonian geography (EGCD) what will be in accordance with the official study program for schools. EGCD will be base to teach a concrete study subject (geography) in school with the help of computers what will be integrated step by step (teacher - a few enthusiastic pupils - group work - individual study en masse) into study process. Technologically the prototype of EGCD bases on ArcView. Final version will use ArcView Data Publisher or MapObjects LT, or other suitable ESRI's product. Didactically, the EGCD will be created as a multi-level product including:
  1. READER'S LEVEL (a multimedia textbook of geography).
  2. LEARNER'S LEVEL FOR GEOGRAPHY (additionally, one can exercise, solve basic to study program problems and find additional lessons
  3. LEARNER'S LEVEL FOR CARTOGRAPHY (additionally, one can learn how to make maps).
  4. TEACHER'S LEVEL with methodical material and pedagogical advises.

GIS Education in Developing Countries : Ecuador

Jonathan Deckmyn, Kristof Scheldemans, and Gwendolyn Verstraete
PROMAS - Universidad de Cuenca
CUENCA PO-BOX 01-01-1081
Fax: 07/832183
E-mail : jdeckmyn@ucuenca.edu.ec or jdeckmyn@az.pro.ec
 

The Flemish Organization for Development and Technical Assistence (VVOB) has sent during the last 4 years a group of GIS experts to different Ecuatorian universities. The idea of this collaboration was in the first place to improve the academic level regarding GIS related subjects. A side effect would be the implementation of GIS in both private as public proyects. In both the Politecnica Nacional (Quito), the State University of Cuenca and the University of Loja, experience was gained on the collaboration regarding GIS in development countries with both academic personal as students of the faculties of agricultural engineers and/or system engineers.
Some first evaluations can be held concerning the situation of GIS at university level in third world countries. Topics for these evaluations are : preliminar knowledge of systems and agricultural engineers, hardware and software available at the universities, introduction and acceptance of new technologies, carreer perspectives of the new professionals, special interests.
The choice to send experts to the above mentioned faculties was determined by the interest from the Ecuatorian partners and the possibilites to achieve the mentioned goal, as thus both agricultural as informatic faculties were selected. Obviously the situation in both cases is quite different. In addition there were also differences between the support/collaboration given by the 3 universities. Nevertheless some general conclusions, remarks and advises can be made.


 
Promoting Community College GIS Workforce Relevant Course and Program Development

Denis E. Mudderman and William A. Dando
Department of Geography, Geology and Anthropology
Indiana State University
Terre Haute, IN 47809
Phone: (812) 237-2444
Fax: (812) 237-8029
E-mail: gedenis@scifac.indstate.edu
 

The project "Advancing Geo-Technology Education: Providing GIS Skills for the Workforce of the 21st Century" is funded by the NSF Advanced Technology Education program. Since September 1995, the project, conducted from Indiana State University in partnership with over two dozen community colleges, has sought to promote and improve GIS instruction, courses, and programs in the United States. After Summer 1997, thirty-one community college instructors will have received intensive GIS training through two three-week institutes over two summers. During the 1996-1997 academic year these instructors returned to their home institutions and worked to incorporate GIS into existing classes, create new GIS courses, or established new GIS programs. Community college instructors also completed a survey of area GIS employers to begin making industry linkages and to understand the local employment market for their students. The work of community college instructors was supported with Internet-based resources, networking, and programs in distance learning. Panelists are community college instructors who have been participants in the project. Each instructor will discuss the advances in GIS at their institutions through this project and then the panel will discuss the common insight gained in promoting community college GIS workforce relevant course and program development.

 

 
The GeoSmart Project: Responding to the Need for a "Smart" Geography for Malaysia's New "Smart School" Initiative

Richard Dorall
Department of Geography
University of Malaya
50603 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
Tel: 603 - 7595504
Fax: 603 - 7595457
E-mails: f3rich@umcsd.um.edu.my or dorall@tm.net.my or dorall@hotmail.com
 

The Malaysian Government announced in 1995, and formally launched in 1996, the establishment of a Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), an area some 15km by 40km encompassing the national capital, Kuala Lumpur, the new national administrative centre, the new international airport, as well as Malaysia's first Internet-linked, and fully-computer networked city, Cyberjaya. The MSC will be a multimedia catalyst centre for world-class multimedia computer companies to locate their business and R&D facilities to service the booming economies of Asia-Pacific.
Among the multimedia industries targeted for development in the corridor by year 2000 are "Smart Schools" for which software applications, curricula, courseware, teacher and staff training, and network infrastructure will have to be developed. Officially, the subjects selected for "Smart School" development include science, mathematics, English and the Malaysian national language.
This paper will describe initiatives being taken by the GeoSmart Project in the Department of Geography, University of Malaya, to develop multimedia content for a "smart" geography for not only Malaysian schools, but also for Malaysian colleges, universities, as well as for the private and public sectors which will be the beneficiaries of "smart" geography as they use more widely professional geographical information technologies such as geographical information systems, remote sensing, global positioning systems, etc.

 

 
Multimedia Learning for Professionals in Geographical Information: The Challenges for Courseware Development

Ian Heywood, Sarah Cornelius, Bruce Carlisle and David Grimshaw
Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences
Manchester Metropolitan University
John Dalton Building
Chester Street
Manchester  M1 5DG, UK
Fax: +44 +161 247 6344
E-mail: b.carlisle@mmu.ac.uk

Simon Kenton
School of Computer Studies
The University of Leeds
Leeds  LS2 9JT, UK
 

Professionals updating their work related skills are an important group of GIS learners. With increasing emphasis on workplace learning, life long education and professional development, these learners are frequently unable, or unwilling to attend tr aditional courses, but prefer more flexible study. Distance learning and multimedia computer based resources are two opportunities for meeting the needs of this group of learners, empowering them with choice over learning speed, place and style.

Materials developed for this group of learners must address a number of conceptual and practical challenges:

Work on two Modules for mature students on GIS related courses is presented in this paper. The Modules 'GIS in Business' and 'GIS and the Environment', are aimed at postgraduate students on non-GIS courses. The traditional learning strategies of pro fessionals have been replicated in a digital environment to facilitate flexible learning. The basic framework for the materials includes conference presentations, short course attendance, case study work, site visits, trade journals and use of consultant s.
This paper illustrates some of the ways in which high quality professional development materials can be developed. The challenges, opportunities and specific difficulties of meeting the needs of professional development through multimedia distance lea rning are evaluated.

 

 
Development of a Training Centre for Environmental GIS Applications in Polish Universities

S. Ignar
Agricultural University of Warsaw, PL

J. Fürst
Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering
Institute for Water Management
University of Agricultural Sciences
Muthgasse 18, A - 1190
Vienna, Austria
Fax: +43 1 36006 5549
E-mail: fuerst@donau.boku.ac.at
 

In a cooperative effort of 9 Polish and 9 western European universities, as well as public authorities and private consultancies, a training centre for environmental GIS applications was established at the Warsaw Agricultural University (WAU). The activities included the initial installation of computer hardware and GIS software in the GIS laboratory at WAU. To achieve fast and wide dissemination of GIS technology in the country, a short intensive course on "Environmental GIS applications" was developed, targeted primarily at young teaching and research staff of the participating polish universities and organizations, who were supposed to act as multipliers of the skills they learned in the courses. As accompanying measures, participants received copies of the software packages used in the courses and were eligible for staff mobility grants to further improve their skills at participating EU partner universities. The project is part of the "Structural Joint European Project" named "Joint Curricula Development for Soil and Water Resources Protection", in the framework of the EU TEMPUS PHARE program. It started in 1994 and will be completed in August 1997. This contribution will present the concept, structure, contents and accompanying measures of the course. The experiences and impacts after three years will be discussed, based on an evaluation among the participants, as well as lecturers and organizers.

 

 
GIS Education for Hydrology and Water Resources Engineers

J. Fürst, H.P. Nachtnebel and H. Holzmann
University of Agricultural Sciences
Institute for Water Management
Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering
Muthgasse 18, A - 1190
Vienna, Austria
Fax: +43 1 36006 5549
E-mail: fuerst@donau.boku.ac.at
 

A course on "Application of GIS in hydrology and water management" was introduced into the study program of water resources at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Austria. To provide possibilities to upgrade their GIS knowledge also for professionals in the water management field, a 3-days short intensive course with a similar scope is offered. The objective of both courses is to develop and improve the understanding for the discipline-specific benefits and pitfalls of the application of GIS in water management and hydrology. For both target groups, only a basic experience with general computer applications can be assumed. One of the main challenges for the course development was therefore to cover the principles of GIS as well as the specific topics and problems in hydrology and water resources. The continuing success of both courses shows that a need for a GIS course with an emphasis on topics specific to water resources and hydrology existed and the feedback from participants justifies the concept and contents.

 

 
The House Hunting Game: An Interactive Teaching Resource for Introducing Spatial Decision Making using GIS

Ian Heywood
Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences
Manchester Metropolitan University
John Dalton Building, Chester Street, Manchester M1 5GD, UK
Phone: +44(0)1612471572
Fax: +44(0)1612476344
E-mail: i.heywood@mmu.ac.uk

Roy Alexander
Department of Geography
University College Chester
Cheyney Road, Chester, CH1 4BJ, UK
e-mail: r.alexander@chester.ac.uk

John McKeown and John Castleford
CTI Centre for Geography Geology and Meteorology
Department of Geography
University of Leicester
Bennett Building, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK.
e-mail:  cti@le.ac.uk
 

The "House Hunting Game" is one of a suite of CAL products developed by the Teaching and Learning Technology Geography Consortium in the UK. The aim of the game is to introduce spatial decision making concepts using GIS technology without the need to resort to the use of proprietary GIS software. The Game is designed to fill a single laboratory session at the start of a GIS course to raise awareness about a range of issues including sources of spatial data, analysis methods and data quality concepts. The game has been constructed using the Toolbook authoring language in conjunction with custom written C routines. A user centred interface guides students through the spatial decision making scenario of choosing a geographical location in which to live. Students are introduced to multi criteria analysis techniques in conjunction with more standard GIS procedures such as reclassification, distance operations and point in polygon routines. The Game also simulates the collaborative nature of spatial decision making by allowing the students to ^Ñcreate families^Ò and simulate their spatial decision making activities in searching for consensus on where to live.
This paper will provide a demonstration of the game, consider the design issues involved in its construction and review feedback from its use in a range of teaching situations from undergraduate through to professional development programmes.

 

GIS Meets K-12 Environmental Education at NC State University

Hugh A. Devine
Campus Box 7106
Computer Graphics Center
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7106
College of Forest Resources
Phone: 919-515-3682
Fax: 919-515-3439
E-mail: Hugh_Devine@ncsu.edu
 

For the past two years the GIS Research and Teaching Program at North Carolina State University has been cooperating with the NC Division of Environmental Management and EPA in bringing the combination of GIS and environmental science into the K-12 classroom. The NC State Sci-Link program, which is a network of master environmental science teachers, has developed an on-going consortium to bring spatial analysis into the curriculum. In year one, a group of about 25 classroom teachers came to the University campus to develop skills in the collection, analysis, and display of water quality data. By the conclusion of this one week workshop, each of the teachers had developed several GIS related projects to be implemented in their classes. Two weekend follow-up sessions were held during the academic year in which teachers received more GIS instruction and reported on their classroom implementation progress. The program was so successful that a second grant was secured and this summer (1997) two sessions are being held on campus; an advanced program for the original participants and an introductory course for a new set of teachers. This paper highlights the GIS curriculum, the teacher classroom projects, and the teacher evaluations of the project.

 

 
GIS Project Planning Considerations for Educators

Bob Sharpe
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies
Wilfrid Laurier University
Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3C5
Phone: (519) 884-1970 x2684
Fax: (519) 725-1342
E-mail: bsharpe@mach1.wlu.ca
 

The purpose of this paper is to outline some of the major considerations faced by educators in designing a GIS-related project for the classroom. Its findings are based on observations of, and discussions with, inservice high school geography teachers in Ontario. When designing a GIS-related project teachers go through a challenging process of assessing their readiness, applying curriculum guidelines, and adjusting teaching methods. The paper elaborates on the requirements and options for each of these tasks. Throughout the process teachers want to know what GIS functions and operations are appropriate for different levels of readiness, curricula, and teaching methods. Using four categories, data input, manipulation, analysis, and output, a range of GIS functions are examined in terms of their appropriateness for educational projects. The functions are assessed in terms of their level of difficulty and in their requirements for computing power, data, and time committments. Suggestions are given for several geography projects that range along a continuum of difficulty and resource requirements.

 

 
Passport to the Future: The new GIS Program at the Faculty of Technology, University of Qatar

Steven Rose
GIS Program
Computer Technology Department
Faculty of Technology
University of Qatar
E-mail: srose@gisqatar.org.qa
 

There are currently over 100 people (mostly expatriates) working in GIS in Qatar and this number is expected to at least double over the next few years. The new GIS Program at the Faculty of Technology, University of Qatar is a two and a half year technology program designed to train Qatari citizens to fill many of these exciting GIS career opportunities -- their passport to the future. The paper identifies the GIS Program's objectives and describes the curriculum and state-of-the-art GIS facilities designed to meet these objectives.

 

 
Abstract from Malcolm Thomas

Malcolm C. Thomas
Coastal Zone Resources
Pembrokeshire College
Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire
Wales, U.K
SA61 1SZ
Phone: 01437 765247
Fax: 01437 767279
E-mail M.Thomas@Pembrokeshire.ac.uk
 

Recognition that the coastal zone must be managed on multisectoral principles has generated demand for integrated coastal zone mangement plans. An important requisite for these plans is development and use of a range of management tools, one of which, G.I.S., is increasing seen as a powerful tool in the decision making process, particularly its ability to integrate often diverse, spatially referenced datasets. Development of G.I.S. teaching and learning strategies for future coastal zone managers is challenging. Initial methods require exploration of the range and limitations of available coastal environmental datasets. These are often dispersed in a variety of agencies, in a format not readily usable in G.I.S. Subsequent training is required to understand fundamental G.I.S. functionality, through investigation of a range of propriety software packages. Managers are then presented with a range of datasets and encouraged to integrate and then derive new parameters from which decisions can be made. G.I.S. Modelling is undertaken to portray a range of management scenarios involving environmental problems particularly oil spill analysis. Interrogation techniques are undertaken to evaluate strengths and weaknesses of coastal databases and guidance given on database design and implementation.

 

 
Beyond Posting Lecture Notes on the Web: Examples of Three GIS Internet Courseware Initiatives and Our Lessons Learned

C. Peter Keller, Rosaline R. Canessa and Trevor J. Davis
Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences Laboratories
University of Victoria
Victoria, BC, Canada
V8W 3P5
Phone: + 1 250 721 7333
Fax: + 1 250 721 6216
E-mail: pkeller@office.geog.uvic.ca
 

This presentation will outline our experiences with the design, development and delivery of three digital GIS courseware initiatives. We will introduce G-HELP, a digital tutor designed to help with hands-on GIS, as well as an introductory INTERNET distance education course covering "Fundamentals of Geo-Information" and a second INTERNET course covering "Introduction to GIS" which includes laboratory exercises. The remainder of the presentation will highlight what we have learned when developing and teaching with these digital courseware initiatives. We will comment on budgetary and time commitments invested in this courseware, talk about students' reactions, share recommendations we have made to senior administration concerning INTERNET based curriculum development and delivery, and conclude by posing a number of questions for discussion.

 

 
Evaluation of a GIS-T Student Friendly Training Tool

Peter van der Waerden
Urban Planning Group
Eindhoven University of Technology
P.O. Box 513 (postvak 20)
Eindhoven, The Netherlands
E-mail: P.J.H.J.v.d.Waerden@bwk.tue.nl

Antonio Nelson Rodrigues da Silva
Universidade de Sao Paulo
Escola de Engenharia de Sao Carlos - Departamento de Transportes
Av. Dr. Carlos Botelho, 1465
13560-250       Sao Carlos - SP - BRAZIL
E-mail address:  anelson@sc.usp.br
 

Last year the authors developed a so-called GIS-T Student-Friendly Training Tool with the aim of supporting the GIS education of transportation planning students. The tool is primarily based on the GIS-package TransCAD and is developed as a self-teaching tool. With the objective of getting insight into the suitability of the training tool for students with little or no experience in transportation planning, a detailed checking and evaluation study has been developed and applied during the course. Those students who participate in the class were asked to fill in partial questionnaire, without looking to their course material. A comprehensive questionnaire has been carried out at the end of the course. The main goal of the checking part of the questionnaire was to get insight into the topics the students have learned during the course. In the evaluation part of the questionnaire, students were asked to state their opinion about the provided material.
In January of 1997 the first group of students at Eindhoven University started to use the training tool. Around 25 students attend the course and filled in an evaluation form after each part of the course. This paper describes the results of the checking and evaluation process.

 

 
Teaching GIS Problem Solving with a Complex Site Allocation Case Study

David G. Goldsborough & M. de Bakker
Van Hall Instituut
P.O. Box 17
9700 AA Groningen
The Netherlands
Phone: (+31) 50 5201818
Fax: +31 50 5266632
E-mail: d.g.goldsborough@pers.vhall.nl
 

Since 1991 the basic principles of GIS are taught to students at the Van Hall Instituut in a 160 hour introductory module 'GIS in Agriculture and Environment'. Each academic year this module is offered two or three times in Dutch to our own students and once in English to visiting foreign students and Dutch students seeking an international label on their diploma. Foreign students come from several European countries and occasionally from the U.S.A. and all students have a background in environmental or agricultural science. As a final assignment the students (in pairs) are required to tackle a complex site allocation problem: suggesting 2 suitable locations for new nature reserves. The working material that the students receive for this 'Nature Management' case study includes information on: GIS and nature management, theoretical background on nature management, an example (in the form of a slide-show) of solving a comparable nature management problem with GIS, and an elaborate description of the available data. Although students have very different backgrounds, ranging from very little knowledge on nature management to being very knowledgeable, all students are able to reach the objectives of the case study. These include: translating a spatial problem into GIS terms, displaying the solution to this problem conceptually by means of a flow-diagram and manipulating a large data-set containing data on different scales and with different coverages. Our structured approach enables the students to experience all aspects of the problem solving procedure: from data evaluation to presentation and description of the final result. Several evaluation points are included in our procedure; thus enabling the lecturers to prevent students from loosing track of were they are going. As a result all students always fulfil the main assignment i.e. assigning new nature reserves. The final results produced by students are very diverse: ranging from very good GIS work based on sound ecological principles to relatively poor GIS work based on little expertise. In discussing the final result with students we focus on four aspects. Firstly the approach they selected including an explanation and motivation of all assumptions, available data and supporting knowledge. Secondly their flow-diagram, including a description, is evaluated based on clarity and reproducibility. Thirdly the final map, including a description in words on contents and interpretation, they produced is evaluated. And finally their conclusions on the intermediate and final result, with emphasis on uncertainty, reliability and value of end map, are critiqued. We feel that this complex site allocation case, including our step by step procedure, is a very effective tool for confronting students with all aspects of the GIS problem solving procedure.

 

 
Preserving West Virginia's Heritage Using GIS: Fort Moore

C. E. Holt, M. H. Akram, and J. M. Williams
Glenville State College
Glenville, West Virginia 26351
Phone: (304) 462-7361 x175
Fax: (304) 462-4407
E-mail: holt@glenville.wvnet.edu
 

Fort Moore, Gilmer County's most important Civil War site, is in a state of deterioration, along with the surrounding emplacements and the Old Glenville Cemetery. The fort was used as a stockade and to defend the city of Glenville until it was burnt by Confederate forces in 1864. Surrounding the fort, the cemetery dates back to the 1840's. The fort and the cemetery adjoin the Glenville State College campus and is used for instructional purposes by various academic units. The faculty at Glenville State College developed a collaborative project utilizing resources from the Divisions of Land Resources and Social Sciences. This effort has involved historical research, surveying of the Fort Moore area including the cemetery, and developing a database of various sites using GIS. In addition, construction of a walking trail by the students has facilitated public access to both the cemetery and Fort Moore. This collaborative effort has provided students from various disciplines to interact, to learn from each other, and to participate in a practical project. Eventually, this effort may lead to the development of a heritage park.

 

 
The Analysis of the State of Vocational Training on Geoinformation Technologies in Siberia

Nikolay G. Markov
Cybernetic Center
The Tomsk Politechnical University
84 St. Sovetskaja Street
Tomsk, 634034, Russia
Phone: +7 (3822) 415-727
Fax: +7 (3822) 415-718
E-mail: markov@cc.tpu.edu.ru
 

As Siberia is rich with natural resources, there is a great need for the experts, being masters of modern GISs in the sphere of geology and oil&gas extracting, wood and ground cadastres.
The analysis of the state of training in GISs in Siberia is done. It is revealed, that the best material base and high level of teaching are in the State and the Politechnical universities of Tomsk and in the Academy of geodesy and cartography in Novosibirsk. The specialty "Geoinformation systems" is open in the Tomsk Politechnical University on the faculty of automatics and computer engineering. For training of students both post-graduate students of the University and number of Siberian universities, and also for conversion training of the engineers of the petroleum companies of Siberia the WWW- server with geoinformation contents is created. Training within the framework of remote training, including use of Internet, is begun. The preparation of experts on GISs is conducted under the individual plans in the Tomsk State University on the faculty of computer science. In all universities the students study well self recommending GISs MapInfo (USA), Arc/INFO and ArcView (USA).
The list of educational rates investigated in the universities, their methodical maintenance etc. are analyzed in detail. Results of foreign experience use, in particular, in USA universities, are considered.


 

GIS in the Virtual Geography Department Project
Kenneth E. Foote
Department of Geography
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX  78712-1098
Email: k.foote@mail.utexas.edu
 

The Virtual Geography Department Project was begun in 1996 as a clearinghouse for high-quality educational materials in the Worldwide Web.  Contributors to the clearinghouse have organized into working groups to cultivate new materials in a wide variety of subfields spanning the entire field of geography.  A GIS, remote sensing, and spatial analysis working group was formed in 1996 and is being led by Brian Klinkenberg of the University of British Columbia.  Eugene Turner of the California State University, Northridge is coordinating the work of the cartography working group formed in 1997.
The GIS working group is seeking to build a collection of exercises, notes, and datasets that will be keyed to the new Core Curricula in GIScience and Remote Sensing.  The point is to provide an easy means for instructors to pool and share materials they develop for their classes.  In this way instructors can save time and share ideas as they develop exercises and tutorials for different software systems matched to the units of the Cores.  This paper will explain how the clearinghouse is organized and how instructors can use and contribute to the collection of materials now being compiled.

 

Using the Web to Deliver Instructional Resources for GIS Teaching

X. Mara Chen
Dept. of Geography and Regional Planning
Salisbury State University
Salisbury, MD 21801
Fax: (410) 548-3318
E-mail: xmchen@ssu.edu
 

The NCGIA GISCC has provided guidance on the substance of GIS teaching in higher education, but training-oriented instructional resources are needed to meet in-class teaching demands. Hands-on GIS teaching with commercial software requires detailed instructional materials that need to be updated often. The Worldwide Web can be used by instructors to pool and share such materials and thereby to promote a more effective and active teaching-and-learning process.
The GIS and remote sensing working group of the Virtual Geography Department Project (VGDP) is in the process of creating a web-based clearinghouse for GIS and remote sensing instructional materials. This paper argues that GIS teaching should integrate knowledge-based education with skill-oriented training, and that web-based instructional materials can play a central role in this integrated approach. It also describes how to design web-based lab instructional modules for GIS teaching and learning.

 

Teaching GIS incorporating the Internet

Hui Xu
Department of Geography
Frostburg State University
Frostburg, MD 21532-1099
Email: hxu@fresgisvr.fsu.umd.edu
 

This paper presents results of a summer project for teaching improvement, work partly supported by the Frostburg State University and further inspired by the summer 1997 Virtual Geography Department Workshop at the University of Texas.
"Introduction to GIS" is offered by the Department of Geography every semester as one of its Geographic Technique courses.  The course seeks to balance the teaching of GIS fundamentals and principles of GIS against training in the use of the technology and software. The goal of the improvement project is to develop Internet programs that help achieve this balance more effectively.
Course materials are revised to go on-line, including lecture notes and instructions for laboratory exercises. Students can study them for comprehension before or after class, rather than being forced to copy from the board during lecture.  Linking to other Internet sites provides the students with additional learning resources. Each student is required to complete a final project with GIS applications, the best of these being  displayed on the Internet.  Use of the Internet acts as an incentive for better performance.   It also provides students with computer skills of value in the real world.  The project is conceived as an experiment, as a means to recognize problems, and to provide a prototype for other faculty to follow.

 
  

The Role of Geographic Data in GIS Education

Barbara Poore
Federal Geographic Data Committee
U.S. Geological Survey
590 National Center
Reston, VA 20192
703-648-5971
703-648-5755 (f)
bpoore@usgs.gov

Joe Sewash
West Virginia University
Department of Geology and Geography
425 White Hall, POI 6300
Morgantown, WV 26506
304-293-5603, x4338
304-293-6522 (f)
sewash@wvugeo.wvnet.edu
 

Increasingly, teachers of courses in geographic information science recognize the need for students to explore geographic data and to understand their nature and limitations. The issues range from theoretical data models, to technical challenges of analysis and representation, to organizational and institutional questions of why and how data are produced. The way data producing organizations deal with these issues influence the structure, quality and availability of data for classroom use. The National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), is a national initiative that encourages federal, state, and local governments, academia and private industry to share geographic data. By encouraging data documentation, electronic data clearinghouses, data standards, and a basic framework of geographic data for multiple applications, the NSDI will make higher quality, better documented data available for citizens to use.
This session will describe the NSDI, focusing on its potential relevance to K-16 educators. A recent project at the University of West Virginia , funded by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)  will demonstrate how NSDI ideas can be used to enhance student comprehension of the theoretical, technical, and organizational aspect of GIS and geographic data. Finally, a representative of the FGDC will describe federal funding programs  that may be of interest to educators. The audience will be invited to discuss how the education community can contribute to the development of the NSDI.

 
  

GIS Projects and GIS Education in Russian Higher School

Alexander D. Ivannikov
Center on Informatization
Ministery on Education of Russian Federation
E-mail: adi@informika.ru

Alexander V. Simonov
Pushchino Specialized Center for New Information Technologies
Ministery on Education of Russian Federation
Phone: (007) 095-9238003
Fax: (007) 095-9233602
E-mail: simonov@adm.pgu.serpukhov.su

The GIS Development as the separate direction (subprogram) within the framework of Russian Ministery on Education (RF MoE) Research Program on Regional Informatization is accepted. It is implemented by the System of Regional and Specialized Centers on Information Technologies which are organized in Russian universities (near 90). There are four main directions in GIS Development Subprogram. They are (1) development of standards on GIS terminology, documents discribing and regulating GIS projects and GIS education and training materials, methodical recommendations etc., (2) development of networking in field of GIS Education and GIS Project implementation on the RUNNet (Russian Universities Network) basis using GIS-oriented Web-sites, (3) development of different GIS projects (in cooperation with regional and local institutions and administrations), (4) development of education and training materials for System on GIS Continuing Education Courses (in cooperation with branch and territorial administrations).
The Subprogram is strong oriented on the regional geoinformation resources and potentialities since it is connected with development of active regional policy in field of natural resources management, regional planning, environment protection and other spatial problems. It's final purposes are not only to develop GIS education and but also to explore, estimate and harmonize regional geospatial data as well as to increase the role of universities in regional informatization and computerization.

 

Planning a GIS Certificate Program for Distance Delivery

David DiBiase
Department of Geography
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park PA 16802
(fax) 814.863.7943
dibiase@essc.psu.edu
 

The U.S. higher education industry is increasingly competitive. Some institutions, including Penn State, are developing expanded continuing and distance education programs to create new markets among professional adult learners who are unable to pursue traditional resident degree programs. This year, Penn State launched a "World Campus" initiative involving development of several new certificate programs for distance delivery beginning in 1998. Among these, the Department of Geography was selected to create a program in Geographic Information Systems. This presentation will outline market strategies, educational objectives, curriculum content and structure, and personnel requirements involved in designing and producing a 4-course sequence for asynchronous distance delivery via the Internet, CD-ROM, and print media. The talk will focus in particular on the relationship between the distance education program and the Department's existing geographic information science curriculum for resident education. An instructional design model will be presented which accommodates both distance and resident delivery for GIS education.


 
Teaching GIS with ArcView and the World Wide Web at the United States Military Academy
 
Mike Hendricks
CPT, U.S. Army
Assistant Professor
West Point Military Academy
bm9886@exmail.usma.army.mil

The use of hands-on practical exercises with GIS software is a critical component of an undergraduate introduction to GIS Course. However, getting students familiar with a  fully functional GIS software package is time consuming and can overshadow the learning of GIS concepts.  Historically, a traditional textbook is used to address these concepts, and the software is learned through instructor produced handouts. The Geographic Information Systems (GIS) course offered by the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at the United States Military Academy underwent major course design change in the spring of 1997 to address these problems. The changes were  initiated to increase student active learning, and were made possible by recent hardware and software upgrades. The major components of these changes were: the use of ArcView 3.0, with the Spatial Analyst extension, the utilization of the "Getting to Know ArcView" training book in lieu of a course text, and the heavy use of web based resources. This paper will highlight the justification, method of utilization, and effectiveness of teaching an introductory undergraduate level GIS course with these components.


 
Community College Administrative GIS:  The First Step in a Community College GIS Enterprise

Randall E. Raymond
Urban Environmental Education in Detroit - Cass Technical High School

Freda L. Brown
Henry Ford Community College
FLeeBrown@aol.com

Yichun Xie
Eastern Michigan University

Geographic information system (GIS) technology is rapidly expanding in government, industry, and the business sectors.  However, the societal utility of GIS in community development is to be exploited yet.  Community colleges can play a significant role of disseminating this evolving technology to grass-root communities and work forces.  Henry Ford Community College (HFCC), in collaboration with Eastern Michigan University and Cass Technical High School, is developing a national urban model for community-based GIS education.  The first step is to demonstrate to the college how GIS can be deployed to assist administrative decisions.  16,300 student records at HFCC were geo-referenced to 1995 TIGER street networks.  The census demographic and economic data were then joined.  As a result we were able to apply various statistical analyses to look into issues such as student patron areas, and their social, political, and economic well-beings.  Mapped spatial information, in particular, can provide easy digestible information to assist administrators in their management routines.  GIS can be used to track student enrollment against political entities such as house and senate districts for the purpose of funding and support from legislators.  The presentation will include the analysis conducted on HFCC student enrollment and the strategies and methodologies used  so those interested can reproduce the analysis procedure at their home institutions.  GIS is an intriguing technology that educational institutions can benefit administratively, in addition to its profound values in education, research, and training.

Integrating GIS with Stressed Stream Analysis

Dr. Karl Korfmacher
Environmental Studies Program
Denison University
Granville, OH 43023
614-587-5707
korfk@denison.edu

Stressed stream analysis (SSA) is an approach that identifies impacted subbasins and streams within a watershed and assesses the sources, extent, effects, and severity of pollution (Makarewicz, 1993).  Assessing the relative impacts of point and non-point sources of pollution within a watershed is a complex problem for students.  For many, this is their first experience addressing a large spatial problem. SSA methodology is easily integrated into a GIS, expanding the quantitative analyses students can perform.  Such analyses include identifying “hot spots” based on landuse change, incorporating terrain analysis results into the SSA, and creating pollutant loading models with the SSA monitoring data.  At Denison University, students in two environmental studies courses will be using SSA and GIS to assess the environmental health of two watersheds near the school.  Clay run is almost entirely contained within the boundaries of the school’s 350 acre biological reserve.  Clear Run, which contains the Clay Run watershed, drains a mixture of landuses and land covers, including agriculture, pasture, forests, residential areas, urban build-up, and wetlands.  Land around the biological reserve is steadily being converted from farmland to residential, with great potential for altering water quality.  This paper discusses the integration of SSA and GIS as a multidisciplinary teaching tool and a framework for teaching environmental science.


 
Status of GIS Education in India

P. Venkatachalam
Centre of Studies in Resources Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology
Powai, Bombay 400076, INDIA
email : pvenk@disha.csre.iitb.ernet.in, svenk@ispat.met.iitb.ernet.in
 

Geographic Information System is becoming one of the major decision making tools in the area of resources management. Integration of remote sensing technology with Geographic Informa- tion System has enhanced the capabilities of both these emerging technologies and the application areas are increasing dramatical- ly. Geographic Information Systems are often seen as a multipur- pose technology which can satisfy the needs of variety of users. The process of transferring this technology from laboratory to real world organisation is a massive complex task. The target audience vary from high level administrators and professional scientists to application oriented personnel, technicians and computer specialists. Also the implementation of GIS is consid- ered as a highly resource intensive activity. The last decade has witnessed a steady increase in the number of training pro- grammes and post graduate courses being offered in GIS by the educational institutes and R & D organizations all over the world. Also with the availability of low cost computer systems and software to process the spatial data, it is becoming increas- ingly possible for the user departments to take advantage of these emerging technologies.
India is one of the few countries in the world which has made remarkable progress in space technology. India has launched a series of operational remote sensing satellites pro- viding high quality remote sensing data to several parts of the world. Integrating remote sensing and GIS methodologies, India has carried out several operational level projects in the areas of natural resources planning and management. Understanding the need for the trained manpower, several universities in India are offering post graduate degree programmes such as M.Tech, M.Sc.Tech, M.Phil and PG Dip. in Remote Sensing where GIS is offered as a subject. As a partial fulfillment of the degree, most of the students carry out their research projects in GIS applications. Taking into consideration, the interdisciplinary nature of the areas, students of varied backgrounds are admitted to these degree programmes. In addition, doctoral level research programmes are pursued in GIS and its applications in a number of universities and Indian Institutes of Technology. Anna Universi- ty, Tamil Nadu, India has started a 4 year under-graduate degree programme in Geo-informatics covering photogrammetry, remote sensing, GIS and computer applications. Geography departments in the Colleges and Universities have taken initiatives to introduce GIS as a core or elective subject in their UG and PG degree programmes in Geography. Although different levels of courses can be offered starting from basic introductory level to advanced application level, there is a continuous demand from decision makers, inservice personnel and university teachers to undergo short training programmes in these areas. To meet these demands the academic institutes, R & D Centres and industries are conducting GIS training programmes of varied durations. This paper presents an overview on the status of GIS education in India. It gives a summary of different levels of courses being offered in GIS, curriculum adopted, the books followed and also the availability of infrastructure. Status of GIS education in the post graduate and doctoral level research programmes is brought out. The framework adopted for conducting short term continuing education programmes on GIS is summarised. Attempts being made in the development of indigenous GIS software packages for promoting GIS education and training is presented. The paper also brings out the upcoming trend in introducing GIS technology in higher education in India.



GIS -- A Keystone Technology for Earth Science

Kathryn Keranen
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
Alexandria, VA
email: kkeranen@thor.tjhsst.edu

Demonstrations and lessons will be shown that link point data to GIS software.  Earthquakes, volcanoes, weather, EPA data, a peak flow of streams will be obtained from the web, brought into a GIS and analyzed.  Lessons will be provided on how to incorporate this into an earth science curriculum.  In addition to data found on the web, students can create their own databases and incorporate them in local GIS datasets. This technology is a keystone technology in Fairfax County, VA's new Geosystems class taught at the junior/senior level.

A Spreadsheet Approach to Teaching Object Oriented GIS

Sam Cole and Emil Boasson
NCGIA and Departments of Planning and Geography
University at Buffalo, Hayes Hall, NY14214
email: samcole@acsu.buffalo.edu

Our paper will explain how object oriented mapping may be carried out in spreadsheets, using simple user-created maps and macros. The method has uses for teaching, research, and policy. The advantage over current add-in mapping is that the macros can be written by students and other users with basic spreadsheet skills, the procedures are relatively fast, custom maps may be drawn or imported, and the macros can be adapted to a variety of applications such as real-time animation, or used in planning situations where time is of the essence. The paper raises a number of issues as to the inflexibility of some GIS modeling capabilities and the rapidly evolving capability of spreadsheet mapping. The approach will be illustrated for Quattro Pro for Windows and Excel with Visual Basic, using classroom and planning applications. The authors will review their experiences as teacher and student with the approach.