Download Complate Issue - Ozean Publications

Ozean Journal of Applied Sciences 2(2), 2009and universities to promote the book. A reasonable price was chosen for the book, US$22, so that teachers andstudents would be able to afford it. A few months after the release of the book, the price was reduced to aroundUS$15 to make purchasing easier, especially for teachers. Approximately six months have passed since the bookwas first promoted and around 300 copies of the book, with promotional brochure, were delivered to highschools and universities free of charge. To date 700 books have been purchased and the number of people whobecome aware of the book and would like to buy it increases daily. In a short amount of time the book receivedfavourable attention from academicians, teachers and civil servants working in different public sectors.The book also received a favourable attention from academicians and students studying in different departmentssuch as geography, geology, soil, forestry, geodesy and photogrammetry, urban planning, landscapeengineering, and mineral engineering. As it is still the only GIS book in Turkey including licensed software anddigital data, it is being used as a textbook for GIS courses in some university geography departments. Despite itsfavourable reception from geography teachers and university students studying in geography departments, thenumber of geography teachers who obtained the book is less than satisfactory. Since secondary geographyteachers were the main target group of the book, great efforts were made to reach both geography teachersworking at secondary schools and teacher candidates studying at geography departments. Around 300 bookshave been supplied to this target group up until present. While small, this number is nevertheless a good startconsidering the previous low level of GIS usage in Turkey. As yet, no data has been received about the extent towhich teachers have been utilising the book in their lessons.The first six months have indicated that merely supplying geography teachers with GIS books, software, digitaldata, and educational materials is not enough to make them use this technology in their lessons. As Lloyd (2001)noted, systematic issues that encourage or discourage innovation in education are among the obstaclespreventing the use of GIS in secondary school education. The main obstacles confronting the successfulincorporation of GIS in geography lessons in Turkey are lack of time for teachers to learn GIS, lack of time tolearn how to use GIS in the classroom, unwillingness of teachers to utilise GIS technology, and the difficultiesof using GIS software (Meyer et al. 1999; Kerski 2003; Bednarz 2004; Marsh et al. 2007).A number of strategies have been pursued to help teachers utilize the book so that they may be able toincorporate GIS into secondary school geography lessons in Turkey in a more effective and faster way. Thenumber of GIS workshops and seminars specifically organized for geography teachers is increasing in Turkey.Instead of sending a book to every school, GIS workshops and seminars have been organized to attract thosemore enthusiastic teachers who would like to use new technologies such as GIS in their lessons. As experiencedmany times, teachers become more willing to use GIS in lessons and more interested in the GIS for Teachersbook after attending GIS seminars and workshops. An example can be given from a geography seminarorganized for geography teachers working in public schools in the southern Turkish province of Antalya in2009. The seminar lasted two days and covered topics ranging from curriculum to new educational technologiesespecially GIS. When introduced to GIS and how to use it in lessons, the majority of the teachers becamewilling to use GIS in their own lessons and wanted to obtain a copy of the book. All the teachers whoparticipated the seminar were supplied with a book at the end of the seminar. New GIS workshops will beorganized in the near future to give teachers the opportunity not only to gain knowledge and skills in GIS butalso to allow them to make their own GIS-based exercises.It is extremely difficult to train all secondary school geography teachers in Turkey in GIS as they numberbetween 5 and 6 thousand. It is perhaps not even realistic to expect that all teachers would like to use GIS intheir lessons. However, even a small group of teachers successfully utilizing GIS in their lessons can set anexample that will hopefully motivate many more teachers to learn about GIS and use it in their classrooms. Thiscan only be achieved by establishing a GIS community among geography teachers. In order to help geographyteachers establish such a community, a new website will soon be lunched in Turkey. The main aim of thiswebsite is to provide teachers with a platform where they can share their experiences, lesson plans, projects,data, and news about teaching with GIS. Apart from workshops, seminars and the webpage, GIS projectcompetitions may be useful to motivate and encourage teachers to use GIS in their lessons.The GIS for Teachers book is not a magic tool that will remove all obstacles confronting the utilisation GIStechnology in secondary schools in Turkey. However, the book has met one of the most urgent needs in Turkeyby supplying geography teachers with sufficient knowledge, skills, software, data and exercises. Publishing thebook was a first step. Many more steps need to be taken before we will see the successful utilisation of GIS213