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Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

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GIS-Use <strong>in</strong> <strong>Geography</strong> Lessons at Schools,Colleges and Universities – Innovation and ChallengeYvonne Schleicher 1 , Mark Lawrence 21Pädagogische Hochschule We<strong>in</strong>garten, University of <strong>Education</strong>, Kirchplatz 2,88250 We<strong>in</strong>garten, Germany.e-mail: schleicher@ph-we<strong>in</strong>garten.de2Bemidji State University, Department of <strong>Geography</strong> & Political Science,1500 Birchmont Drive, Bemidji, M<strong>in</strong>nesota 56601 USA.e-mail: mlawrence@bemidjistate.eduKey Words: GIS, Geographical <strong>Education</strong>IntroductionOutside schools and universities, GIS is spread<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>to all k<strong>in</strong>ds of professions(geomarket<strong>in</strong>g, precision farm<strong>in</strong>g, city adm<strong>in</strong>istration); with a current growth rateof about 15% per year, there are now nearly a million GIS users worldwide. Butthe connection between the “real world” and geographic education at schools anduniversities rema<strong>in</strong>s poor. In the United States, only about 50,000 university students(barely 0.2%) receive GIS education currently; similar situations are found <strong>in</strong> Europe(ESRI 2000; U.S. Census Bureau 2002).From the outset, a number of obvious questions arise: How, where and when dowe teach <strong>in</strong> school with GIS? S<strong>in</strong>ce most GIS education <strong>in</strong>volves tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g withoutmuch theoretical preparation, the great potential of GIS is still unknown to moststudents and teachers. For research projects also, it is a great challenge to f<strong>in</strong>d outwhether Patrick Wiegand was right <strong>in</strong> say<strong>in</strong>g: “GIS represents, <strong>in</strong> my op<strong>in</strong>ion, thes<strong>in</strong>gle biggest contribution geographers have made to society and economy s<strong>in</strong>ce theAge of Discovery” (Wiegand, 2001, p. 68).GIS <strong>in</strong> Geographic <strong>Education</strong> at universities – A perspective from GermanyCurrently, the German teacher-education system doesn’t <strong>in</strong>clude GIS education asa basic competence for geography teachers, so it is based on their own commitmentand optional offer<strong>in</strong>gs by the universities. Once the higher education system startsto follow a Bachelors-and-Masters-Curriculum through the Bologna-Process, EuropeanAgreement 2010, for our teacher education, there will be a chance to <strong>in</strong>tegrateGIS techniques <strong>in</strong>to Bachelors modules to learn about the potentials of GIS, while<strong>in</strong> Masters modules for geographic education/teacher education, we will be able tofocus on the didactics of how to <strong>in</strong>tegrate GIS <strong>in</strong> a school curriculum. Such an <strong>in</strong>tegrativecurriculum will require exchange between geography professors and thoseof geographic education.84

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