National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis

Download this index to link directly to NCGIA resources related to education and teaching GIS in K-12 education and in post-secondary education.  These links combine resources from the NCGIA Technical Reports with those from conferences and specialist meetings that focused on education over the period 1988 to 1999.

This workshop explored how the geographic information community can work together to develop an Interoperable or Open environment that provides a framework for collaborative education that allows GIS educators to stay on the leading edge of both the technology and the changes happening in higher education. Technical issues, such as metadata, data formats and technology, and educational/institutional issues related to collaborative education and sharing of resources were considered at a workhop held in Soesterberg, The Netherlands on May 18-20, 1998. The meeting was organized by the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, University of California Santa Barbara; UNIGIS International, Manchester Metropolitan University; the Institute for Spatial Informatics, The Free University of Amsterdam (which also provided local arrangements for the workshop); and Hewlett Packard Netherlands. This final report on the meeting includes a white paper (Interoperability for GIScience Education: Building a Flexible Knowledge and Resource Base) by Ian Heywood and Karen Kemp and extended abstracts of position statements by participants.

This document contains a record of GISHE '97 (held in Chantilly, Virginia), including the final program, abstracts, and presentations, plus summaries of the working groups and final plenary discussions.

The GISHE '97 theme was "Building foundations for expanding GIS education locally and globally". The symposium focused on strategic issues in GIS higher education, including: expanding partnerships between educators, private organizations and government agencies; identifying GIS employment needs and linking these to educational opportunities; building capacity in developing countries in support of GIS education and training; enlarging networks for sharing ideas about instructional methods, materials and laboratory facilities; improving GIS education for teachers teaching and learning through the Internet; enhancing GIS professional education options; identifying the key spatial concepts which should form the basis of GIS education; and articulation of courses and programs spanning the range of GIS education options.

This is a copy of the original  GISHE '97 program (held in Chantilly, Virginia; October 30 - November 2, 1997)

The GISHE '97 theme was "Building foundations for expanding GIS education locally and globally". The symposium focused on strategic issues in GIS higher education, including: expanding partnerships between educators, private organizations and government agencies; identifying GIS employment needs and linking these to educational opportunities; building capacity in developing countries in support of GIS education and training; enlarging networks for sharing ideas about instructional methods, materials and laboratory facilities; improving GIS education for teachers teaching and learning through the Internet; enhancing GIS professional education options; identifying the key spatial concepts which should form the basis of GIS education; and articulation of courses and programs spanning the range of GIS education options.

This meeting of education researchers and teachers immediately followed the November 1996 Annual Meeting of the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) in Santa Barbara, California. Participants explored the issues facing the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the K-12 classroom and developed a research agenda related to Pedagogy Issues, Curriculum Issues, Software Issues, and Cognitive Issues.

This Second International Symposium (GISHE `96) follows a series of related workshops held during the `80's and 1990 at Ohio State University, and the first international symposium held in Miami in 1991. The theme for this symposium is "Expanding GIS Education through Technology and Outreach". The purpose is to provide a forum for discussion of today's strategic issues in GISHigher Education. These issues include:intra- and interdisciplinary GIS education; GIS education and the internet;  new technologies for teaching--multimedia, web browsers; funding and designing GIS laboratories; professional education-- educating working professionals; the role for the 2-year community and technical colleges; curricula for colleges; articulation of GIS education across the educational spectrum from elementary school to post graduate programs; international collaboration in GIS education; and preservice teacher education in GIS.

The National Center for Geographic Information (NCGIA) and Analysis and the California Geographic Information Association (CGIA) organized the first California GIS Educators' Symposium, which took place on August 11—12, 1996. This day and a half meeting at the University of California, Santa Barbara brought together 45 GIS educators from around the state. There was a strong representation from the California State University system as well as from the state's community colleges. Participants also included educators from the University of California, private universities, the public schools, and other educational organizations.

The primary goal of the symposium was to begin a dialog between educators at in different types of institutions around the state and to attempt to coordinate GIS educational activities.

Jack Dangermond, President of ESRI, delivered a thought provoking keynote discussion, which touched on a broad range of issues related to the affect of GIS on society and education. He also discussed the directions which the technology may take, including the increasing importance of desktop and internet- based GIS.

The symposium also provided ample opportunity for discussion of the issues facing educators in each type of institution and between institutions. 

This document contains: a list of the symposium participants; summaries of the mixed group break out discussion and of the final set of recommendations/action items formulated; and the symposium agenda.

The roles for geographic information systems (GIS) in the secondary schools are investigated in this foundational research carried out in conjunction with the Secondary Education Project (SEP) of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis. It is the first comprehensive examination of GIS use in the pre-collegiate environment. A pilot study including a one week workshop for secondary school teachers found that teachers could identify roles for GIS in their classrooms. The positive results of the pilot study resulted in an extension of the research to include the interface between secondary school geography education and GIS in the classroom, the technological environment in the schools and the potential ramifications for GIS activities, and the examples provided by existing GIS efforts for and in the schools. This extension led to the conclusion that GIS can play an important role in geography education. It was also established that rudimentary computer infrastructure presently found in many schools limits GIS use, but the inevitable upgrading of computers in the schools and the increasingly user-friendly and personal computer compatible GIS software indicate that major technological barriers to GIS use in the schools will be overcome in the near future. Current GIS efforts in the schools are small scale and often non-transferable, but GIS industry initiatives, government and higher education institution outreach, and emerging national standards in geography signal an increasing adoption of GIS activities by the schools. There is a need for GIS software designed for the schools and corresponding curriculum materials. Teachers must also have opportunities to learn about GIS and apply it to their instruction. Additional research questions related to the cognitive benefits of GIS-based education and the capacity of students to utilize specific aspects of GIS are suggested.

Steve Palladino was the NCGIA Education Director in the mid-1990s.

Note: pagination in this pdf differs from the Table of Contents.

GIS conference proceeding articles are only sporatically covered by the current online database services. Similarly, GIS books which contain articles or chapters written by different authors are difficult to access by the titles and authors of those chapters. The primary purpose of this document and accompanying data base is to provide bibliographic citations for all articles contained in the major GIS conference proceedings and book compendiums for the previous year (1993).

GIS conference proceeding articles are only sporatically covered by the current online database services. Similarly, GIS books which contain articles or chapters written by different authors are difficult to access by the titles and authors of those chapters. The primary purpose of this document and accompanying data base is to provide bibliographic citations for all articles contained in the major GIS conference proceedings and book compendiums for the previous year (1992).