Teaching with Technology

As a follow-up to previous entries on GIS in Higher Education and the class that John and I will provide for our Peer Teaching assignment, this journal article provides a background on the role of GIS in Higher Education and it’s use by non-geography specific disciplines. Yes… you too can use GIS in your lesson plans and provide your students an alternative view of their world. The discipline of Geography and Spatial awareness is experiencing a new ground swell of popularity in the United States. Every day we are presented with a long list of geographic data that tests our mental image and understanding not only location but time/space relationships, value and influence in our lives. Having to obtain a greater understanding of hurricanes, earthquakes, conflict analysis, the connected world of economics or global warming patterns, forces us to understand just a little bit more of how geography plays a part in our world. Geographic Information System (GIS) takes a look at interdisciplinary data that is geographic in nature and allows analysis in answering questions such as, where has it occurred?, when has it occurred?, and what is the information about? We’ve all gone to Mapquest or Google Maps and looked up locations, queried for directions or have taken a look at an aerial photo of where we live. Using GIS in the classroom takes this one step further. Today, economists, political scientists, historians, biologists, anthropologists, medical research personnel and other disciplines are becoming increasingly aware of the utility of spatial data tools to organize, manage and display their information. At its most basic level, GIS supports all of these areas by allowing students to take digital images of mapped objects and to quickly and easily visualize spatial patterns of large, complex, multi-layered data sets. Many universities such as Harvard, Dartmouth and other Ivy League schools and research colleges have introduced a GIS lab and course of study within their programs. Having to take a number of “General Education Classes” for graduation, Harvard offers a Medicine and Society in America class that uses GIS to show graphically show how medical expenses or care differs across the country. Downloading additional information allows students to further evaluate population distribution to determine hospital location or service areas; or regions of the country with higher cancer rates or asbestos poisoning. GIS provides instructors an avenue to incorporate an activity based method of learning into their lesson planning. Students often visualize patterns but are not taught why they occur or what drives the pattern to begin with. When we combine GIS with general education courses, community service projects or undergraduate and graduate research, we take the level of “learning” one step deeper. Using spatial analysis and geographic perspectives expands their view and there is a strong likelihood that students will now understand the relationship their core subject has to the relevance of education.

Sinton, Diana Stuart (2009). “Roles for GIS within Higher Education”, Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 33: 1, S7-S16.