Digital Earth: GI-Learner: creating a learning line for GI Science in education

http://www.gilearner.eu
Digital Earth
GI-Learner: creating a
learning line for GI
Science in education
Karl Donert (eurogeomail@yahoo.co.uk)
President EUROGEO

Digital Earth
Gore A (1992; 1998), The Digital Earth: Understanding Our Planet

• Meet societal challenges – need data
• CORINE (Coordination of Information on the
Environment)
• ‘Global Monitoring for Environment and Security'
(GMES) – 2004
• INSPIRE Directive – 2007 - interoperability
• Open governance – new opportunities for
citizens to interact
• Open data – freedom of information (Kroes, 2012)
Digital Earth: a
global dimension

Digital Earth : Digital World
Having access to data is not
enough in our Digital World …
we need to:
“have the intent to utilize it and
the capacity to understand and
use data effectively”
Andreas Weigend, Stanford University

Data Driven Policy Making
(Parliamentary Assembly)

GI Science in Policy
•Climate Change
•Landscape Convention
•Resources – energy, water
•Smart cities
•Transportation
•Migration and democracy
•Health and welfare

GI Science in Policy
UN Sustainable Development Goals

What sort of technology?

GI Learner Aim
help teachers implement learning progression
lines for spatial thinking in secondary schools,
using GI Science
https://cnr.ncsu.edu/geospatial/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2015/08/DukeTIPCollage.png

GI-Learner in figures
•Three years, EU funded project
•Seven partners
•Five countries – Belgium, Austria,
Romania, Spain, UK
•Four high schools (including coordinating
organisation)
•Two universities
•One association, EUROGEO

GI-Learner partners

Action steps
1. Summarize research literature  report
2. define geospatial thinking competencies
3. develop an evaluative tool to analyze the
impact
4. create learning lines translating them into
learning objectives, teaching and learning
materials for the whole curriculum (K7 to K12)

GI Science  Spatial Thinking
Spatial Thinking dimensions and related terms
(Michel & Hof, 2013)
Michel, E. & Hof, A., 2013, Promoting Spatial Thinking and Learning with Mobile Field Trips and eGeo-Riddles, Jekel, T.,
Car, A., Strobl, J., Griesebner, G. (eds.), GI_Forum 2013: Creating the GISociety, 378-387. Berlin, Wichmann Verlag
Key Literature
Literature Review

The situation
•Schools have better ICT equipment
• Cloud-based developments
•Students can bring their own devices
• More openly available data
• Web-based platforms reduced / no costs
•Networking and communities are available
Literature Review

Content already exists …
• iGuess  www.iguess.eu
• I-Use  www.i-use.eu
• EduGIS  www.edugis.nl, www.edugis.pl
• PaikkaOppi learning environment 
http://www.paikkaoppi.fi/
…but materials are not structured or coordinated by the
age or ability of the pupil …
Literature Review
The situation

Bednarz and van der Schee (2006)
•GI Science not compulsory in teacher
training
•Subject is taught by non-specialists
•Curriculum does not include GI Science
•Non-availability of data and easy-to-use
software.
•Attitudes of teachers difficult to persuade
What is still blocking it?
Literature Review

•GIS not compulsory in teacher training
•Subject is taught by non-specialists
•Curriculum does not include GI Science
•Non-availability of data and easy-to-use
software.
•Attitudes of teachers difficult to persuade
What is still blocking it?
Literature Review

Connect geospatial thinking
to GI Science
Literature Review
More than mapping
Contextual diagram for geographic information literacy (Miller et.al., 2005)

• address key issues related to GIS
implementation:
• teacher training,
• availability of user friendly software,
• ICT equipment in schools.
• use a community of learners approach
• institutionalize GI Science into curricula
Literature Review
Recommendations

Learning progression line
• construction of knowledge and skills throughout
the whole curriculum
• reflect a growing level of complexity, ranging
from easy to difficult

Learning progression
line: example
Learning
lines
Field-
work
Working
with
images
Working
with
maps
Working
with
statistics
Creation of
knowledge
Level 1 Perception – knowledge of facts
Level 2 Analysis – selection of relevant geographic information
Level 3 Structure – look for complex connections and relationships
Level 4 Application – thinking, problem solving

certain spatial
thinking skills are
higher order than
others and build upon
previous, less complex
skills
Concept = the region
Learning progression

Based on the review: 10
GI-Learner geospatial
thinking competences,
each with a progression
inside from easy (A) to
more elaborated (C)
Key Literature
Literature Review

Geospatial thinking
Ten proposed geospatial thinking competences:
1. Critically read, interpret cartographic and other
visualisations in different media
2. Be aware of geographic information and its
representation through GI and GIS.
3. Visually communicate geographic information
4. Describe and use examples of GI applications in
daily life and in society
5. Use (freely available) GI interfaces

6. Carry out own (primary) data capture
7. Be able to identify and evaluate (secondary)
data
8. Examine interrelationships
9. Synthesise meaning from analysis
10. Reflect and act with knowledge
Geospatial thinking

Based on the review, ten geospatial
thinking competences are proposed

Geospatial thinking

Translate competences into
curriculum learning materials
• K7: local area
• K8: tourism
• K9: economic disparities
• K10: refugees, migration
• K11: plate tectonics, tsunami risk
• K12: globalisation
+ for each year extra
exercises to come

More than mapping
Linking geospatial thinking
to GI Science
http://www.eurogeography.eu/gi-learner2018/

Spatial Thinking Examples
New football
stadium FC Bruges –
alternative locations:
https://arcg.is/SazXb

Plate tectonics: https://arcg.is/1X0zqX

• Go to www.gilearner.eu
 Course  Access to pilot materials of the course

http://www.eurogeography.eu/gi-learner2018/
Material course:
http://moodle.eurogeography.eu/course/view.php?id=47
example
• K12 exercise globalization
https://arcg.is/SC0vy
• Task paper: https://tinyurl.com/ybhxfufv

Pupils at work: mobility
week Madrid, March 2018
• Creating city tour for younger group (K12)
• Evaluating the project (K9, K12)
• Evaluation Test C (K12)
• Presenting Madrid (K9)

GI-Learner Pupil Work

GI-Learner Pupil Work
City Tour
http://bit.ly/2CRgqlP

Making Story Maps
http://bit.ly/2FYY1FO

Evaluation: what did we
learn?
https://dotstorming.com/b/5a97b52ed7a291e445d57365

Five ways of integrating GI Science in
education (Favier, 2013)
How to implement this?
Favier, T.M., 2011, Geographic Information Systems in inquiry-based secondary geography education, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 287 pp.
Literature Review

Final conference
Friday 15 June, 2018 Ghent
location Het Pand (centre Ghent)

Price: 50 EUR - Including all materials, coffee breaks & lunch
International grants available:
20 grants of 150 EUR (first come – first serve)
Interest: info on our website or mail
luc.zwartjes@ugent.be
Friday 15 June - 1 day conference:
- Background of the project
- Outcomes of the project:
- Literature review
- Learning line competencies
- Curriculum opportunities
- with the developed materials
- Material using the comptencies & curriculum
- Hands-on working
- developing own materials

GI-Learner Workshop
http://www.eurogeography.eu/gi-
learner2018/

Questions?
Project Timeframe:
Sept 2015 – August 2018
More info : www.gi-learner.eu
Twitter: @GILearner
Project coordinator: luc.zwartjes@ugent.be
Karl Donert: eurogeomail@yahoo.co.uk

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