Acquisition of geospatial skills is now considered as an important graduate attribute especially in the job markets and subsequently at the workplace. Already people are describing it as the “Fourth R” and as a new landscape for science. With the upsurge of computer technology coupled with several developments in spatial data collections, the geospatial techniques are becoming cheaper, faster and user friendly. This is enabling more and more people with diverse backgrounds to acquire these skills and become spatially aware. Most of these people use these techniques in their respective discipline areas. The geographical information systems (GIS), which enable integration, analyses, and visualisation of data coming from different geospatial techniques, are now well recognised as a multidisciplinary tool. GIS knowledge is going to influence the way students learn different disciplines. GIS skills and knowledge enable visualisation of information and thereby providing insight into the data from a different perspective. Moreover, GIS enables integration of data from different disciplinary areas with the existing GIS data. Acquiring GIS skills and knowledge is known to improve students’ spatial thinking, which is considered as an important graduate attribute. These graduate attributes are desired in the recent educational reviews in Australia and abroad. The paper talks about the importance of GIS coupled with spatial thinking in different discipline areas and how this can reshape higher education. The paper also presents a case study demonstrating the level of spatial awareness among students and the multidisciplinary nature of the GIS.
Keywords: geospatial technologies, geographical information systems, GIS and spatial thinking, GIS ...
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I believe that geography is a significant subject in the primary national curriculum because it supports children to develop an understanding of the places in the world and the diverse range of people who live in it. For me, this is an important aspect to learning because it enables children to be globally aware. According to the DFES (Great Britain. Department for Education and Skills, 2005a) education plays a vital role in helping children to recognise their contribution and responsibilities as citizens of the global community and equips them with skills to make informed decisions and take responsible actions. In a recent geography seminar, I collaboratively planned a lesson for KS2, involving children taking a visit to Seaton, a local beach in Cornwall to compare and contrast the area through photographs after recent storm damage. The Royal Geographical Society (2014) suggests through the use of enquiry-based fieldwork, children can gain first hand experiences of physical processes. Having planned this activity I now realise that the use of first hand experiences will support children to develop attitudes and opinions. This is important because in my future geography teaching I can challenge children by using t...
In a world where geography only makes the headlines or points of coffee house discussion if a new study is released about how terrible students are at it, however, amazingly there ARE still students and people alike that simply love it and are thriving in their point of interest. Some stare at maps endlessly searching for things that most people would never even care to look at such as what makes this state similar with this state or why is the population more or less here. Some long to find and view the rarest maps available; others embrace the future by participating in an activity known as geocaching. Geocaching is when the participant visits special areas with “treasures” hidden using their GPS devices and smartphones. Some people even draw thousands of their own imaginary maps, highlighting details in worlds and countries they long to visit.
The main ideas presented in “Why Geography Matters…More Than Ever!” revolve around what exactly geography is, and the implications of the subject. Geography is the study of the physical world and human actions, it also covers the affects of human actions. Geography influences a plethora of topics and geographers do research on numerous subjects. “Geographers do research on glaciations and coastlines, on desert dunes and limestone caves, on weather and climate, even on plants and animals”(7). The author stresses how underrated geography is the present times, and how the introduction of social studies have doomed the subject of geography for future generations. In a section detailing the teaching of geography
Geographers plan new communities, decide where new highways should be placed, and establish evacuation plans. Computerized mapping and data analysis is known as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a new frontier in geography. Spatial data is gathered on a variety of subjects and input onto a computer. GIS users can create an infinite number of maps by requesting portions of the data to plot.
Historical geographer JB Harley wrote an essay on Map Deconstruction in 1989, in which Harley argues that a map is more than just a geographical representation of an area, his theory is that we need to look at a map not just as a geographical image but in its entire context. Harley points out that by an examination of the social structures that have influenced map making, that we may gain more knowledge about the world. The maps social construction is made from debate about what it should show. Harley broke away from the traditional argument about maps and examined the biases that govern the map and the map makers, by looking at what the maps included or excluded. Harley’s “basic argument within this essay is that we should encourage an epistemological shift in the way we interpret the nature of cartography.” Therefore Harley’s aim within his essay on ‘Deconstructing the Map’ was to break down the assumed ideas of a map being a purely scientific creation.
My cultural geography class has had a bigger influence on my thoughts about the world than I ever would have imagined. My mindset is much different and I respect the work of geographers. I started this class thinking that their work was irrelevant and boring, but I have learned that Geographer’s duties and jobs are important to our history. It also helps to look at to determine tendencies. I have analyzed my preconceived notions and realized the importance of culture and geography and how intriguing it truly is to learn about. This class is one of the most enjoyable classes that I have taken since I have attended Oklahoma State University.
Hillier, A., & Culhane, D. (2013). GIS Applications and Administrative Data to Support Community Change. In M. Weil (Ed.), The Handbook of Community Practice (2nd ed., pp. 827-844). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Retrieved from
Geographical concepts have been traced back to ancient days, geography is defining as the scientific study of the location of people and activity across earth and reasons for their distribution. It asks where and why things are where they are. Geographers organizes materials by the places they are located, thus being they have concluded that what happens in one place affects what happens in another place and can further affect conditions in the near future. Like any other subject geography has its own language and knowledge for better understanding of its concepts. Thinking geographically means learning the language, we need both geographical vocabulary and grammar in order to do this. Geography has concepts that enables us to have geographical
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I studied geography at secondary school. As I have some basic knowledge about urban development, when I see the title of this course, I believe I can perform better. We seemed to be konwn our city very well. However, a city is not just a place we live in but the major fasinating component of human’s civilization. We make concerted effort to be more powerful. We live together to take care of each other. We socialize to learn from each other. If we want to know a city in depth, we have to look at more aspects.
Middle school geography involves a lot of mathematical understandings. Whilst studying earth’s physical environment and human habitat, young geographers learn to read map scales, draw maps to scale, tell longitude/latitude, read and analyse statistical data, read and draw various kinds of graphs and study various elements of weather. These are only some of the topics in geography that require mathematical understandings.
Geographic Information System or GIS provides the IT professionals the tools to create “smart maps,” maps that knew a circle represented a sampling point, a rectangle represented a building and a long curvy line represented a road (Hammond, 2006). “Mapifying” data sets identifies the uniqueness of each process involves in data trail. Therefore, a project manager should understand the collision of each process and each process evaluates its success. Understanding what comprises success for the database manager is also vital for the project manager. One of the project manager’s roles is to understand how each process collides with the others for this will help in gathering the suitable team and makes communication easier.
In conclusion, GIS is increasingly becoming an indispensable respective fields of national economy application tools, I believe it will make a greater contribution to social progress and development. I think this is all my learned about GIS, and I am sure this information will be useful for us in the future, I have a nice semester with our Geog professor and I hope all of us can have a excellent summer hoilday! Thank you for your valuable time!
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