Few tools offer teachers and students the ability to take a deep dive into content, visually examine data and conceptual phenomena, understand spatial relationships, connect causation to time and place, and engage students in ways made possible through digital mapping.
Digital mapping and GIS technology (Geographic Information System) opens new pathways to teaching and learning that make traditional pen and paper map-mapping that is still common in many schools akin to using an abacus in lieu of a modern calculator.
While map skills are still vital in importance and geography equally important to the understanding of history as well as current events in society, the ability to read, interpret, and generate useful maps necessary to the understanding of the world around us seems like a lost art.
Maps are often no longer studied in detail in schools, and students are rarely asked to create their own maps to show their understanding of historical events, much less the role that spatial relationships have played in events throughout history and contemporary society.
Paradoxically, school administrators today often deride map activities as too basic, simplistic, or an unproductive use of class time; yet, so many of today’s students (and adults) cannot read simple maps, don’t know their states and capitals, do not know basic directions when navigating streets, and cannot visualize where so many important historical or contemporary events have occurred, even in their own city.
One only has to give a handful of students a blank map and ask them to properly locate various places of importance. As a teacher for over 25 years, it is common for me to see students not be able to place Chicago next to Lake Michigan, understand that two different maps are actually showing the same geographic area but with different scales or perspectives, or that several maps can show vastly different types of information for the same area. Geography, it seems, has been reduced to navigation apps.
Fortunately, advances in and scaled distribution of GIS digital mapping software brings geography and mapping into the 21st century in ways educators could have only dreamed of a decade or two ago.
Unfortunately, most educators are unaware this type of technology is available to K-12 schools and that many elementary and high school students are competing in GIS competitions across the country.
In fact, some of the leading producers of GIS software, such as Esri, offer these tools at no or low cost to schools around the country. When combined with GPS technology (Global Positioning System), there is no limit to the educational applications.
Digital mapping with GIS software connects modern STEM education to traditional subject areas in ways that lend themselves perfectly to project-based instruction across the curriculum. In fact, using GIS technology across the curriculum is a perfect example of STEM education and targets the Next Generation Science Standards; Common Core standards in math, ELA, and the social sciences; the standards for AP Environmental Science; and Domains 1 and 3, of the Danielson Framework for teaching.
GIS digital mapping is cutting-edge mapping and analysis software that is used by everyone from civil engineers, to researchers, to scientists, to health and public safety professionals, to urban planners, to real estate professionals. As an educational tool, GIS technology is being used across the curriculum to teach history, math, science, sociology, CTE classes, and even English Language Arts.
When combined with inquiry-based or problem-based instruction and the software’s spatial analysis tools, it transforms teaching and learning beyond the basics of just collecting and displaying information to analysis and real-world problem solving.
It’s one thing to just research an event and plot it on a map, but when students can add layers of information, create simple databases, create interactive pop-up windows that display additional information and pictures, or use the software’s spatial analysis tools to solve real-world problems, learning becomes internalized.
Researching and plotting historical events, demographic information, plate tectonics, geometry, spread of disease, incidents of crime, voting patterns, geographic boundary expansion over time, and wartime battles are just some of the educational applications.
In fact, understanding important themes such as geopolitical conflicts through the lens of geography, history, and spatial awareness is uniquely suited for GIS mapping. The Middle East, once again on the edge of all-out war, has been in the news often the last year and half. It’s a region that dates back to Biblical times, yet so much of the current conflicts have their roots in issues going back decades or longer.
Unfortunately, many people in today’s world cannot visualize the areas they see on the news every week, much less understand the historical context of the religious and geopolitical issues simmering in this powder keg. Using GIS mapping is a great way to help students understand the confluence of geography and history.
For Christian schools, using digital mapping to teach students about events in the Bible, the life of Jesus, and current events in the Holyland adds another dimension of understating and visualization not common in most parochial schools today.
GIS digital mapping is a great way to bridge the gap between modern technology and traditional school subjects, but it also introduces students to real-world technology that is finding new applications all the time. GIS is a growth industry with entire college degrees centered around this technology. Students who become familiar with it at an early age will be exposed to many career possibilities they might find interesting and rewarding.
Joe Oswald has been a teacher for over 25 years and recently created an online professional development course showing teachers how to use ArcGIS mapping software. He has a master’s degrees in history and educational administration and endorsements in special education and English as a Second Language. He has also written a noted history of the historic Beverly Hills/ Morgan Park community in Chicago published by Arcadia Publishing as part of their Images of America series. For more information, visit www.gisforstemeducation.com.
