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The History and Application of GIS in Educationby Tom Baker, KanCRN Systems SpecialistK-12 Science Education If one were to generalize about the basic instructional model of traditional public education, it could best be summarized as a factory-style model where children are turned out much like a factory product of the 1920's (Callahan, 244). The ideas of a teacher as the principal source and disseminator of knowledge and students as passive receptors of information with eager young minds fully attending are relics of a by-gone past. Today, with the rate at which knowledge advances, the power of telecommunications, and ubiquitous nature of computers (not to forget low cost and ease of use), we have found traditional instruction more inefficient and ineffective than ever before. Since the publication of the National Science Education Standards (NSES) of 1996, K-12 science educators nationwide have been progressing gradually toward a model of instruction that emphasizes a hands-on, research based learning experience in the classroom, typically referred to as Inquiry. As a method of instruction, inquiry draws upon an epistemological learning theory referred to as Constructivism. In it's most reduced form, Constructivism is interpreted in the field of education as a class of learning methods, where students construct their own knowledge, with the aid of a teacher-mentor and resource rich environment. Inquiry has evolved as a predecessor of Constructivism, yet inquiry is more representative of a scientific or naturalistic research process. When emphasizing the inquiry approach to teaching and learning, students are responsible for forming a research question, gathering background data, establishing a protocol or methodology for answering the question, analyzing the results of data collected, and finally drawing conclusions based upon those experiments (Hassard, 210). For such an elaborate procedure to occur, teachers must be comfortable with science and scientific investigations, pedagogical strategies for maintaining the focus of a class that might otherwise drift in this unorthodox environment, knowledge of the latest technologies to support the research investigation and its analysis (Jarrett, 1997). This method of teaching is not commonplace, in fact it is a rarity, and a teacher who can fully orchestrate these processes is even more rare. As such, it is understandable that a pedagogical shift is demanded unlike any ever before proposed in science education. To facilitate this new way of teaching and learning, technology has been called upon in many ways. The tools of technology needed range from Internet access in the classroom (at only 44% in 1998), to the use of desktop and multimedia applications (By the numbers, 1998, 102). With Internet access in classrooms, collaborative research projects are possible, where multiple classrooms and teachers work together to solve a research questions. Such methods could be particularly effective for new or inexperienced teachers, allowing for a safe transition into an exciting curriculum. Some Internet-based collaborative projects vary in their overt use of the methods of Inquiry. Projects like the Monarch Watch (http://www.monarchwatch.org) and Project Feeder Watch (http://birdsource.cornell.edu/cfw/) employ many of the initial stages of inquiry, but seldom advance into data analysis and summative conclusions, areas where critical thinking and problem solving are taxed most heavily. However, it is often these online collaborative environments that could reap the greatest benefits from data analysis tools, particularly tools that concentrate on the spatial relationships of the data collected (for example, Monarch release and recovery). Indeed, there are some Online Collaboratives, such as KanCRN (http://www.kancrn.org), which are beginning to place elements of data analysis online, using Internet-based Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Contents:
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