I'm often asked "Of what value is GIS in education?" It's a question that really "cuts to the chase." Does using GIS matter? Could kids be as well educated without it as with it? Does GIS do anything for educators? Do we have any proof?
What we know anecdotally is that, given the opportunity and an effective introduction, kids engage with GIS. Wildly. Hook, line, sinker, and boat. Teachers and club leaders from elementary thru college report that, once kids get beyond the basics, if they have a chance to engage effectively, many kids spend a lot of time investigating and analyzing data. As kids are wont to do, they go exploring far and wide, integrating this and that, building and pulling apart, reassembling, trying this capacity and that. This keeps kids engaged in school, helps them build knowledge, and promotes integration of content across disciplines. There have been some research projects that, in a more or less regimented way, try to explore this, but it seems a bit contrived, like studying whether "paint by numbers" creates true artists. The short answer is that educators of all ages, in all kinds of facilities, report the same thing: With an "effective intro" and license to explore, kids engage GIS with gusto.
One of my favorite poems of all time is "The Fence or the Ambulance". I have seen it attributed to two different authors -- Malines and Hurty -- but it's a delightful poem, whoever wrote it. It elegantly portrays the debate between "prevention" and "cure." It's probably not hard to guess where I end up ... on the cliff, looking over the edge, then looking around, and being baffled by evidence of insufficient foresight.
It is often heart-rending to take in the news and analyses of events and conditions, near and far. As a geographer, I keep looking at how things here relate to things over there, and how things in this place relate to other things in this place. As I explore data -- globally, regionally, locally -- integrating elements of demographics, economics, history, environment, politics -- I weep for those who suffer, frequently through no fault of their own, and wonder "How hard was it to see this coming? How much must be spent now to recover from this trouble, so visible in advance? How long will people focus on minutiae and ignore key data and relationships?"
The world is stunningly complex. The magic of maps is that they allow people to see this staggering complexity in chunks, little bit at a time, and thus see patterns, explore relationships, ask questions, and integrate additional information. The power of analysis with GIS is that, by focusing on a single phenomenon at a time, but also by using the tools to cast a wider net, users understand more deeply just how complex the world is. This knowledge fosters informed decisions, from personal to global scale, which help us all to set fences where they belong, station ambulances where they belong, and discuss intelligently why scarce resource should be allocated so.
- Charlie Fitzpatrick, ESRI Schools Program Co-Manager