© 2005 The New Zealand Geographical Society Inc. Published by Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

New Zealand Geographer

(2005)

61

, 51–53

Blackwell Publishing, Ltd.

Original Article

Geo-Ed

Geo-Ed

Geographic information systems in schools

The onset of the digital age has seen informa-tion technology (IT) transform our way oflife, bringing with it many new challengesand opportunities. For my part, I once drovetrucks for a living, and now I drive computers,specializing in Geographic Information Systems(GIS). For educators, IT has presented manynew learning opportunities, amongst whichGIS must surely rate as one of the mostchallenging. Simply put, GIS is a powerful andseductive technology because of its use oflocation as the key to a diverse range of data(physical, human, real or imagined), and becauseit gives users the ability to interact with largeand complex databases via recognizable geo-graphical features.

However, GIS goes beyond basic IT tasks(i.e. internet, email, and word processing), toinclude all aspects of computing. This rangesfrom data capture (scanning, digitizing), stor-age and retrieval (large datasets can choke upservers and networks), display (2D and 3Dcolour graphics), analysis (modelling and auto-mation with macro’s), and presentation (maps,documents, or internet). Did I mention people?We need to remember that IT provides toolsto be used for and by people, and that it hassuch wide application that no individual canhope to master much beyond the context oftheir particular needs and interests. What weshould really aim to deliver is a digital fluencythat enables the design and creation of newthings.

My interest in GIS in schools got underwayafter 1997, when the New Zealand chapter ofAURISA ran a GIS in Schools competitionsupported with software from Critchlow Asso-ciates (distributors of MapInfo) and EagleTechnology (New Zealand distributors of ESRIArcInfo and ArcView). Canterbury’s Geographydepartment had been supporting local highschools through the Canterbury Geography

Teachers Association, hosting annual meetingsand visits by school groups, so it wasn’t longbefore an opportunity presented itself to helplocal schools into GIS. This came in the formof the Eagle Technology GIS in SchoolsSponsorship Programme, whereby sponsoredschools receive free software and data. Canter-bury Geography joined forces with GatewayAntarctica, and between 2000 and 2002 spon-sored four local Christchurch schools intothe programme (Avonside and Burnside 2000,Lincoln 2001, St Margaret’s 2002). We offeredinitial training and up to 12 days support in thefirst year, although the latter was rarely calledupon. Our involvement peaked in October2002 when we hosted a two day GIS Workshopattended by 17 teachers from around the SouthIsland. However, school enthusiasm for theprogramme waned, with none coming forwardthe next year.

Enter Anne Olsen and Stephanie Eddy,teachers with the right stuff – enough vision,experience, and enthusiasm to champion thecause and provide curriculum guidance andmaterial. Since 2001 they have developedand run a series of professional developmentworkshops around the country, and have nowgone a step further and formed a companycalled GISMAPED to manage and implementthis.

‘This year we [Anne Olsen and StephanieEddy] entered into a relationship with EagleTechnology and now all schools who wish topurchase the GIS in Schools software packagemust have at least one teacher who has com-pleted the “Investigations with GIS” Course.The package costs schools $750 + GST andschools receive Arcview 3.2 and topographicdata and NZ census data CD’s. The “Invest-igations with GIS” is a two day basic coursethat develops teachers’ skills so that can confid-ently use ready-to-use lessons in their classroom.

© The New Zealand Geographical Society 2005.

52

Geo-Ed

We offer a “Skills for projects” component thatdevelops skills needed for lesson developmentand in applying GIS to student research work.We also have a range of ready to use lessonmaterial that teachers can purchase and witha group of teachers we are currently writingready to use projects and lessons for the NZcurriculum. This resource, to be called IMAGISshould be ready early in 2005. It will be pub-lished by Eagle Technology and ESRI’. –(excerpt from an E-mail: From: Anne Olsen,Sent: Saturday, 28 August 2004, To: NZ ESRIGIS User List, Subject: GIS in schools).

So why would schools want to get in to GIS?At the least it provides exposure to a widerange of transferable IT skills, and at best itenables people to become skilled in harnessingthe power and limitations of the technology todesign and create new visions of place in our

increasingly virtual landscape. If I have man-aged to come this far, imagine what you andyour students will achieve in the future. Any-one wishing to go further with GIS in Schoolsshould check out the New Zealand GIS inSchools web site at http://egis.eagle.co.nz/schools/index.htm, and get in touch with Anneor Stephanie via enquiries@gismaped.co.nz.GISMAPED are organizing a three day ‘In-stitute’ to be held from 11–15 July at WakatipuCollege in Queenstown, a combined event for20 teachers from the USA and a similar numberfrom New Zealand. Canterbury’s Departmentof Geography is a gold sponsor of this event.

John Thyne

GIS Manager, Department of GeographyUniversity of Canterbury

February 2005611

Original Article

Geo-Ed

Te Ara: The New Zealand Encyclopaedia

Te Ara, literally meaning the pathway, is NewZealand’s new on-line encyclopaedia and canbe found at: www.teara.govt.nz. It is the firstnational encyclopaedia in the world to be createdespecially for the web, and its design and contentreflect all the possibilities of the digital medium.It is aimed at a broad audience, from schoolchildren to scholars.

Te Ara has been in preparation since 2002,and eventually will have nine comprehensivethemes. On 8 February 2005, Prime MinisterHelen Clarke launched Te Ara’s first theme:the New Zealanders. The event took place atTe Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealandin Wellington. With the assistance of the Min-istry of Education there was a video link toschools around the country. Students parti-cipated by contributing performances or items

about the communities represented in ‘theNew Zealanders’.

The site has already won design awards, andit is the quality of the design, and the palateof New Zealand colours used that is initiallystriking. The further one explores, however, itis the excellence of the content and the flex-ible routings around the material that impress.Apart from the New Zealanders theme, thereis a whole section of the site called ‘NewZealand in Brief’, which covers topics such asnatural environment, government and nation,and society. Despite its title, this section iscomprehensive. Alongside it, in a differentdesign and presentational style, is the digitizedversion of the 1966 official

Encyclopaedia ofNew Zealand

, enabling comparisons across40 years.

Geo-Ed will carry useful websites in most issues: if you wish to suggest a site for inclusion, contact eric.paw-son@canterbury.ac.nz

© The New Zealand Geographical Society 2005.

Geo-Ed

53

The New Zealanders theme is a treasuretrove of short essays, longer text, superb imagetrails and resources such as video and song.There are entries on iwi, in both English andMaori: the first time that histories of the tribesof New Zealand have been brought together inone place. As well, over 40 immigrant groupswho have arrived since 1840, ranging fromthe English to the Dalmatians, are featured.Links to other websites, such as the

Dictionaryof New Zealand Biography

, work well.The General Editor of Te Ara is Jock Phillips,

and he heads a large team of writers and editors.He is advised by both a Maori committee anda general committee, the latter chaired by SirGeoffrey Palmer. Eric Pawson (Geography,Canterbury) is one of its members. The nexttheme, ‘Earth, Sea and Sky’ is due to appearat the end of 2005. However, there is alreadyan enormous amount to explore on Te Ara:a new window on the diversity that is Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Other useful websites

NZTopoOnline

www.nztopoonline.linz.govt.nzNZTopoOnline is the internet version of the

New Zealand topographic database. It providesseamless coverage of 1 : 50 000 mapping of thecountry.

Get-a-map from the British Ordnance Survey

www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/getamap

This site provides access to completeOrdnance Survey map coverage of Britain, ata range of scales, right down to 1 : 25 000. Thesite gives free access to maps by entering aplace name, postcode or National Grid reference.There is a zoom in and zoom out facility, andmaps can be re-centred with ease. The qualityis very high. The site contains a number ofother facilities, such as access to Britain’s mostextensive digital historical map archive. It hasa section on ‘understanding mapping’, whichincludes guidance on map reading and the GISFiles.

GEES subject centre resource database

www.gees.ac.uk/index.htmGEES is the Geography, Earth and En-

vironmental Sciences Subject Centre of theUK Higher Education Academy. The role ofsuch subject centres is to support and enhancelearning and teaching, and to this end they areresponsible for organizing courses, conferencesand on-line resources. Of particular value isthe resource database, which contains a largenumber of entries from different institutionsworldwide, for example the ‘Streetwork’ formof fieldwork from University College Lon-don, and the use of staff research on Africanconservation in a first year course at MasseyUniversity.

Eric Pawson

Department of Geography,University of Canterbury