However, the online format has been not widely adopted for GST teacher training. To develop a successful online GST in-service teacher training, some important issues must be considered (Hong2014). First, online training materials should be designed to be easy to follow and understand, since no direct personnel support is available. Second, teachers’different levels of computing ability need to be considered. Third, a way to communicate between trainers and trainees, such as online discussion board should be available in case teachers have a question to ask.
In the online teacher training, a web-based seminar (webinar) format is often used. One of the representative webinar programs for GSTs in education is devel- oped by the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE). NCGE provides 10–20 webinars per academic year for K–12 geography teachers. These include webinars on GSTs, as well as others addressing general geographical content and pedagogical skills. GST related webinars have mostly been presented by the Esri Education Team, but other GST professionals have also presented webinars. With a live webinar, audiences are able to ask questions directly to a presenter during the webinar presentation. For those audiences who missed a live webinar, archived webinars are also available on the NCGE website (http://www.ncge.org/webinar- archives-list) (National Council for Geographic Education 2014). The webinar training provides an interactive online learning environment for teachers, who are interested in learning GSTs but cannot attend a face-to-face workshop.
A tutorial type of online teacher training has also been developed. One example is GIS for Social Studies, developed for mainly middle school social studies teachers (Hong 2014). With consideration of the above online training issues, Hong adopted the user-centered design (UCD) approach to create user-centered and user-friendly tutorials so that teachers can understand and follow the tutorials alone. To do this, Hong interviewed secondary social studies teachers in Colorado, U.S. to analyze their needs and concerns. The first-draft version of the tutorials was developed based on the results of teacher-needs analysis. Then Hong met teachers again to collect feedback regarding the tutorials, and the tutorials were revised in accordance with this feedback to develop teacher-friendly GIS training tutorials. As a result, the majority of teachers who evaluated the tutorials found them easy to follow, and responded that they were able to complete the tutorials by themselves.
least one academic year to communicate with teachers and support them in implementing GSTs in their classrooms.
Maintaining close partnership between school districts and higher education institutions is important for improving students’learning and the quality of teacher education in general. In addition, strong partnership with industries is also recommended. All three agencies may benefit from the partnership: school districts and higher education institutions may receive continuous technical support from GST industries, while the industries can develop effective applications for K–12 students with feedback from teachers. Industries’excessive involvement may cause some issues, such as expansion of a single application in K–12 education and hindrance of creative applications and materials developed by individual researchers. However, close cooperation among three organizations may help design effective teacher training and develop useful resources.
Opportunities to learn GSTs for in-service teachers still differ from country to country (Kerski et al.2013). Teachers in countries where GSTs have been widely introduced and incorporated into the curriculum, such as China, Denmark, Japan, Taiwan, Turkey, and the U.S., have access to various training opportunities and resources. However, there is insufficient support for teachers in many developing and some developed countries due to lack of technology equipment for K–12 education and lack of interest in GSTs as instructional tools.
In order to encourage teachers to use GSTs in their classrooms, offering profes- sional development opportunities is vital. Moreover, we need to provide learning- friendly environments for teachers in the future so that they can learn and use GSTs actively. A one-stop resource center may help teachers find materials that they need easily. So far, many individual projects have developed and provided valuable resources for teachers, but they are not in one place rather scattered here and there. Therefore, teachers may have a hard time searching for specific materials that they require. If materials in a one-stop resource center were maintained well and continuously updated, teachers would find them useful. An online community for teachers could also be a great resource. This online community could be a place to share materials with each other, such as classroom activities, pedagogy, and assessments, and to discuss better integration of GSTs in K–12 education. Various learning opportunities for teachers may lead to an increase in the adoption rate of GSTs in K–12 education.
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Chapter 11
Professional Development Focusing on Inquiry-Based Learning Using GIS
Lara M.P. Bryant and Tim Favier
Abstract Geographic inquiry projects with GIS make geography education more relevant and challenging, and provide opportunities to stimulate in-depth knowledge about geography, increase higher-order thinking and develop a wide range of tech- nology skills. Providing professional development that ensures teachers know how to use GIS to support geographic inquiry is necessary. The professional development experiences should take into account the various competencies teachers need to design and conduct geographic inquiry projects using geospatial technologies. The TPACK framework focuses on teacher competencies and is valuable when designing professional development. Considering the TPACK framework, a successful strategy for teacher training is a collaborative inquiry model. When applied to GIS, the collaborative inquiry model is designed to overcome the common barriers to using GIS such as the lack of curriculum, support, and data. The model highlights the successful implementation of geographic inquiry using GIS within a school or district based collaborative team. This chapter explores didactic models for integrating GIS in inquiry projects; frameworks for the competencies that teachers need to design and conduct such projects; and successful strategies for training these competencies.
Keywords GIS • Professional development • Inquiry-based Learning