Learning about GST and resolving geospatial problems with GST are initially accomplished via formal education. Nevertheless, the increasing influence of avail- able resources in the Web 2.0 has put a variety of software, data, and apps in public hands to acquire knowledge about GST and develop further practice with GST through IL. The primary effect of this trend is characterized by a global dimension of practitioners who, as users and producers, are generating a growing network of volunteers that Budhathoki et al. (2008) have conceptualized as “produsers”.
Hidden, as it is the complex network of helpers, is the important process of IL that we want to examine.
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8.3.1 Away from Pedagogy and Near Andragogy.
IL and GST
While recognizing the strength of most of the arguments that pedagogy is derived from the Greek meaning literally, ‘child-leading’, and by the same token, andragogy is recognized as ‘man-leading’, there is the assumption that, in the process of learning, pedagogy is focused on children and andragogy is associated with adults. However, the intention here is not the initiation of a semantic conver- sation but the interest for understanding the continuous learning process. It is a progression initiated by formal guidance that regenerates in any person’s life time through particular learning with minimum or rather absent supervision. This latter condition is an important characteristic of a self-education process that individuals are exposed to as they are increasingly involved with ICT.
The interpretation of andragogy by Knowles (1980) as a learning process that finally focuses on the internal motivation by a person to learn as he or she matures, brings about the importance of independence and self-direction in the progression of discovering. Instead of a closed system that portrays a pedagogical approach in formal education, Mu~niz-Solari (2014) finds a rising consensus of a wide open system available to people of all ages willing to acquire knowledge through informal learning (Fig.8.1).
The evidence that a global trend is taking place which shows a growing number of people engaged in a wide range of technology-based IL (Cranmer2006; Jones and Conceic¸a˜o2008; Jamieson2009; Goodwin et al.2010) confirms the importance of social networks. Farnham et al. (2012), citing Ito (2010) point out the
Fig. 8.1 The closed system of formal education (a) normally conducted in a room and the open system of informal learning (b) developed in the geo-enabling world (Mu~niz-Solari2014)
92 O. Mu~niz Solari and M. Crenshaw
significance of interest-based networks with peer-based sharing which are condu- cive to IL. Through interaction with their peers, youngsters get away from the closed system of a pedagogical environment and reach closer to the real life of adulthood. Nevertheless, interest-based networks do not accomplish a higher level of collaboration and complexity. Among these networks is the one that involves a multitude of amateurs, professionals, and experts using GSTs. Consequently, the andragogical environment is reaching its stage of real configuration. Global teams, defined as global citizens engaged in IL take mutual responsibility to obtain common objectives.
The geo-enabling world has accelerated the process of networking where nodes, represented by organizations as well as individuals, cooperate and collaborate to gather data, build information, and resolve geographical problems. Open sources, open infrastructure, and open decisions are vital to operate with GSTs via IL.
8.3.2 Open GST Infrastructure and the Power of Open Data
With the development of Web 2.0 there has been a worldwide expansion of tools, and mechanisms to share and use GSTs on the Internet. Consequently, the process of IL about GST and with GST has been boosted among millions of practitioners;
youth and adult global citizens who are eager for interaction and willing to capture geospatial information. The emergence of Web GIS is a classic example of the IL process that took place on the Web. First, the public learned from a Web-based map viewer and interacted inside a Web browser. After the first encounter with online exercises the IL practiced by amateurs and professionals experienced a tremendous change with Web 2.0.
The spatial abilities and the geospatial integrative skills developed by practi- tioners around the world have been increasingly enhanced by Web 2.0. This initial read-write Web has now progressed from Web-as information-source architecture and Web-as customer-self-service to Web-as participation-on multiple platforms (O’Reilly2005; Prandini and Ramilli2012). The Web as a platform allows the use of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). GIS applications and the integration of GSTs (i.e., GIS, GPS, RM) and access to more devices create an enhanced process of usability, reliability and scalability, all delivered “in the cloud”.
Geodetic control, orthoimagery, elevation, transportation, hydrography, govern- mental units, and the cadaster are the typical themes of the geographic data framework. The IL practiced by global citizens normally covers themes that do not demand high cost or high level of expertise. Elwood et al. (2012) point out that volunteers’collaboration to collect data and use them as main source of information are more related to transportation and hydrography. Through formal or informal gatherings global citizens compile geographic information to produce useful maps in a matter of days. Certainly, the IL process is part of this endeavor that has local or regional objectives, yet it is organized by large group of people of global
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dimensions. The power of open data is firmly rooted in the power of global citizens thanks to the creation of a geo-enabling world.