----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Virginia R. Hetrick, Ph.D." <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2010 12:28:15 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: RE: [MAPS-L] GIS Literacy vs. Geospatial Literacy
Hi, folks -
Please excuse the rant, but I just have to say what I'm about to say.
It's been bugging me since June of 1974, the details of which you will
learn momentarily. The HTML tags are so that you'll understand that I'm
not pointing the finger at any of you because I suspect everybody on
this list has had a similiar thought or two.
<rant status="ON">
It seems to me that before we start worrying about achieving the
objectives for GIS and geospatial literacy that it would be a really
good idea for students to understand what geography and cartography are
about/accomplish in a citizen's life/teach us about the world and such
things. I continue to be stunned that I (on my way to my Ph.D.
dissertation defense) and a 12-year-old sixth grader were the only
passengers on an airplane carrying 173 passengers who could identify all
the state capitals beginning with the letter "A" and that was 36 years
ago. It hasn't gotten any better!
As a geography major, we joked about the need to know the capitals, the
longest rivers, the highest mountains, all the countries in the world
(and in the late 1950s/early 1960s, those were multiplying weekly!).
But we also understood, and still do, that SOMEBODY needed and still
needs to be keepers of geographic knowledge and pass that knowledge on.
In at least two school districts where I have visited high schools in
the last three years, teachers are including geography as part of the
social science curriculum in the public schools without maps, without
texts (even Internet based), and without reference to areas beyond their
county. State history courses which used to have a significant
geographic component no longer do in some school districts.
Kids may know the process for running a GPS unit, but don't know, beyond
following the aural directions, how such a unit can be used.
Sigh!
</rant status="OFF">
JMHO.
v
--
\ / Virginia R. Hetrick, here in sunny California
0 Email: [log in to unmask]
Oo "There is always hope."
My fave: http://www.washington.edu/cambots/camera1_l.gif
There's no place like: 34N 8' 25.40", 117W 58'5.36"
if you can't be at: 48N 6' 59.9" 122W 59' 54.2"
|
