----- Original Message -----
From: "Paige Andrew" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2010 6:56:05 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: Re: GIS Literacy vs. Geospatial Literacy

Excellent thoughts Virginia and I wholeheartedly agree! It still
amazes me when I think about some 25+ years ago on the first day of
my "Geography of the United States" class an outline map of the U.S.
was handed out to over 50 students, the task being to write the names
of all 50 states in the correct state, and only one other person
besides myself got 100% correct on the first try! (the professor
re-tested the rest of the class at midterm time) Perhaps my growing
up an Army brat helped spur my curiosity and more for geography and
places, after all I got the opportunity on a very regular basis to
pick up and move to another state. To this day I remain amazed at how
many people I run into have never/rarely left their own state (okay,
so maybe they've taken a plane trip to Disneyland or other such
similar tourist destination, but to me that doesn't count) and thus
the level of ignorance regarding not only our own country but of
course the rest of the world....

Paige

At 09:01 AM 4/10/2010, you wrote:
>----- 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"