Chapter 2: The Status Of Geospatial Technologies In U.S. High School Geography Standards

The chorus of voices calling for more focused attention on geospatial technologies in K–12 schooling grew more voluble with the publication of two reports in 2006. In Learning to Think Spatially , the National Research Council (NRC) recommended that K–12 educators foster spatial literacy across the curriculum (National Research Council, 2006). The report authors identified spatial thinking as a significant, yet overlooked and under-taught, skill that is essential to citizenship, workforce preparation, and conceptual understanding in a variety of disciplines. Furthermore, they described how both high and low tech support systems should be employed when teaching spatial thinking to students in K–12 contexts. In addition to the efforts of the NRC, the results of the work of a committee formed by the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) were published in 2006 as the Geographic Information Science & Technology (GIS&T) Body of Knowledge (DiBiase et al.,2006) . The GIS&T Body of Knowledge consists of ten “knowledge areas” containing seventy-three units and more than 300 topics. The purpose of the document is to guide curriculum development efforts in higher and continuing education in response to the demand for better preparation of professionals for the expanding geospatial workforce. Although not directly concerned with the K–12 context, the authors of the GIS&T Body of Knowledge recognized the significant implications of slow adoption of geospatial technologies in K–12 environments upon post-secondary education. The authors noted, “Too many students who were not exposed to geospatial technologies in primary and secondary schools discover it too late in their college careers to study it in much depth as undergraduates” (DiBiase et al., 2006, p. 19).