1. Survival of the GISSEST – Teachers’ opinions on the incorporation of GI-based learning in upper secondary schools in Finland AGIT2008 – Learning with Geoinformation, University of Salzburg, July 2, 2008 Tino Johansson Department of Geography, University of Helsinki, Finland

2. Geoinformation at the upper secondary school level in Finland new national curriculum for the upper secondary schools in August 2005 geoinformation was then included into the contents of an elective regional study course (GE4) in geography the course is made up of 22.5 hours of lessons the main focus is on a geographical study of a region key competences are indirectly linked with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and geoinformation

3. The challenges for implementation most geography teachers were not familiar with GIS or geoinformation in Finland numerous in-service teacher training courses organized across the country focus on basic concepts, hands-on training of a few professional GIS software, and on utilizing existing GIS databases

4. Introduced approaches to learning Commonly used by geography educators across the world  enquiry-based learning problem-based learning students’ spatial learning skills enhanced skills and knowledge that are valued in working life and in higher education

5. A need for a study on teachers’ views and opinions on geoinformation Introduction of geoinformation into upper secondary schools has been a state-led top down initiative  teachers have mainly been given a role of passive recipients of information and approaches however, some geography teachers have started to use geoinformation in their courses without curriculum support in the beginning of this decade a need to assess the situation and comprehend better the areas where more support is needed at schools

6. The on-line questionnaire survey An invitation to participate was sent to 380 Finnish upper secondary school geography and biology teachers in 2006 83 teachers returned the questionnaire (21.8% reply rate) most respondents were female (59%)  7.2% of the respondents were Swedish speaking

7. The age structure of the respondents The percentage distribution of the respondents according to their age

8. Their work experience as teachers The percentage distribution of the respondents according to their work experience as teachers

9. Previous experience in using GIS software Familiarity with the concept of GIS About 10% of the respondents were not familiar with the concept of GIS Most of the respondents had learned about the concept in in-service teacher training  The majority of the respondents (73.5%) had used some GIS earlier  MapInfo Professional  ArcExplorer  ArcView  MapInfo ProViewer  ArcGIS  But most of them had still less than one week experience on using these software !

10. The use of GIS at schools Two-thirds of the teachers mentioned that they have personally used GIS in upper secondary school education The most common purpose was to display maps with GIS Learning to use GIS software was the second common purpose Enquiry-based learning, and learning spatial thinking skills were also important purposes of using GIS in education according to the teachers  It was very common that only one teacher used GIS in the majority of upper secondary schools where this educational technology was used in the first place  problematic for long-term adoption  demografic data (who will continue when the geoinformation expert teacher retires?)

11. The use of GIS at schools Teachers mainly used two types of GIS data at the upper secondary schools in Finland Free data available in the internet (map archives, route map services, Google Earth, Citizen’s Map Portal and data from the Statistics Finland Commercially available databases from the cd-roms attached to the upper secondary school geography books Free data from local authorities and self-created GIS databases were also mentioned by some teachers

12. GIS functionalities that correspond the teachers’ educational needs The eight GIS functionalities which at best correspond the needs of the teachers in the educational use of GIS software creating thematic maps examining the attribute data of the map objects combining and visualizing different map layers and themes creating overlays with different map layers or themes joining self-created data or data from other sources to the available attribute data tables studying a map in different scales making queries according to the attributes of the map objects printing maps on paper

13. GIS data types that correspond the teachers’ educational needs The four GIS data types which at best correspond the needs of the teachers in the educational use of GIS software data from the municipality data from all around the world national data data from the school surroundings

14. The advantages and problems in using GIS in education AdvantagesProblems Visualization of different themes (20) Lack of software (31) Computing tool which interest students (15) Poor ability of teachers to use GIS (20) Motivates and interests youth to learn (9) Lack of hardware (19) Up-to-date information and data on topical issues (9) Lack of time to learn GIS and integrate it to the lessons (15) Visualization of statistical data and classification methods (7) Lack of digital maps and data suitable for the courses (13) Creating maps quickly and learning mapping methods (7) Functionality of GIS software is poor and too complicated (11)

15. Questions and contact I am pleased to answer to any of your questions now or later: M.Sc. Tino Johansson Department of Geography P.O. Box 64 (Gustaf Hällströmin katu 2) FI-00014 University of Helsinki Finland Tel. +358 9 191 51045 Fax. +358 9 191 50760 e-mail. tino.johansson@helsinki.fitino.johansson@helsinki.fi GISAS book: http://ethesis.helsinki.fi/julkaisut/mat/maant/sarjat/julkaisuja/a/141/ http://ethesis.helsinki.fi/julkaisut/mat/maant/sarjat/julkaisuja/a/141/