Geographic information literacy in British Columbia's K-12 education curriculum
Date
2004
Authors
Miller, Jason Allen
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Abstract
Geographic information has benefited from the spread of information technologies. A wider audience has been exposed to geographic information. At this time there is an opportunity to develop an understanding of what users need to know about using geographic information. This understanding is termed geographic information literacy (GIL). Examining geographic information literacy through K-12 education provides an opportunity to investigate how students are introduced to geographic information and what they learn about it through the course of their K-12 education.
This thesis presents results from an online questionnaire that was used to gather the opinions of geographic information users on the topic of K-12 geographic information literacy. The results of the questionnaire illustrate that geographic information users consider traditional geographic information concepts and abilities as essential items for K-12 students. The results of the questionnaire led to a GIL content analysis of selected sections of the provincial curriculum. The results of the content analysis showed that traditional geographic information is covered within the current curriculum. Conversely, digital geographic information is not included in the province's current curriculum.