The purpose of this study is to examine how high school geography teachers perceive and use Web GIS for a basic study to facilitate practical use of Web GIS in classes. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey was conducted for in-service high school ...
The purpose of this study is to examine how high school geography teachers perceive and use Web GIS for a basic study to facilitate practical use of Web GIS in classes. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey was conducted for in-service high school geography teachers. Through the survey, an examination was made on where Web GIS can be used, how teachers perceive Web GIS, how Web GIS has been used, and how Web GIS is prospected in terms of its use. Then, the results of the survey were analyzed.
This study targeted geography teachers in academic and vocational high schools around the country, 720 questionnaires was distributed and total 239 questionnaires was collected. The collected data were analyzed by various descriptive statistics and analytical statistics based on SPSS. To identify difference in distribution by groups, Chi-Square test was conducted. In addition, independent samples T-test and ANOVA were used for comparison of the means. For its verification, a significance level of 0.5 was used.
The results of the analysis are summarized as the following:
First, in terms of environment where Web GIS can be used, the results showed that it is possible to use Web GIS in places which fulfill conditions such as the presence of computers, Internet connection, and teachers' and students' ability to use computers. However, there were not many schools where students could operate computers personally. Accordingly, it is expected to be difficult to operate student-centered classes.
Third, many teachers perceived the necessity of using GIS in classes and highly valued the effects of Web GIS on increases in space perception, ability to use it, understanding, and learning desires. With regard to comparison of Web GIS and GIS software, students can use Web GIS more easily even in daily lives. However, its weak point was identified that insufficiency of sites developed as educational programs might cause difficulty in learning. Therefore, it is necessary to develop Web GIS sites for education to facilitate the use of Web GIS.
Third, the number of teachers who used Web GIS was less than half of the total number of teachers who responded to the questionnaire, which indicates that Web GIS has not been used a lot in classes. Since GIS accounts for a small percentage of geography curriculum, class models have not been developed enough, and classes about GIS are insufficient. By units, it was used most in a unit of territory and geographical information and teachers perceived that the effect of its use also was highest in the unit. This may be because teachers expect effects of learning GIS through the use of Web GIS.
Fourth, most high school teachers expected that the use of Web GIS in classes would be facilitated, and they had a mind to use Web GIS in the future. However, many teachers were inclined to employ it as multimedia data in teacher-centered lectures. Accordingly, it is desirable to develop various class models and learning materials. In addition, even though many teachers wanted to be trained in Web GIS, the train had not been facilitated. Therefore, it is necessary to improve how and what to train teachers.
In sum, high school geography teachers are not frequently using Web GIS in geography classes, but they positively value the effects of using Web GIS in classes and they want to use it in classes if conditions are fulfilled. Therefore, the classes using Web GIS can be facilitated in the future.
Required conditions include development of various class models and sites of Web GIS for education, and expansion of training for teachers. Since these conditions cannot be achieved by a teacher, the government has to support them through policy.