WEB BASED TRAINING UNITS IN GI SCIENCE: APPLYING THE
POTENTIAL OF NEW MEDIA TO CLASS AND SELF TEACHING OF GEOINFORMATION CONCEPTS
AND APPLICATIONS
J.-A. Schwarz, H. Asche
University of Potsdam, Department of Geography, Potsdam,
Germany
schwarne@uni-potsdam.de
Effective
generation of knowledge is one of the pivotal challenges in the 21st century.
Information and communication technologies like the New Media penetrate all
spheres of daily life. They facilitate our access to gigantic pools of data,
which constitute the indispensable foundation for the generation of knowledge.
At the same time, we often feel helpless in the face of this continuing flood
of data.
New media
play an important role in the communication in the geospatial sciences.
Internet-based distribution of maps augmented with supplementary information
(audio sequences, film clips) mirror this development. Against this background
this presentation discusses whether the application of new media in teaching
geoinformation (GI) knowledge can be considered an added value in usability and
comprehensibility. The proven significance of visualisation to communicate and
comprehend complex facts coupled with the competence to employ new media tools
and methods is the starting point of this approach.
Considering
learning as a communication process in the construction of knowledge forms the
basis for the development of augmented teaching and learning material. This
concept implies that a person developing those multimedia learning material can
tap potentials that effectively support this process.
Instructional
and media-specific treatment is identified as relevant starting points to
improve communication of GI knowledge. At the centre of the instructional
processing is the problem-based communication of spatial analysis concepts and
GI tools. For that purpose, a use-case approach is being followed in the
web-based training units developed, presenting real-world problems that require
the students to acquire and apply the GI methods and tools. To effectively support
problem-based learning of complex spatial information, the power of
visualisation and animation is utilised to present and communicate the spatial
problems and methods to be applied for their solution. The research presented
here has been carried out in the framework of the joint geoinformation.net project of eight German universities.
To evaluate
this multimedia approach, a group of geosciences students of Potsdam University
have used the web-based units for self study before being interviewed. Focal
points of this evaluation were usability, acceptance, instructional and
media-specific treatment of content. Contrary to conventional teaching or
self-teaching aids the majority of students interviewed expressed to have
profited from working through the web-based training units. Independence of
time and space for self study and individual study progress as well as the
efficient communication of content based on visualisation and animation have
been highlighted as the major assets.