The ability of GIS to capture and synthesize information from large distributed work groups makes it an ideal tool for project-based learning. Current GIS students also benefit greatly from the newer robust tools that port GIS to the field for more enlightened fieldwork, where the work is informed by greater context and the ability to do collaborative mapping.
I read with great interest the year-long undergraduate multi-campus project taking place in North Carolina as part of the Ecological Society of America’s SEEDS program. The students are using GIS and remote sensing to understand the ecological impacts where farmlands have been abandoned and are reverting back to forests.This sounds like the ideal way to teach the benefits of geospatial technology, with the tools at the hub of distributed research where insights into the impacts on individual plots will be aggregated for understanding of larger the larger region.
