Using the GIS&amp;T Body of Knowledge for Curriculum Design: Different Design for Different Contexts

Prager, Steven D.

doi:10.1002/9781119950592.ch5

Cited by 14 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…In the mid-1990s, the "seriousshortfall of professionals and trained specialists who can utilize geospatial technologies in their job" (Gaudet, Annulis, &Carr, 2001) led to the development of the GIS&T BoK and the GTCM. Both documents are characterized by al ong-term and expert-based work process and are particularly significant for the needs of the GIS&T industry in the USA,aswell as for the development of GISc urricula,e ducation, and training programs in tertiarye ducation ( DeMers, 2009;DiBiaseeta l., 2006;DiBiase et al, 2010;Gaudet, Annulis, &C arr, 2003;Prager, 2012;Prager&Plewe, 2009). TheGIS&T BoK was produced under the guidance of the University Consortium for GeographicInformation Science.Itworks as amodelcurriculum defining outcome-based educational standards for GIS&T education and training from the undergraduate levelto professionals ectors.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Essential competences for GIS learning in higher education: a synthesis of international curricular documents in the GIS&T domain

Schulze

Kanwischer

Reudenbach³

2013

Journal of Geography in Higher Education

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Competence-oriented restructuring of curricular content for the study of geographic information system (GIS) in higher education has become ap rimary educational enterprise in Europe due to the Bologna Reform. Although there are different international curricular documents for outcome-based design of learning activities within the geographic information science and technology domain, it has not yet been clarified which competences should be considered essential components of a university-level course of study in GIS. Our content analysis of those curricular documents demonstrates that there are three dimensions of core competences foundational to the study of GIS in higher education, which are GIS knowledge and skills, spatial thinking, and problem-solving. IntroductionRelated to the needs of our information-based society and increased workforce mobility in globally competitive labour markets, "competence" has emergeda sakey concept describing the change in focus in educational processes from an input orientation to learning outcomes. Therefore, not only an appreciation of generic skillsand abilities in learning and workinge nvironments can be observed, but also ah armonization of key competences is taking place on an international scale. These so-called twenty-first century skills, commonly referred to as ICT literacy, presuppose alifelong learning process and include digitaland technical mastery; problem-solving; reflection and criticalthinking; communication; and collaboration (Pedro, Matos, Pedro, &Abrantes, 2011). While the redefinitionofgeneric skills has occurred mainly due to societal concerns, the identification of professional competences dependsonthe demands of subject-specific knowledge and skills in specific domains.Inparticular, the application of GIS requiresabroad range of domain expertise as well as additional skills (Gewin, 2004;Kerski, 2008).Driven by systematic curricular development in the field of geographic information science and technology (GIS&T), US experts have for the past two decades developed an advanced body of knowledge concerning competences workingw ithin the GIS&T domain. Although an integrated perspective on outcome-based GIS education and training has also been progressing in recent yearsi nE urope,t od ate, basic curricular questions have not been answered, nor can one find common approaches to competence-based curricular development. The situationi se specially criticali nh igher education (HE).

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Essential competences for GIS learning in higher education: a synthesis of international curricular documents in the GIS&T domain

Schulze

Kanwischer

Reudenbach³

2013

Journal of Geography in Higher Education

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“…Downloaded by [McGill University Library] at 21:05 31 March 2015 Prager and Plewe (2008) introduced a rubric for evaluating competency in BoK concepts, while Painho et al (2011) presented a web-based ontology model for GIS&T BoK, along with a visual data exploration tool as a means for curriculum design. In Prager (2011), an approach to integrating the BoK into the design of GIS educational activities at the K-12, undergraduate, and graduate level is described. Among the concerns raised within the domain community are the relative weight and breadth of coverage of particular concepts, as well as the placement of specific concepts within the hierarchy (Toppen andReinhardt 2009, Reinhardt 2012).…”

Section: History Of the Geographic Information Science And Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-engineering the GIS&T Body of Knowledge

Ahearn

Icke

Datta

et al. 2013

International Journal of Geographical Information Science

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A computational framework is presented for re-engineering the Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge (GIS&T BoK). At its core is an ontology that is meant to simplify and extend the original BoK hierarchical structure to better capture relationships existing among concepts. Our approach builds on several key ideas. First is the notion of a knowledge corpus, an aggregate of both the internal cognitive forms of knowledge held by domain actors and the content of external artifacts that are produced and consumed by domain activities. Second is the notion of a reference system within which such artifacts are located and relationships among artifacts can be expressed. Third is the idea that by structuring the GIS&T concepts through the use of semantic web standards for formal ontologies and envisaging it as a reference system for GIS&T artifacts, activities, and actors, a fundamentally different approach to the redesign, content generation, and maintenance of the GIS&T BoK is enabled. This new approach affords replacing the top-down strategies used to generate the original GIS&T BoK, with a bottom-up strategy that combines analytical and participatory components. On the analytical side, computational and visual techniques are used to provide alternative means for accessing BoK content, examining the semantic consistency of current BoK structures, transforming the existing hierarchy into a semantic network, identifying overlaps and gaps in the current BoK, and performing projection of knowledge artifacts onto the BoK to inform its maintenance and update. Participatory approaches to bottom-up restructuring and maintenance of the BoK will support authoring, editing, and validation of concepts using a wiki-like community editing service. The system we describe is deployed as a web service that can be accessed by a range of applications for visualization, analysis, exploration, and contextualization of concepts and their related classes in the new GIS&T Body of Knowledge. The goal is for the new GIS&T BoK2 to evolve into the centerpiece of a cyberinfrastructure ecosystem for the GIS&T domain.

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“…Current examples of BoKs show significant variation and consequently there appears to be varying utility of such documents. The use of a BoK to help develop a 'core curriculum' is central to the GIST experience, although those involved in the GIST BoK revision do stress that its intended use is not to be prescriptive in curriculum design (Prager, 2012). The expectation for a cartography BoK is that it can be used to construct developmental and progressive syllabi in educational applications (Fairbairn, forthcoming).…”

Section: Using a Body Of Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In some cases, the BoK is primarily directed to pedagogy and curriculum development e.g. the Geographic Information Science and Technology (GIST) BoK (Prager, 2012). In other cases, the intention is to list competencies from an employment perspective (Lucena et al, 2008).…”

Section: Learning From Other Bodies Of Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Creating a Body of Knowledge for cartography

Fairbairn

2018

Proc. Int. Cartogr. Assoc.

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Abstract:The nature of knowledge is considered, in particular its creation and formalisation, and some of the issues which re-late to disciplinary knowledge in particular. It is suggested that cartography has particular needs addressing its disciplinary boundaries, the role of uncertain and 'troublesome' knowledge in its subject-matter, and the enhancement of its subject-specific knowledge, with more generic supporting material, including skills and attitudes. An overview of Bodies of Knowledge (BoK) in other disciplines has been undertaken, and models of BoK structure, content and usage have been assessed. BoKs in closely related subjects, including civil engineering, GIS and software engineering, give examples of good practice. The paper concentrates on the work done to date to create the cartography BoK, and the adoption of the 'Delphi' method of consultation to develop it. The Delphi method is intended to yield consensus on the scope, content, context and use of the BoK. It is regarded as a rigorous process, iterative (and therefore time consuming), involving questionnaire survey, opinion gathering, discourse analysis, and feedback. The participants are expected to be experts, from a range of different sectors, but 'volunteer amateurs' are also important consultants.

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Using the GIS&T Body of Knowledge for Curriculum Design: Different Design for Different Contexts

Cited by 14 publications

References 8 publications

Essential competences for GIS learning in higher education: a synthesis of international curricular documents in the GIS&T domain

Essential competences for GIS learning in higher education: a synthesis of international curricular documents in the GIS&T domain

Re-engineering the GIS&T Body of Knowledge

Creating a Body of Knowledge for cartography

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