Angelica Carvalho Di Maio

MIGoogle: Map of Ideas with Google

This work aims to address the incorporation of freely accessed technologies in the classroom and show the use of geospatial information through teachers’ works, in elementary and secondary schools, which set up activities with Google Earth and Google Maps. From a collection of ideas proposed by teachers, an interactive map showing the spatial distribution of these ideas was developed, which can be disseminated. Other ideas can also be incorporated into the map, which is participatory so that ideas can be exchanged and new ideas can arise and be included in MIGoogle (map of ideas with the use of Google Earth and Google Maps tools). MIGoogle is part of the RIsO (Solidarity Information Network for Rio de Janeiro) Project, which incorporates other interactive maps (Route for Education, Animal Health, Selective Trash Collection and Conservation Unit) with access at the Educational Portal GEODEN (Digital Geotechnologies in Education) or at https://sites.google.com/site/risouff.

Evaluating the Use of Geotechnology and Multimedia Resources in Cartography Lessons for Environmental Studies

The free accessibility to satellite images and geographic information systems (GIS), along with students’ ability in handling multimedia on their own smartphones, enable the use of geotechnologies and multimedia resources in cartography teaching. This research has considered the contributions, limits, and possibilities of employing space technology, geoprocessing, and multimedia resources in geography classes for 7th-grade students in a public schools, in Sao Goncalo city, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. Digital material has also been developed through the web, named “Mapeando Meu Rio (MMR)” or “Mapping My River (MMR)”, which addresses the issue of the socio-environmental perception of the Alcântara river. The interest and involvement from the students throughout the different activities proposed on the mentioned material has been remarkable, especially in the use of multimedia resources and geotechnologies as a support material for environmental education. Based on the MMR evaluation, 7th-grade students have fallen short in their cartographic literacy at the end of their school year; this failure has been noticed both in their ability to make mental maps and in the handling of global positioning systems (GPS), Google Earth and ArcGIS Online. When requested to produce a spatial layout on their own, students were not able to use their basic knowledge of cartography, especially in the use of legends, geographical coordinates, and spatial orientation. Cartographic literacy should not be restrained to the syllabus of 6th-grade classes; instead, it should be considered as a means of communication to the understanding of the spatial dynamics during the whole course of elementary and high school. All geography-based activities are meant to give students a better understanding of their geographical space, in such a way that they may be able to build meaningful abstractions from their own reality—that is, from their own living place.

New Technologies as Educational Resources for Teaching Cartography: A Case Study in Guinea-Bissau

This work aimed to explore and measure the effectiveness of using geotechnologies to instigate students of elementary and secondary schools, in Guinea-Bissau, to learn more about the issues related to spatial representation. An educational methodology was developed and evaluated in order to provide educators and students with access to digital maps and satellites images. As part of the methodology, questionnaires were applied to teachers with the purpose of identifying and selecting the subjects that were part of the digital educational modules and the content of the databases to be used in Terraview GIS. To evaluate the instructional materials produced, the methodology was applied in four schools including an institute for teachers. The results pointed to the benefits of using new technologies as auxiliaries tools to traditional teaching, the insertion of geotechnologies in the schools activities has facilitated the understanding of the studied subjects, scale and geographic coordinates, thus providing a significant gain in students’ performance, which also contributed to the process of digital inclusion and in reducing the lack of teaching materials in Guinea-Bissau.

Geoinformation: a social Issue

The article proposes to raise a theoretical discussion and to point out some meaningful applications on the relations among geoinformation, citizenship and social participation concerning educative processes and regional and urban planning. Considering that the socialization of information increases the knowledge of the world, which also increases the possibility to interact and transform it, some projects that address the issue of geoinformation as an input for social action, some already completed and others under development, are subject of a brief presentation, as well as future projects that may also contribute to a social cartography.