By Valrie Grant, Managing Director,
GeoTechVision
Previous articles would have dealt with GIS in various aspect of economic development. This article addresses GIS in education. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is playing an increasingly important role in education. This article will address perspectives on:
- GIS in the administration of education
- GIS as a tool in education delivery
- GIS in educations as a career choice
GIS in the administration of education
From an administrative perspective, GIS plays a similar role as in other areas of the economy. For example, GIS can be used to determine where to locate schools with respect to communities, transportation routes or centres, population demography; and where schools already exist, it can be used in a rationalization process taking into account factors such as student loads, student to teacher ratio, communities demography and other factors. The complex nature of these analysis is well suited for GIS where location, distance and transportation are critical parameters.
Often times a planning model can be developed from analysis of these parameters/factors which can then be
