A European Comenius Network connecting those using Spatial (Geo- )Media and Geoinformation in school

 Advanced technological landscape evolved  Large organisations getting information into the hands of billions of citizens  Estimated 70-80% has a spatial component (Downs and DeSouza 2006)  Lives inundated with spatial information  People finding many uses – Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and Wikimapia Downs, R. and A. DeSouza (2006). Learning to Think Spatially. Washington D.C., National Academies Press.

 Live real-time maps  User-generated content  Volunteered geographic information  Crowdsourcing  Citizen Scientist  Crisis response

 European societal challenges ◦ CORINE (Coordination of Information on the Environment) project ◦ ‘Global Monitoring for Environment and Security' (GMES) – 2004 ◦ INSPIRE Directive  Open governance – new opportunities for citizens to interact  Open data availability – freedom of information (Neelie Kroes, 2011)  Education & Training Digital Agenda

 Visionary engineering-genius, Buckminster Fuller – GeoScope  Articulated in 1992 by former US VP Al Gore

 Huge scientific movement  Technology available  Exceptionally rich opportunity  Not yet expressed in education systems ArcGIS Explorer Online Real-time maps earth-real-time-maps.html

 focuses on Concepts of space and place 2. Tools of spatial representation: visualisation 3. Understanding of factors, relationships and processes in different ways – simulation/model 4. Reasoning processes involving spatial interpretation, extrapolation and interpolation, and 5. Pro-sumers make decisions based on geo- media and spatial information

15 Personal Learning Environments - Jeremy Hiebert (2006) Hiebert J (2006), Personal Learning Environment, HeadsPaceJ,

 Digital Earth has a ‘geo-media’ orientation  Media with a strong spatial-temporal component What competences are needed?  Spatial thinking essential to learning about the world we live in (Golledge et al. 2008) Golledge, R., Marsh, M., and Battersby, S., A conceptual framework for facilitating geospatial thinking. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 98 (2),

 Spatial citizenship is a role for citizens to fully participate in society (Gryl, Jekel and Donert, 2010)  It offers us links between spatial representations, and therefore, geo-media and society  Access to a way of thinking about problems from a spatial perspective (Goodchild, 1992) Gryl I, Jekel T and Donert K (2010) Spatial Citizenship,3-23, in Jekel T, Donert K and Koller A (eds.) (2010), Learning with GeoInformation V, Berlin, Wichman Verlag Goodchild, M., Geographic information science. International Journal of Geographical Information Systems, 6 (1), 31-46

European network – goals:  Create a European Centre that will: ◦ Hold meetings, workshops and conferences ◦ Build a Community of Practice ◦ Research and produce a European ‘state of the art’ - publications and guidance ◦ Accredit and coordinate a network of Centres of Expertise across Europe

Create a Digital Earth community:  dedicated to building a global commons (sharing)  promoting down-to-earth solutions based on the cooperative use of resources, curricula, and tools  collaboration to enable future generations to have technical and educational facilities for: ◦ exploring the Earth, ◦ better understanding its systems, and ◦ investigating impacts of human activities (

 Rooted in Citizenship education  Based in the geo-sciences  Strong use of ICT  EC Priority 4: ◦ construction of digital learning environments for the acquisition of key competences  What about the Digital Agenda 2020?

1. Resources, data, technologies and geo-information 2. Learning and teaching 3. Teacher education and training 4. Curriculum aspects

A European Comenius Network connecting those using Spatial Media and Geoinformation in school

analytics.eu/index.php/en/digitalearth/11- questionnaire

 Digital Earth already plays an important role in addressing  social,  economic,  cultural,  scientific and  technlogical challenges affecting mankind

 Education for Digital Earth is to understand our earth system  Unique set of skills needed to successfully navigate our world  Convince education stakeholders  Contributions for media experts  Visit for more information and how to participatewww.digital-earth.eu