For many years, we’ve discussed the impact of GIS on student learning largely through anecdotes and examples. During this time, the promise of the technology has been real, but elusive, especially in the absence of quantitative studies of its impact. For the past few years, a team of researchers from James Madison, Northwestern, Georgetown and American Universities have been conducting an in-depth study to explore the behavioral and cognitive impact of the use of GIS by high school students. In this session, we will describe the setting for this study (the Geospatial Semester in Virginia), the study’s format and the results, including both behavioral and cognitive measures (explored using fMRI). We’ll share the growing base of evidence for the impact of GIS in learning and make the case for its impact in classrooms.
