Digital mapping boost for geography education

A new geography education initiative aimed at bringing digital mapping and spatial analysis into Jamaican classrooms will be piloted in eight high schools, as educators seek to equip students with skills increasingly valued in a data-driven world.

The MapMakers programme, a global collaboration between Esri and the National Geographic Society, is designed to modernise the teaching of geography in schools and universities through the use of geographic information systems (GIS).

Announcing the initiative at the opening of the two-day Spatial ArcGIS User Conference at the AC Marriott Hotel in Kingston on September 29, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness said the pilot would provide geography teachers with tools suited to contemporary instruction.

“MapMakers is a global collaboration between Esri and the National Geographic Society to modernise the teaching of geography in our schools and universities. The pilot will begin in eight high schools and will equip geography teachers with the tools they need to teach geography to a 21st-century standard,” the prime minister said.

The initiative will be driven regionally by Spatial Innovation and delivered locally through the government’s GIS in Schools Education Programme.

Holness also stressed the wider importance of GIS to national development, describing data as a critical element of modern infrastructure.

“When the storm came, it was the investment in the data gathering, data storing, and data analysis of our geography that made us make sense of everything else,” he said.

Meanwhile, chairman and chief executive officer of Spatial Innovation, Dr Silburn Clarke, said GIS has undergone significant transformation over the past 28 years, evolving from a specialised discipline into a widely used decision-making tool across government and other sectors.

He said emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, real-time information systems and predictive analytics, would increasingly shape the future of GIS, enabling users to identify patterns and anticipate events.

Even so, he argued that people would remain at the centre of technological advancement.

“The main driver of the changes that we will be experiencing in the future will be from you guys,” he said.

Clarke urged participants to exchange ideas, challenge conventional thinking and work together to develop innovative solutions to problems facing Jamaica and the wider region.