Workshop: Geography in the 21st Century

本次研讨会的主题是“21世纪的地理学”，其总体目标是将来自该领域的富有远见的思想家聚集在一起，围绕以下问题讨论一系列广泛的主题：在近期和中长期的未来，地理研究中的哪些主题领域将成为最重要的？21世纪的研究是由单个研究人员或来自一个学科的研究人员小组主导，还是由多个研究人员、跨学科的努力更好地服务于主导的主题领域？我们如何有效、高效、快速地将前沿研究转移和整合到教育领域？哪些有前景的技术领域将促进地理研究和教学？我们如何训练教师去训练其他教师去使用在以计算机为基础的信息社会中可用的资源和技术？最终，我们的愿景是设计和开发一个国家地理学习网络，以促进上述每个问题的答案的实施。对于研讨会，选定的个人将被要求准备一个简短的介绍性发言，以帮助指导对每个主题的一般性讨论。一般性讨论将被录音，原始贡献者和另外两名志愿者将扩大原始论文，以包括研讨会讨论的精髓。这些单独的报告将由研讨会协调员进行编辑和合并，形成一份白皮书，分发给美国国家科学基金会，并提供给美国地理学家协会、国家地理教育委员会的成员，以及其他对该主题感兴趣的学术或非学术机构或个人。这份白皮书将作为美国地理学家协会开发基于网络的国家地理学习网络的中心规划文件。

This workshop focuses on the topic of 'Geography in the 21st Century' with the overall objective of bringing together a collection of visionary thinkers from the field to discuss a broad array of topics around the following questions: What topical areas in geographic research will emerge as the most important in the near and mid-distant future? Will research in the 21st Century be dominated by single researchers or groups of researchers from one discipline or will multi-investigator, cross-disciplinary efforts better serve the dominant topical areas? How do we effectively, efficiently, and quickly transfer and integrate cutting-edge research into the educational arena? What are promising technological areas that will facilitate geographic research and teaching? How do we train teachers to train other teachers to use the resources and technologies that are becoming available in a computer-based information society? Ultimately, the vision is to design and develop a National Geography Learning Network that will facilitate the implementation of answers to each of the above questions? For the workshop, selected individuals will be asked to prepare a brief introductory statement to help guide general discussion on each topic. General discussion will be taped and the original contributors, along with two other volunteers, will enlarge the original paper to include the essence of workshop discussion. These individual reports will be edited and combined by the workshop coordinator to produce a White Paper for distribution to NSF and to be made available to members of the Association of American Geographers, the National Council for Geographic Education, and to other academic or non-academic bodies or individuals who express an interest in the topic. The White Paper will be taken as a central planning document for attempts by the Association of American Geographers to develop a web-based National Geography Learning Network.