The Study of the Use of Geographic Information System in Elementary and Secondary School Educaton in Japan

本研究的目的是通过解释地理信息系统在教育领域的有用性，找到在日本K-12教育中使用地理信息系统（GIS）的解决方案。自20世纪90年代初以来，GIS在商业和政府中的应用迅速增加。1995年发生的神户地震显示了GIS在公共管理中的显著优势。从那时起，许多地方自治市都采用了这一系统，并于同年在高中地理教科书中引入了GIS。从那时起，地理信息系统被认为是一种教育工具，然而，多年来，它几乎没有在学校的教育过程中得到利用。这是由很多原因造成的，但主要原因是缺乏利用GIS是难以获得和操作GIS软件，从学校教师那里获得的数据中可以看出这一点。本研究包括对日本K-12课程的研究，收集其他国家的先进案例，以及对数据采集和适用制度的检验。此外，还在学校课堂上进行了地理信息系统的实验教学。通过它们，本研究为教材提供了相关的数据和工具，并澄清了GIS在教育领域使用中存在的问题。最后，本研究提出了日本K-12学校使用地理信息系统的当前问题的框架。未来需要讨论的问题是：1)如何支持学校教师用GIS教学学生；2)我们应该如何教育公众使用地理信息系统的重要性；3)地理信息系统教育的课程设置。

The aim of this study is to find solutions for using Geographic Information System (GIS) in K-12 education in Japan, by explaining usefulness of GIS in the field of education.Utilization of GIS has rapidly surged in business and government since the start of the 1990s. Kobe earthquake, which occurred in 1995, showed significant advantages of GIS in public administration. Since then, many local municipalities have been adopting this system and in the same year GIS was introduced in the geography textbook for high schools.GIS has been recognized as an educational tool since then, however, it has scarcely been utilized in the educational process in schools over the years. This is due to many reasons but mainly the lack of utilizing GIS is the difficulties to obtain and operate GIS software as highlighted by data obtained from teachers in schools.This study consists of research of K-12 curriculum in Japan, collection of advanced cases in other countries and examination of data acquisition and suitable systems. Furthermore trial lessons using GIS in school classes were conducted experimentally. Through them, this study provided relevant data and tools for educational materials and clarified the problems in use of GIS in education field.Finally this study proposed the framework of current issues in the use of GIS in Japanese K-12 schools. The issues to be discussed in the future are 1)How should we support teachers in schools in teaching students with GIS ; 2)How should we educate the public about the significance of the use of GIS ; 3)How should we propose curricula for education with GIS.