Maps4Learning: Enacting Geo-Education to Enhance Student Achievement

During the last few years, increasing emphasis has been given to geo-education in middle and high school curricula, transforming the way certain subjects are now taught to provide students with comprehensive knowledge about dynamics and interconnections in the world, which also rely on relevant geographic information. This is the case for history, geography, the earth sciences, and other subjects. However, so far, little has been done to provide adequate learning tools that can support such an important transformation. This paper proposes the integration of advanced geospatial technology in traditional interactive learning tools as a way to describe experiences that help students understand phenomena and improve their competencies. The system is the result of a usability engineering process aimed at providing users with an effective learning experience, iteratively analysing their expectations and needs with respect to geo-referenced content. The resulting learning environment,
Maps4Learning
, allows users to manage content in terms of learning objects named
geoLO
+, which are extended with spatial and temporal components and built according to standardized metadata. The system was tested in the context of a middle school programme. A usability study was carried out to analyse the impact of
geoLO
+ resources in terms of perceived quality, engagement, and student learning performance, and the outcomes of the resources were compared to the outcomes of traditional teaching methods. The results were encouraging and showed that learning improvement can indeed be achieved using
Maps4Learning.