Issues in geospatial science education in Australian universities: developing approaches for the curriculum

With recent advances in geographic technologies we have seen their application into non-traditional disciplines such as media and communication studies, business, psychology and biotechnology. Often referred to as new or neo-geographies we are now encountering non-geographers utilising geospatial (or spatial) information. This of course, provides excellent publicity for the geographic disciplines, but also means that we are now working with people not formally trained in the use of spatial data. There is a real need to provide students from non-geographic disciplines with sufficient skills to enable them to utilise geographic information in a meaningful way. What these technologies have done in terms of education, is to provide alternative methods for providing geospatial literacy in our graduates. This paper examines some recent developments in geographic information science education that rely on new technologies. Using examples of learning modules currently used in the School of Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, this paper discusses how geographic technologies can be adopted for the teaching and learning of geospatial science and building geospatial cognition to students from a variety of backgrounds with a range of geographic skills. Apart from giving students the opportunity to work with a range of collected and existing data sets, these examples also provide geographic knowledge, technical competence and personal attributes critical in providing a competitive edge for future employability.