Geography Generation

There is now a generation of children who have grown up with a mouse in their hand. To these youngsters, computers have never been a novelty but merely a fact of life. Such new literacy, combined with innate curiosity and advances in information availability with the advent of the Internet, is allowing kids to explore their world to an astonishing extent.

GIS is an important part of this leap forward. Schools across the globe have discovered that using GIS software in the classroom encourages students to think critically, learn in an integrated fashion, and exercise multiple intelligences. The growing availability of geographic data, which took a giant step in June 2000 with the launch of the Geography Network, is also adding to children's resources.

In our changing world, the understanding of spatial relationships has become increasingly important with the slow realization that we do not function as independent entities—our actions have far-reaching effects. Today's children have powerful tools at their fingertips for navigating this global environment.

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