ABSTRACT
It is clear that, as Hassell (2000) states, ICT provides ‘a huge range of opportunities for enhancing the teaching and learning of geography’. Whether these opportunities are being fully exploited in schools is a matter of debate and concern – progress can, for a variety of reasons, best be described as ‘patchy’ (Fisher 2000: 52). However, Fisher argues that Geography is well placed amongst subjects in the curriculum to take the use of ICT forward in schools:
Geography as an academic discipline has made use of computer-based data handling software, statistical processing packages and cartographic programs. Remote sensing data from satellites is organized and presented using computers. Simulations enable phenomena to be modelled and the interplay of variables to be examined, for instance the behaviour of water in a drainage basin. Beyond all these, geography has given its name to a powerful computer-based approach for the multivariate analysis and display of spatially referenced data: the geographic information systems (GIS), an application of great research and commercial significance.
