GEOMATICA™: First in South Africa with:

• Spatial Literacy Learning for educators and learners
• Our Educational Software supports:

O        Spatial Literacy learning across the grades

O        the South African Social Sciences and Geography curricula in schools

O        cross curricula learning

With GEOMATICA™, we can:

• Make learning spatial literacy explicit in our teaching from Grade 4 to university
• Incorporate GIS into our teaching for:

O        Learning with GIS:

§ awareness of spatial learning

§ all geography concepts

§ other subject areas such as:

»      Maths

»         Science

»      Economics

»      Tourism

»      History

O        Learning about GIS:

§ GIS specific curriculum aspects:

»      Grade 10 – 12

»      University

The Geomatica™ product suite is developed using GIS-based software that allows educators and learners to work with local data and imagery. It also allows educators to cover almost 90% of the FET Geography curriculum as well as large amounts of curriculum from Grades 4 to 9.

Geomatica combines an easy-to-use, step-by-step interface coupled with a powerful GIS toolset that permits easy viewing and manipulation of the data and images.

For a summary of what Geomatica can offer, click here.

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By basing Geomatica on GIS, we are harnessing the power of working with spatial data and in particular harnessing the power of GIS to develop spatial literacy and higher-level cognitive skills in our learners.

Within this broader remit of developing spatial literacy and higher-level cognitive skills, particular attention has been given to enhancing mathematics and science concepts and skills, whilst providing a seamless link with technology so as to strengthen areas of weakness in the South African education system.

Click here if you’d like to know more about Spatial Literacy.

WHAT IS GIS?

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) refers to the use of computer technology to analyse and interpret Geospatial data.

Why have we based Geomatica on Geographic Information Systems?

Everything in our world exists in a certain time and space. As people we have continual interactions with spatial data and making decisions based on those interactions is a part of our daily lives. For example we interact with:

·    Weather maps

·      Satellite images on news bulletins

·    Internet route map

By basing Geomatica on GIS, we are harnessing the power of working with spatial data from an early age.

“Effective use of GIS involve more than just clicking buttons to create a map. In a school setting it means engaging in active learning, with significant thinking required. GIS can affect the whole educational experience, for learners, educators and the community.”

Learning about GIS

Learners and educators are provided with documentation and materials that allow them to get to grips with the GIS skills they will need to interact with the Geomatica data and scenarios. This learning phase will typically be centred on using local and familiar data. For example, this may involve learning how to do 2D and 3D measurement in a digital atlas.

Learning with GIS

Once learners and educators have mastered the skills necessary to work with the data, these skills are applied to new material and scenarios with a broader, more topical focus. These elements of the product aim to develop learners higher order cognitive skills such as problem solving, decision-making etc

The Geomatica Philosophy

Our philosophy is based on four key principles: change and growth, forming relationships, providing locally relevant resources and development of critical skills in learners. We will continue to develop our product whilst being guided by these principles. More…

But …

We are fully aware that educators have access to many datasets from local municipalities and the Internet. However, it takes time to locate these and to load them into a product so that they can interact with the data. Many educators simply do not have the time or the facilities to do this. Our service therefore is to find out from educators what their needs and requirements are and to collate this data for them in a ready to use educational format.

Last updated: 11th Feb 2010