Children at state and independent schools across Britain have begun learning with the most highly detailed Ordnance Survey digital maps under a new ‘mapping on demand’ agreement. Local studies, field work and controlled assessments are all being supported by the move which widens an existing map subscription service to include all schools, academies and teacher training establishments in the country.
The Advisory Unit: Computers in Education, which supplies geographical and ICT products and training services, has joined forces with leading location content platform emapsite to make the mapping available.
Under the agreement, schools pay a small annual subscription that enables The Advisory Unit to source their map orders from emapsite and supply them ready to use on disk in AEGIS, the popular GIS software for UK secondary schools.
Teachers can build their map libraries by choosing up to four digital extracts a year from anywhere in Great Britain.
The datasets comprise very detailed OS MasterMap mapping as well as OS 1:10 000 scale, OS 1:25 000 scale and OS 1:50 000 scale colour raster backdrop mapping. Teachers can choose four maps with the same scale or choose from across the range of scales.
Diana Freeman MBE, Director of The Advisory Unit, said the new agreement with emapsite, which follows on from an initial ground-breaking National MapPilot for Schools (2006-10), would help guarantee continued and improved access to digital maps for many thousands of pupils.
Ms Freeman said: “We are bringing industry-standard, ready-to-use interactive maps into the classroom. This will support a range of National Curriculum studies requiring mapping and GIS such as geography, ICT and citizenship. The value and appreciation of digital mapping has never been higher and many disciplines have developed modules that benefit from its use.”
Geography pupils at Key Stages 3 and 4 are core groups to benefit. The agreement will support the full range of practical map skills including the use of symbols, grid references and contours and the understanding of distance, scale and direction.
As pupils prepare for GCSE, the map data will help with decision making based on the location and distribution of land use and the patterns of settlements and communications.
On receipt of the map data, teachers use AEGIS software to create and display interactive on-screen worksheets. Pupils add their own data to the maps for classwork, fieldwork and controlled assessments.
Ms Freeman added: “Pupils may import all kinds of information including location charts, flowlines, traffic surveys, shaded areas, statistics and census maps, all prime examples of GIS in action.”
Hurst Community College in Tadley, Hampshire, a mixed comprehensive of around 1,100 pupils, is one of the first schools to make use of the new service.
Geography teacher Dr. Stephen Hennah said the datasets involved, especially OS MasterMap, are already playing an important role.
Dr. Hennah said: “By combining the maps and the AEGIS software, we can for example teach Year 7 pupils how to make a schematic map of a locality and present different kinds of information on land use through pie charts or graphs. Whereas in the past it could have taken a double lesson to prepare a map template for this kind of work, we can now do it in just a few minutes.”
The Advisory Unit developed AEGIS as a flexible, user-friendly software solution for schools. The AEGIS MasterMap module, for example, enables teachers to display accurate, large-scale fieldwork maps for studying land use. The mapping is constructed in layers including polygons for buildings, with a buildings data table ready to use with pupils’ own field data.
AEGIS is backed with a range of online teaching resources including tutorial and lesson plans, curriculum planning guidance, Goad town plans, free viewer downloads, helpsheets and telephone and email support.
James Cutler, Chief Executive of emapsite, which hosts a comprehensive range of mapping and geographic information for professionals, said: “Our agreement with The Advisory unit means schools can receive the most up-to-date digital mapping for any area they choose. The data ranges from detailed building and land use polygons for large-scale fieldwork down to smaller-scale mapping for wider area context and surrounding transport networks. Digital mapping is an incredibly dynamic and diverse resource and it’s significant that through this agreement we can increase access and speed of delivery for both students and teachers.”
For more information, visit www.advisory-unit.org.uk.
