Teaching with Geotechnologies (Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Virtual Globes, and Remote Sensing not only can engage the learner in inquiry-driven, problem-based, project-based investigations of real-world issues, but it is essential for 21st Century sustainability of the planet and the health of its people. If we do not foster spatial thinking about issues such as water quality and availability, energy, sustainable agriculture, land use, urban sprawl, biodiversity loss, human health, natural hazards, and soil erosion, population and migration, at scales from local to global, who will?
Now more than ever, we need people who think broadly and who understand systems, connections, patterns, and root causeshow to think in whole systems, how to find connections, how to ask big questions, and how to separate the trivial from the important.
--David Orr, Earth In Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect, 1994.
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