What are the constraints to GIS usage? Selected results of a teacher survey about constraints in the school context

Abstract

In this paper selected results of a survey about constraints to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) usage including 410 participating teachers in Germany are presented. The results show that especially the lack of regular teacher practice in handling the software, the lack of classroom time and the lack of simple and copyable lessons including GIS are considered the biggest constraints. As regards potential factors of influence, the teacher's private usage of a desktop GIS software combined with his general computer literacy proves to be the decisive predictor for school usage of GIS.

Keywords:

• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• implementation
• constraints
• teacher survey
• Information and Communication Technology (ICT)