Bringing Geo-Spatial Technologies into schools, problems and solutions

This paper/presentation documents the Remote Sensing part of the curriculum within the teacher education curriculum for secondary schools at the Institute for Geography and Regional Science University of Graz, Austria.
Remote Sensing topic is embedded in the subject “Geo-Spatial Technologies”. These 3 hours/per week/semester (6 ECTS) lasting lesson includes the GIS and Remote Sensing techniques and should give an applied introduction into their capabilities for teaching in secondary schools. This paper gives an overview about the content of teaching (outweighed balancing between technology transfer and applications). The lesson is divided into a theoretical part (introduction, goals and aims of the lesson, Remote Sensing technologies and scholar syllabus, introduction into RS methodologies: RS topics - history, electro magnetic spectrum, term “resolution”, platforms and sensors, applications) and practice (introduction in working with an atlas and analogue data, digital image processing with visualization, import, classification, interpretation and integration in school lessons…).
The experiences with 3 generation of students will be given as a central issue of the presentation. The lack between demands and effective knowledge of students in combined Remote Sensing and (geographical) thematic aspects are main limiting factors for the integration and effective use of Remote Sensing techniques in schools.