The experts highlighted the importance of introducing digital technologies in school geography education

The annual conference for geography teachers “Geoslet 2024” was held on April 20. It was timed to coincide with International Earth Day, which is celebrated all over the world annually on April 22. It was established to draw people's attention to environmental problems and encourage them to take care of nature.

The conference provides teachers with an opportunity to exchange experience and knowledge, discuss topical issues of geography education and share best practices in this field. It is geography teachers who become the first mentors of schoolchildren in environmental issues, they help students to understand environmental problems and ways to solve them.

The conference discussed the introduction of digital technologies into the educational process. Alexey Krylov, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Geography and Geoinformation Technologies, opened the event. He noted the importance of supporting the professional community of teachers and emphasized that digital technologies open new opportunities for learning, making it more accessible and interesting for students.

Sergey Barinov, Senior Analyst of the Faculty of Geography and organizer of the conference, announced the opening of the Laboratory of Modern School Geography and Local History on the basis of the Faculty of Geography. The mission of the laboratory is to contribute to the improvement of the quality of school geography and local history education, as well as to the popularization of geographical science in Russia. The laboratory will work in several areas: Olympiads and work with Olympiad participants, professional development and forming a professional community, interaction with foreign applicants, as well as consulting schools and expertise of non-profit organizations.

The second speaker was Anna Derkacheva, a researcher at the International Laboratory of Landscape Ecology specializing in cartography, geoinformatics and remotely sensed data. She spoke about the history of remote sensing, its types and how modern methods of obtaining information about the Earth's surface and objects using different types of imaging equipment work. Anna advised teachers to use the Google Earth program so that schoolchildren could interactively explore the Earth's surface themselves. Using the program makes geography lessons more interactive and fun. Google Earth will help students in project work and can become a basis for creating geography-related projects.

Nikolai Zolotov

Sergey Barinov

Nikolay Zolotov spoke about the application of geographic information systems in the school geography course. The use of GIS in teaching helps to develop students' skills in working with modern technologies, develops spatial thinking and the ability to analyze geographical information. The speaker proposed a variant of interaction of schoolchildren with GIS, when they are offered to draw objects on the “Yandex People's Map”. This is a service that allows users to draw and refine the map on their own. Pupils can be offered to choose a settlement they know well and check whether all objects are mapped: houses, addresses, monuments, roads, sports grounds, playgrounds, paths, school entrances, lawns. And if some objects are missing, ask them to add them to the map.

Nikita Medvedev finalized the event by talking about modern solutions for school geography using the FlexGIS platform. The main goal of FlexGIS is the transition from paper atlases and wall maps to teaching geography through an interactive cartographic portal. The platform is an interactive atlas and allows flexible management of data on the map by turning layers on and off, allowing students see only the information they need. All objects on the map are accompanied by descriptions, photos and videos. Teachers are presented with ready-made, verified content in an easy-to-deliver form. Pupils find it easier to memorize the lesson material thanks to the interactive form of information.

The conference participants noted that the introduction of digital technologies requires teachers not only to master new tools, but also to change their approach to teaching. It is necessary to develop skills in working with digital resources, to develop new methods and forms of teaching, as well as to take into account the individual characteristics of students. Participants expressed confidence that the introduction of digital technologies will improve the quality of geography education.