Education Services Australia (ESA) has launched Spatial Genie, an education system to promote GIS in Australian schools. This capability marks the first time the education system in Australia has invested in the development and promotion of GIS in schools.
Consisting of a web map populated with data from both government and private providers, the system hopes to overcome the obstacles previously blocking school education of GIS, namely software and data access, hardware availability, computer room access and teacher expertise. Spatial Genie provides a stepping stone for teachers to start using spatial data for lessons and lesson planning via an online platform.
Alongside the Spatial Genie site is DataGenie, a site to explore tourism data, including where visitors come from and why they visit. Like Spatial Genie, the site will also have accompanying student activities and educational support materials.
Spatial Genie is available for free use at http://www.spatialgenie.edu.au/. Data Genie is available at http://ivs.datagenie.edu.au/
