Learning to Think Spatially (2006) / Chapter Skim
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6 Tools for Thought: The Concept of a Support System
6 Tools for Thought: The Concept of a Support System
Pages 135-152
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From page 135... ...
Section 6.9 identifies five interlocking components essential for the implementation of a support system in the K12 context. 6.2 THE NATURE OF A SUPPORT SYSTEM The key to a support system is not technology as such.
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It is the human power to think that is crucial: to the extent that the knowledge structures and display screens are functional (that is, user friendly and reliable) , the in-vehicle navigation system (IVNS)
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It is spatial thinking in its purest and perhaps most remarkable form. The culture of this group of Micronesian islanders values ocean navigation in outrigger canoes (Figure 6.2)
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. The core of the system is an intricate and highly detailed knowledge of the physical environment: stars and their seasonal appearances in rising and setting positions; clouds and water color and their relationships to land; and birds and their typical foraging distances from land.
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The concept in etak of a specific but invisible island moving under often invisible navigation stars is not only an abstraction. It is also a purposefully devised logical construct by the use of which data inputs (rate and time)
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186) While we advocate the development and use of tools and technologies to support spatial thinking, the Puluwatan navigators illustrate the remarkable power of spatial thinking without modern technol ogy.
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Similar suites of tools and technologies can support spatial thinking in other knowledge domains (e.g., in architecture: pencil sketches, colored perspective drawings, sections [plans, elevations, etc.] , balsa wood and cardboard models, CAD systems, virtual reality displays; in sea navigation; portolan charts, astrolabes, compasses, sextants, modified Mercator projection maps, chronometers, celestial tables, Loran, GPS)
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. In-vehicle navigation support systems can be low tech in design: a dashboard compass, a hand held cartographic road map (e.g., topographic sheet)
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IVNS are important for commercial vehicles such as taxis, delivery systems such as FedEx or UPS, and mail delivery. Via GPS tracking, fleet vehicle locations can be monitored (e.g., for sending the closest taxi, police car, or emergency vehicle to a specific destination or for knowing current locations of members of a local or interstate trucking fleet)
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Learning to use a tool for thought is not the same as learning to think. It is relatively easy to reinforce a facile but inflexible command of, say, sequences of key strokes or the rote learning of a series of actions that lead to correct results if and only if the problem context remains the same.
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Selection of the wrong projection can lead a user to make comparisons between data values plotted on a map that does not preserve area, thus resulting in inappropriate inferences (as exemplified by the so-called Greenland versus South America effect seen on an inappropriately used modified Mercator projection)
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As a result, the map incorrectly identifies regions that could be reached by missiles of various ranges launched from North Korea.
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may indeed meet criterion 8 (utility across a range of contexts) but do so only because it meets criterion 1 (support inquiry)
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Data sets that are spatial in form (e.g., containing positional data expressed in terms of latitude and longitude coordinates) must be registered and projected into a geographic space (e.g., on a map projection using the State Plane Coordinate System [SPCS]
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in either a continuous or a discrete stepwise manner) · Replotting into different frames of reference (from projections using one coordinate system to another [e.g., abstract as in azimuthal versus Cartesian or specific as in cartographic mapping systems such as latitude and longitude, the universal transverse Mercator zones, the SPCS]
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) · Structural analysis (e.g., for patterns, calculation of nearest neighbors, or spatial autocorrelation; for networks, calculations of centrality, connectivity, and various paths [shortest, the traveling salesman route, etc.]
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6.9 THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR SPATIAL THINKING IN THE K12 EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT In the K12 educational context, the implementation of a support system for spatial thinking entails an awareness of a series of five interlocking components, all of which must be addressed for the system to be implemented successfully. There should be programs to provide 1.
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It is equally important to understand how expertise in spatial thinking develops in general and differently among different people. Both sets of understandings are necessary precursors for developing systematic educational programs to teach American students how to think spatially.
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