Geography teachers’ views on geomedia and geomedia education

While geomedia is a new concept in Finnish curricula, it merely describes (in a new way) geographical methods and data that have always been central in geography education. In the latest National Core Curriculum for General Upper Secondary Education 2019 (2020), the term geomedia is defined as a way to
collect and present geographical data especially with maps and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). In addition, geomedia consists of also graphs, diagrams, photos, video, news, and statistics that transmit regionally or spatially tied or located information (Muukkonen et al., 2022). In our study (Hynynen et al., 2022), we interviewed geography teachers on 1) how they understand the
concept of geomedia, 2) what is the role of geomedia in their students’ everyday lives and how that is reflected in the school education, and 3) what is the impact of geomedia education for geography education in general and for the society. The interviewed teachers work with pupils from ages 7 to 19. The results show, for example, that most teachers consider geomedia as a useful hypernym at the curriculum level, but understanding of the concept is limited and few teachers utilize the term in the classroom. Outside the classroom, pupils are mainly exposed to visual forms of geomedia and would need stronger skills to examine it critically. The teachers agree that geomedia education forms the basis of methodological geography skills and supports geographical thinking. Finally, geomedia education provides the pupils with skills to use geomedia in their everyday lives and to acquire many relevant skills in the future.
References
National Core Curriculum for General Upper Secondary Education 2019 (2020). Opetushallitus.
Hynynen, L., Nylén, T., Hirvensalo, V., Lammi, P., & Muukkonen, P. (2022). Maantieteen opettajien näkemyksiä geomediasta ja geomediaopetuksesta [Geography teachers’ views on geomedia and geomedia education]. Terra, 134(4), 241–252. https://doi.org/10.30677/terra.120326
Muukkonen, P., Hynynen, L., Jäntti, L., & Lammi, P. (2022). Geomedia on keskeinen osa maantieteen opetusta, mutta miksi ja mitä se on? Terra, 134(3), 191–193. https://terra.journal.fi/article/view/121685