بررسی نقش و تاثیر تجسم جغرافیایی و پورتال های همکاری جغرافیایی در یادگیری الکترونیکی مشارکتی در آموزش گردشگری

As geodata are the lifeblood of tourism, the representation of tourism resources on maps (geovisualisation) and the wide use of web 2.0 for creating and discussing geovisualised data (geocollaboration) are heavily adopted in tourism. Consequently, managing geodata needs to be incorporated into tourism curricula and pedagogies to assist graduates with career options. Although research in geovisualisation has examined the impact of geoportals on team-working and cognitive processes, research in education has not examined the implications of geocollaboration on collaborative e-learning. After reviewing the literature, the paper develops and applies a model that exploits geoportals for designing collaborative e-learning in a tourism course. Implications and trends for tourism educators and policy makers are discussed.

The use of digital maps is increasing not only by governments, research institutions and businesses but also in education (Jones, Blake, Davies, & Scanlon, 2004). This is not surprising when considering the cognitive benefits of digital maps (Davies, 1998) and of data representation on maps (i.e. geovisualisation, MacEachrean, 2005) as well as that 80% of all digital data generated today includes geospatial referencing (MacEachrean & Kraak, 2001). Data with geographical connotations (geodata) and digital maps are the lifeblood of tourism, as tourism by nature involves the transfer of people to places away from home, while all tourism experiences take place in certain geographical areas of the physical or the virtual world (e.g. in secondlife.com or through virtual reality applications). Moreover, as geographical locations and their resources (e.g. cultural, natural) constitute major tourists' attractions motivating and inspiring tourists to travel to a place, information about geographical resources plays a critical role in generating, directing, organising and managing tourism activities in destinations. Consequently, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) applications and currently, webGIS and geoportals are widely adopted in tourism for several purposes, such as (e.g. Sigala and Marinidis, and Zanker et al., 2009) trip planning, visitors' management and tracking behaviour, online bookings, destination management and measurement of carrying capacity. Geoportals are internet gateways providing access to geographical information and services (e.g. calculating distances, designing itineraries). With appropriate functionality, geoportals can also support collaboration amongst (distributed) users, in which case they are referred to as geocollaborative portals (Sigala, 2010). The wide application of digital maps requires tourism educators to incorporate the teaching of spatial skills and geodata manipulation into their curricula and pedagogies in order to assist graduates with career options. Specifically, students would need to develop two major geospatial competencies, namely: how to use maps for information discovery, exploration and presentation; and how to design maps for enhancing their communication and collaboration with peers. However, although research in geovisualisation has advanced by investigating how geovisualisation and geoportals can support and enhance group work and collaborative decision-making (Brewer et al., 2000, MacEachren and Cai, 2006 and Sigala, in press), research in education is limited, because: (a) it examines the use of digital maps for supporting individual and not collaborative learning processes (e.g. Jones et al., 2004); and (b) it overlooks the opportunities to exploit geocollaboration for developing collaborative e-learning practices. The lack of educational research examining the exploitation and impact of geovisualisation on collaborative e-learning creates a significant drawback in tourism education, since it is widely shown that the Internet can significantly enhance the quality of tourism education by: (a) digitising part or the whole learning/teaching process (i.e. e-learning) (e.g. Cantoni et al., 2010 and Sigala, 2002); and (b) enabling collaborative learning processes by facilitating constructivism learning amongst and within students' communities and facilitators (e.g. Sigala, 2004, 2005). Moreover, as free web map services and web 2.0 tools – that democratise the creation and dissemination of geographical content and services (Goodchild, 2007) – provide numerous tools for spatial decision-making and group collaboration, research in the area of geovisualisation for supporting collaborative e-learning becomes a must. In this vein, this paper aims to investigate the role and impact of geovisualisation and geocollaborative portals on enabling collaborative e-learning in tourism education. To achieve that, the paper reviews the related literature as well as analyses examples of different learning applications which demonstrate: the features and benefits of geovisualisation for teaching and learning; and the impacts and the role of geoportals and geocollaborative portals on collaborative e-learning practices. The literature review concludes by developing a model showing how to exploit geocollaborative portals for designing collaborative e-learning. The design-based research approach (DBR) was used as an appropriate methodology for developing the geo-collaborative e-learning model, because of two reasons: (1) the lack of previous literature and of a model analysing how to exploit geocollaborative portals for educational purposes; and (b) DBR entails an iterative process through which researchers and educators collaborate in order to apply, modify and adapt previous theories to new aims/contexts (Reeves, Herrington, & Oliver, 2005). The applicability of the geocollaborative e-learning model is shown by analysing the use of a geocollaborative portal for integrating collaborative e-learning in the teaching process of a tourism course. Finally, the paper identifies the trends regarding the use of geocollaboration portals in tourism education and it concludes by discussing the former's implications on tourism educators and policy makers.

This paper aimed to examine the features and benefits of geovisualisation and geocollaboration for collaborative e-learning in the context of tourism education. To that end, the related literature was reviewed and a model for developing geocollaborative e-learning was proposed. The applicability of the model was also illustrated by analysing its use and integration in the teaching of a tourism course. Both the model as well as its application stress the importance to consider three dimensions in developing geocollaborative e-learning practices: the technological; the social; and the educational dimensions. Concerning the educational dimensions, the example highlights that in order to exploit the benefits of geovisualisation, educators need to structure and design their teaching and learning processes as investigations as well as to use geovisualisations, digital maps, geoportals and GCP as the source: of geo-information; for identifying/formulating the investigation questions; of the evidence for supporting assumptions and constructing/negotiating knowledge; and the platform for developing discussion. For example, educators need to present maps as rich mysteries to be investigated as well as to use a tone of inquiry and help learners perceive geovisualisations and GCP as sources of information, generators of hypotheses/questions and assistants of collaboration rather than simple illustrations of casual viewing. However, due to the very limited research of geocollaboration in an e-learning context further research is required to investigate a series of new questions that need to be answered in order to progress the exploitation of geovisualisation and GCP in (tourism) education. Such questions may include: what are the new map reading and designing skills that graduates should gain and develop? Which of these skills are required by the tourism industry and/or research? What are the geocollaboration competencies and abilities that students need to develop for enhancing their electronic communication and collaboration skills and career prospects? There is also limited understanding and knowledge on how map reading, design and collaboration skills are learned and how they can be effectively taught. So, what are the appropriate learning pedagogies for helping (different) students on how to learn to interpret, use and create maps as well as exploit maps for geocollaboration purposes? More studies are also required to explore the effectiveness and efficiency of learning processes based on geovisualisation and geocollaborative tools by measuring the impacts of the former on several dimensions such as students' satisfaction, learnability (easy-of-use of the system), memorability of learned material, impact on the cognitive and communication abilities of learners. Some techniques and dimensions for evaluating geovisualisation in education have been proposed (Marsh & Dykes, 2005), but a more holistic model and methodology for measuring the impact of geovisualisation and geocollaboration on both the learners and the educational processes (e.g. more interactive and/or more entertaining education) are required. Geocollaboration in e-learning has also implications for software developers, who also need to design and purpose build GCP for collaborative e-learning purposes. Policy makers, governments and research institutions would also need to increasingly produce and openly/freely distribute geodata that educators and learners can find, use and integrate into their own geoportals and geocollaborative learning practices. For example, the USA and UK national and local governments (e.g. http://gos2.geodata.gov/wps/portal/gos, http://datasf.org, http://data.gov.uk/) have already drafted and follow a very good policy in producing and disseminating geodata for public (business or research) use, that anyone can download and integrate them for producing any (mash-up) application. For example, due to the current availability of freely accessible geodata online, a student may use data about the size and quality of road infrastructure of a destination and mash-up (combine) these geo-data on a google map for comparing/visualising geo-information related to car accidents per location, per month, per drivers' nationality. In addition, the student will be able to further construct knowledge using this geo-information for formulating and testing research questions, such as: evaluate the impact of tourism activities and the levels of tourist demand on the number and timing of car accidents; compare the size and the quality of road infrastructure of destinations to the level of tourism demand. In order to boost the international sharing and dissemination of geodata between nations and destinations, it is necessary to develop international standards for writing and sharing geodata as well as enhance the copy right legislation to include the use (mash-up) of geodata (e.g. see related initiatives at http://geodatacommons.umaine.edu/, http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Geodata, http://www.geonames.org/). However, very limited has been achieved and legislated so far about the abovementioned issues.