Abstract

SIT: versatile tool for the acquisition of territorial knowledge

Aimed at secondary school students, professionals and EE.LL employees to:

• introduce integrated courses with contents varyining according to the various specializations in schools;

• bring the employed up to date as regards the territorial information networks available

Financed by the Sicilian Region.

INTRODUCTION

ECAP has been involved in vocational training in the territory for more than twenty years.

In this field it has carried out activities with various types of public funding (mainly the Sicilian Region and the Ministry of Labour -FSE).

Its main activity has been in educational projects covered by the Regional Law 24/76, which in Sicily, a Region with a Special Statute, has so called ‘exclusive’ powers as regards work and vocational training.

Originally the board had a prevalently political function aiming to involve young people who were leaving school on reaching the minimum school leaving age and particularly those described as potentially or already ‘at risk’.

This field (by this time a reference point for ad hoc laws) was gradually abandoned so that specific demands from the work market could be met with particular reference to young people leaving school with a school leaving certificate, graduates, employees and self employed professionals as well as secondary school pupils requiring special courses.

The versatility of the Sicilian Region 24/76 mentioned above permitted this rapid change as it is an all-embracing text, even if up to 1992 it was insufficiently exploited.

Since that date (1992) we have organized courses for those on professional registers (surveyors, architects and engineers), since 1995 for state employees and since 1997 for secondary school pupils.

Today this work comprises 25% of our activity (10,000 course hours).

This change in our "target groups" began in 1992 when in collaboration with the Order of Architects we organized the first courses for those enrolled in the Register of Architects in the province of Catania. The courses were for CAD operators using Autodesk software.

We went on to offer courses to those enrolled in the technical registers (surveyor-architects and engineers) and to employees in technical offices in the public sector. The knowledge of SIT (FMS and ESSRI) as well as information science relative to VIA was quickly found to be important.

In the SIT tool we have identified the minimum common denominator for a much more complete and versatile project than those set up so far dedicated to information about the territory. To a certain extent the K12 programme already managed by ESSRI in the USA is exploited.

PLAN OF THE INTERVENTION

Our awareness of the versatility of the SIT tool and its various potential uses led to a great deal of reflection as to how it could be applied in our targeted sectors.

It was eventually decided to propose that for 98/99 the Sicilian Regional Council should finance (already agreed) a project for

• 486 pupils from classical and scientific schools
• 54 pupils from vocational schools
• 172 pupils from schools for surveyors
• 108 EE.LL i (Technical office) employees
• and/or self employed professionals
• 36 EE.LL i (Technical office) employees
  and/or self employed professionals

To give a total of

• 856 course members
• 75,120 course hours

BASIS OF THE PROJECT

The project is based on various considerations:

• SIT technology can be applied in various different ways
• in our country today there is a general gap in computer skills that involves both people already working (employees and/or self employed professionals) and future workers at present at schools
  In the normal school and post school courses insufficient preparation can be given in basic computer skills.
• this operation is favoured in schools by
  • the Ministry of Education’s policy to promote school-work projects with a credit system in secondary schools;
  • the interest of schools in this type of initiative in so far as school autonomy is affected;
  • the interest of the EE LL in the topics dealt with concerning the modernization and rationalization of the work in their sectors with the massive introduction of computer use;
  • the Sicilian Region’s policy to promote computer skills in schools and the public sector.
• SIT is potentially the best way of meeting these requirements today.
• the project must be tested in experimental conditions before being offered to employees and self employed professionals other than the technical staff it is aimed at presently.

Contents:
The use of GIS software - in this specific case a GIS Desktop (ArcView) - for didactic purposes in secondary schools is a highly effective way of integrating computer studies with geography and with a knowledge of the typical applications in the world of work based on territorial computer information.

As regards the learning of the basics of computer skills GIS integrates, in a standard setting (Windows 95 or NT), vector and raster graphics, database and elements of programming. This makes it possible to use a single highly developed tool to show the potential of applied computer studies, without being limited to a single sector given the wide range of potential uses for GIS applications in most jobs and professions.

GIS technology integrates typical operations of databanks, such as statistical calculations and analyses, with the advantages offered by the images and geographical analyses of cartography.

These characteristics distinguish GIS from other traditional systems and make it extremely useful in a vast range of different fields, both public and private, for explaining situations, predicting variations and defining strategies.

GIS can be applied to the most important and difficult problems we face today - overpopulation, pollution, deforestation, natural disasters which all have an important geographical dimension as well as used to solve specific problems with a fundamentally geographic component such as the siting of a new activity, the finding of the best soil for a given crop and the identification of the best route for rescue vehicles including those used for rescue operations.

Map making and geographical analyses are not new but a GIS can do these tasks better and more quickly than the old traditional methods. There are moreover two aspects inherent in GIS:

• the construction and geographical interpretation of maps and with the use of these to describe the territory and the phenomena occurring on it by means of computer assisted design (CAD).
• the use of advanced information networks including INTERNET and INRTRANET also for external use of the data

Before the arrival of this tool only a few specialists were equipped to use geographic information in planning and in the solution of territorial problems.

If training programmes are to be related to development it is important that action should be taken to promote the mass use of tools and information systems (GIS) in order both to improve the efficiency of public administration and professional work and to make the economy more competitive.

Given that today information is more and more frequently presented through topic maps and charts it is clearly necessary that young people as well as professionals and public administration employees should have a knowledge of these tools.

Given the potentially mass use of GIS training courses in schools are clearly essential and where necessary in-service courses should be set up for those already working.

A GIS memorizes information about elements of the real world through a series of "topic levels" or themes, which can be put together or compared by geographic operators.

This simple but powerful tool has been found to be both valid and versatile in the solution of various real problems: from the verification of the position of vehicles delivering goods to town planning. It has even been used for the modelling on a global scale of the atmospheric circulation.

Geographical information contains spatial references that may be explicit (latitude and longitude rather than UTM coordinates) or implicit like an address, a post code, a census sector or the name of a road. By means of these geographic references all the elements present and the phenonema occurring on the earth’s surface can be localized with great precision and this information can subsequently be used.

The key elements are the tools for the introduction and management of geographical information which, together with the data base management systems support the geographical querying and analyses, as well as the graphic interface for imaging and reacting with the system.

The most important component of the project is represented by the identification and manipulation of different types data from varying sources. Different uses can be made of this data with a single tool which can be applied in wide range of sectors.

Besides the geographical and cartographic data, to set up such a system the relative alphanumerical data must be acquired by the system internally in order to fully develop the potential of the GIS. A GIS, in fact, integrates spatial data with other types of data (tables, images, texts, film clips etc.) and can be integrated with a DBMS existing within a data structure.

It is clear that GIS are extremely versatile and could be introduced as a learning tool in all types of secondary school and in various in-service training courses as they can be applied to a wide range of disciplines. For example:

• Liceo Scientifico (school specializing in scientific subjects): the study of geography, map drawing, statistical analysis of territorial data ( Tourist information system)
• Liceo Classico (school specializing in the humanities): the study of geography, applications relating to the environmental and cultural heritage, temporal analysis of territorial phenomena.
• Technical school for surveyors: the study of cartography, problems inherent in land surveying, analysis of the territory for town planning and public works .
• Commercial technical school: The study of geography, analysis of the resources, geomarketing applications
• In-service courses for architects, engineers and surveyors working in the technical offices of the public administration: the study of maps, the management of land surveying problems, the analysis of the territory of town planning and public works, analysis and planning for urban and biological VIA
• In-service courses for public sector employees in general: the use of public administration data in the information network destined for different uses.