Geography teachers do not need to be convinced of the merits of Geographical Information Systems (GIS), but many will probably have been frustrated in their attempts to introduce them into the classroom.

Budget or hardware restrictions, curriculum priorities, over-complicated software packages and acquiring suitable data are all reasons for the relatively slow adoption of GIS in schools.

Teachers want a simple and intuitive software package to get started with. At Hampstead School, we have been using the latest version of Microsoft’s business mapping application, MapPoint 2002, on a stand-alone machine.

MapPoint is no substitute for a genuine GIS application such as Aegis (www.advisory-unit.org.ukaegis2.html), but it does allow students to map data from a spreadsheet quickly and intuitively. We have been using the software in a variety of ways:

Postcodes and sphere of influence studies

Every year I teach students who are interested in investigating the sphere of influence of a particular service using a questionnaire survey.

Interviewees are asked where they live, yet many people are reluctant to divulge their address, which makes the resulting map time-consuming to construct and relatively inaccurate.

Rather than revealing where they live, people are generally happier to give their postcode, which can be jotted down in an instant. MapPoint is able to record postcodes, saved as an Excel spreadsheet, as points or pushpins on a map. The pushpins can be formatted as desired and individual data entered for each pin. Roads and services can be added as an extra layer, and the standard Microsoft Draw tools used to construct desire lines from the address to the service as necessary. The resulting maps are attractive, accurate and easy to interpret.

Plotting regional data

The impressive government statistics site at www.statistics.gov.uk offers a huge amount of data for geography teachers. For example, one might want to map unemployment figures per region as a choropleth map. Unfortunately MapPoint does not recognise the standard UK regions, so specific territories to map regional data have to be created or a MapPoint file with ready-defined regions can be downloaded from www.geography.ndo.co.ukdownloads.htm

The unemployment data can be acquired from the website, saved as an Excel spreadsheet and imported into MapPoint. The software also comes with some sample demographic data that allows the user to overlay a base map of unemployment with, for example, a layer of pie charts showing household income or employment.

There are plenty of other sources of free data available from the internet. I discovered some detailed crime figures for each of the London boroughs at the Metropolitan Police website - www.met. police.ukindex.htm The result was a murder map of the capital which I intend to use with students when we look at the geography of crime.

Underlining the role of the map

In both these scenarios, ICT has added value. Students spend more time analysing and explaining the resulting patterns and better understand spatially referenced data. Perhaps most refreshingly, ICT has helped underline the role of the map as the fundamental tool of the geographer.

At Hampstead we have been sufficiently impressed with MapPoint to consider buying a volume licence for our network. The software is expensive, with a single user licence costing pound;180. It is not covered by the Microsoft’s School Agreement - that would allow it to be installed as part of Office - but pressure from education users could encourage Microsoft to capitulate.