Current perspectives and future trends in school cartography in the Republic of Moldova

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to present and discuss an area called School Cartography in the Republic of Moldova that corresponds to the National Geography Curriculum. This study intends to support further research in the field of School Cartography given the development of Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies in our country. Beginning with the analysis of events related to the production of school atlases using new technologies, which began in 2013 at the State Enterprise Institute of Geodesy, Technical Surveys, and Cadastre INGEOCAD, the main themes and difficulties were pointed out. The results presented here emphasize the importance of all stages of using GIS technology in the production of atlases for geography education, from traditional paper versions to digital versions, during the last decade. The article also focuses on some of the research and contributions of the author and contains a list of publications and examples related to digital mapping. Finally, perspectives and future trends in School Cartography are based on the creation of interactive thematic maps of the Republic of Moldova. The relevance of this study is dictated by the main trends in digitization of education worldwide.