GIS dalam pendidikan geografi di Malaysia: cabaran dan potensi (GIS in the Malaysian geography education: Challenges and potentials)

Teknologi Maklumat dan Komunikasi (ICT) kini menjadi tunjang dalam merangka sistem pendidikan di Malaysia. Pengenalan KBSR dan KBSM merupakan reformasi pendidikan yang terbesar di Malaysia. Pendidikan di Malaysia sentiasa diselaraskan dengan kehendak pasaran dunia, iaitu bertujuan menghasilkan modal insan kelas pertama. Program Pengkomputeran Sekolah berjaya melengkapkan prasarana sekolah dengan makmal komputer. Integrasi ICT dalam subjek-subjek di sekolah mula dilaksanakan. Namun, sebarannya adalah tidak sekata. Subjek Geografi merupakan salah satu subjek yang masih bersifat penghafalan fakta tanpa kemahiran teknologi. Integrasi teknologi dalam subjek ini amat perlu bagi memartabatkan serta menghidupkannya. Sistem Maklumat Geografi (GIS) adalah amat sesuai diterapkan dalam subjek Geografi. GIS merupakan salah satu sistem maklumat yang digunakan untuk menyimpan, memapar, menganalisis dan memanipulasi data yang berkaitan dengan ruangan. Pelbagai negara lain seperti Australia, New Zealand dan Singapura telahpun mengintegrasi GIS dalam proses P&P di sekolah. Di Malaysia, GIS dalam bidang pendidikan masih di tahap perbincangan atas kertas kerja. Keupayaan GIS untuk menerap masuk dalam sistem pendidikan di Malaysia masih dipersoalkan. Pelbagai persoalan seperti sejauhmana GIS sesuai di peringkat sekolah, keberkesanan terhadap pelajar, kesesuaian dengan pelajar sekolah dan keupayaan guru mengendalikan GIS sering timbul. Maka artikel ini membincangkan cabaran dan potensi GIS untuk diimplimentasi dalam subjek geografi di sekolah. Kaedah analisis kandungan digunakan untuk mencari sebanyak mungkin peluang dan halangan dalam mengimplimentasi GIS. Dua puluh artikel dari dalam dan luar negara dianalisis secara terperinci menggunakan borang analisis kandungan yang diadaptasi dari Crosswell, P. L. Penyenaraian halangan dan peluang ini diikuti dengan pengagihan menggunakan analisis SWOT. Analisis SWOT ini bertujuan mengidentifikasi kekuatan, kelemahan, ancaman serta peluang secara terperinci

Media and the environment in Malaysia: an analysis on news coverage of landslide disaster in Kuala Lumpur

Studies done on media reporting and the environment, particularly on natural disasters area less researched topic in Malaysia. This paper examines the representation of disaster news and analyses on how disaster news reports are being covered in local newspapers by taking a landslide case occurred at Taman Puncak Setiawangsa, Kuala Lumpur in December, 2012. The samples were taken from two local mainstream newspapers as a comparative study. Utusan Malaysia, being the major Malay newspapers in the country targets Malay readers, while The Star, an English-language daily, targets multi-ethnic and middle-class income readers. This study used quantitative and qualitative content analysis in identifying patterns of coverage by both newspapers. The analysis revealed that despite having their own principles, guidelines and ideologies; this study concludes that both newspapers have a lot of similarities in their reporting on this particular disaster. The main similarity is local environmental news is still predominantly presented as straight news

Using facebook as a collaborative and communicative tool

This study discusses the acceptance of the utilisation of Facebook as a communication tool and collaborative educational tool amongst secondary school students in the district of Kulim, Kedah, Malaysia.This study is based on the five constructs of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model proposed by Venkatesh, Morris, Davis and Davis (2003).These five constructs are performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and behavioral intentions. The respondents for this study were 210 secondary school students who were randomly selected in the Kulim district.The data for this study was elicited through questionnaires adapted from Venkatesh et al. (2003).The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) and Partial Least Squares (SmartPLS).The results showed that performance expectations (PE) (ȕ =-0.018, p > 0.01), effort expectations (EE) (ȕ = 0.242, p > 0.01) facilitating conditions (FC) (ȕ = 0.330, p > 0.01and for social influence (SI) (ȕ = 0.260, p >0.01) do not have a significant positive impact on behavioral intentions (BI). The value for R2 = 0.532 indicates that 53.2 % of the variance in the use of Facebook applications for communication and collaboration can be explained by the BI.The study also revealed that the either PE, EE, SI or FC showed a significant correlation with the BI. These findings have an important implication for the development of education.The use of Facebook applications and other social media as a medium for collaboration and communication in the classroom could not promote quality teaching and learning. This study only examines the four constructs of the UTAUT model proposed by Venkatesh et al. (2003). However, given the model’s robustness in predicting user acceptance of technology, it is recommended that future studies look at different constructs such as attitudes and motivation, and also examine the moderating effects of age and sex on the BI and Use Behavior

Knowledge and awareness on landslides among teachers in northern area of Malaysia

Cases of landslides in Malaysia did not only destroy properties but have also taken the lives of people. The society need to be educated about the danger of landslides, so that, they can be better prepared to face the disaster that can happen at any time. One of the main groups that need to be educated on the danger of landslides are teachers. Teachers teach students the importance of maintaining and conserving the environment, as well as the basics about landslides including early signs of landslides and causes of landslides. In order to disseminate knowledge about landslides accurately to students, teachers themselves need to first, be knowledgeable on the subject matter. This research has two objectives, first, to identify the level of knowledge and awareness regarding landslides among teachers; second, to investigate the differences in knowledge and awareness regarding landslides between teachers who teach in landslide prone areas with teachers who teach in non-landslide prone areas. This research used qualitative method through in-depth interview to gather information from 10 teacher respondents who are teaching in the Northern region of Malaysia. The findings show that the level of landslides knowledge and awareness among teachers is high. The findings also indicate that there is no difference in term of landslides knowledge and awareness between teachers who teach in areas prone to landslides and those who teach in areas that are not prone to landslides

Highly efficient computer oriented octree data structure and neighbors search in 3D GIS spatial

Three Dimensional (3D) have given new perspective in various field such as urban planning, hydrology, infrastructure modeling, geology etc due to its capability of handling real world object in more realistic manners, rather than two-dimensional (2D) approach. However, implementation of 3D spatial analysis in the real world has proven difficult due to the complexity of algorithm, computational power and time consuming. Existing GIS system enables 2D and two-and-a-half dimensional (2.5D) spatial datasets, but less capable of supporting 3D data structures. Recent development in Octree see more effort to improve weakness of octree in finding neighbor node by using various address encoding scheme with specific rule to eliminate the need of tree traversal. This paper proposed a new method to speed up neighbor searching and eliminating the needs of complex operation to extract spatial information from octree by preserving 3D spatial information directly from Octree data structure. This new method able to achieve O(1) complexity and utilizing Bit Manipulation Instruction 2 (BMI2) to speedup address encoding, extraction and voxel search 700% compared with generic implementation

Effect of Acacia mangium Root Properties on Shallow Landslide and Slope Stability

Abstract-The aim of this paper is to study the influence of Acacia mangium on slope stability in forest area with some landslide failure. There are a lot of shallow landslides on the East-West highway in Penang, Malaysia. In this study, root distribution of four samples of Acacia mangium was studied in rainforest, Perak, Malaysia, with the purpose to raise our knowledge on RAR (the proportion between the area occupied by roots in a slice area of roots) relevant to depth. Trenching method was used to investigate RAR, and then in each 10 cm layer the number of roots in each root diameter classes was counted. Results indicate that the root area ratio (RAR) decrease with depth, and the highest amount of RAR is located in the first layer. Also, about 35% of roots located in the first 10 cm layer and about 90% of all roots were in the fine diameter root class ( < 2 ). There is a significant difference between RAR and depth in 0.05 levels. The number of fine roots ( is more than the number of thin roots ( , but the amount of RAR is more in the thin roots. Therefore RAR is more affected by thin roots rather than fine roots. The results develop the knowledge about bioengineering characteristic of root systems of tropical species

Three-dimensional (3D) dynamic water infiltration hierarchi-cally on multilayer of soil according to voronoi sequence nodes based on three-dimensional triangular irregular network (3D TIN)

Understanding soil water infiltration movement has acquired ex-tensive interest and concern in the last few decades. The arrangement of particles (i.e. structures and size) and the interaction between soil and soil water have a profound effect on the soil water infiltration. The challenging task in soil fluid modelling is the indeterminate spatial extent that have no specific boundaries and difficult to sense. Plenty investigations and studies have been conducted to measure the water movement. However, less focus were given on the movement of dynamic soil water infiltration. This paper will focus on modelling the three-dimensional (3D) soil water infiltrations that flow downward due to gravitational factor and gradient pressure. The 3D hierarchical soil water infiltration model proposed the integration of techniques which include Tree-map to isolate the depth of the soil that act as a route of soil water flow from the surface of the terrain to subsurface flow. Moreover, 3D Gosper curve was used to represent the soil water flow pattern that based on the law of gravity and Horton equation control the flow of soil water in the model. The curves that consist of series of nodes adopt Three-Dimensional Triangular Irregular Network (3D TIN) which creates a network of flow direction that allows the water pass through the nodes according to a predetermined sequence. The study area has average of 8.5 mm total rain and -5 meter water level. The soil is di-vided into a few layers to represent the flow of soil water according to se-quence of nodes. The soil depth (40 cm, 80 cm, 120 cm, 160 cm and 200 cm) isolation in form of Voronoi shaped polygon nodes allowing the soil water flowing down where the depth is chosen based on the soil wetting range of subsurface soil

The prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder among landslide victims

Malaysia has been prone to both natural and man-made disasters such as droughts, flood, landslides, haze and others. These disasters affect livelihoods, destroy infrastructure, cause food shortages and health problems. People exposed to natural disasters have a greater risk of experiencing mental health problems, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This must have been a terrible experience with psychological consequences. The purpose of this study to investigate the prevalence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among public that involved or have been a victim of landslides and to study the symptoms of trauma recovery by landslide for the benefit of well being.We assessed PTSD by using The Post-traumatic stress disorder checklist and Post Traumatic Growth Inventory for 500 respondent from five areas that hit by landslides. The post–traumatic stress disorder checklist, it is to test emotional trauma such as depression, psychological stress, fear, anxiety and others. The Post-traumatic Grow Inventory that test positive changes and development of the symptoms of trauma. The scale appears to have utility in determining how succesful individuals, coping with the aftermath of trauma, are in reconstructing or strengthening their perceptions of self, others and the meaning of events. We are using mix methods for this research uses purposive and snow ball sampling. The result show, some of public who experience hit by landslide had been a trauma. The location of study that most highest trauma victims is Bukit Antarabangsa 16.4% and Paya Terubong 13.25. But most of them are back to normal after trauma were 55.2%. Although traumatic or distressing events can cause long-lasting psychological symptoms but, they may report an increased interest in spritual matter, increased maturity, improved social relations or a new and healthier lifestyle after a traumatic event

Modeling Of Groundwater By Using Finite Difference Methods And Simulation.

In active landslide, the prediction of acceleration of movement is crucial issue for the design and performance of warning systems. Landslide occurs when a sudden increase beyond the critical level of groundwater. This is especially true in tropical weather during the wet season