Masalah Pendidikan 2005, Universiti Malaya 255 APLIKASI SISTEM MAKLUMAT GEOGRAFI (GIS) DALAM PENDIDIKAN Rosilawati Zainol Universiti Malaya Zainab Abu Bakar Universiti Teknologi MARA Sayed Jamaluddin Sayed Ali Universiti Teknologi MARA Mankind and technology evolve hand in hand. The former requires technology to enhance her/his way of life and the latter requires time to improve robustness and versatility ·to providebetter application andservtces.Astmitar paradigm occurs in the Malaysian education system, which passed through a series of gradual changes to leverage itseljwith current technology. Basic instructional traditional education models have transformed into a new instructional model approach with computer technology integration. Today, leT turns as an essential teaching tool in public education systems but it was mainly utilized in creating instructional design courseware and presentations though its capabilities can be further exploited and extended such as performing data analysis. Thus, this article describes leT capabilities expansion in performing data analysis with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). GIS capability is not yet used extensively in the Malaysian education system due to its complexity in proprietary applications. cost, hardware, and knowledge skills. However, with current advancement and open source applications (OpenGIS) availability, Malaysian students will soon experience and obtain opportunities in reinventing new skills in GIS. This article forwards GIS's basics and usages in education systems; and describes the steps in utilizing GIS as a tool in teaching and learning. GIS applications are not only limited to spatial data displaying but also spatial analysis performing. Setiap sesuatu di dunia ini pasti akan mengalami perubahan termasuk peradaban manusia itu sendiri yang terus mengalami perubahan: dari Zaman Ais, ke Zaman Batu, ke Zaman Gangsa, dan kini Zaman Teknologi lnformasi dan Komunikasi (ICT) dan juga Era Glo- balisasi - era dunia tanpa sempadan (Norkumala Awang, 2006). Di zaman ini, maklumat bukan sahaja boleh diperoleh secara langsung dan pantas, malah dapat diperolehi dari- pada pelbagai sumber, selain boleh diintegrasikan satu sarna lain. Zaman ICT telah mengenengahkan konsep k-ekonomi (ekonomi berasaskan ilmu pengetahuan); mendapatkan ilmu pengetahuan dan memilikinya adalah sesuatu yang sangat berharga (Norkumala Awang, 2006); maklumat mengenai wujud keperluan ICT di sesebuah negara misalnya, akan menentukan pelabur membuat pelaburan di negara terse- but; dan pelabur pertama akan mendapat untung berlipat ganda berbanding pelabur lain; butir-butir peribadi seseorang sekiranya jatuh kepada pihak yang tidak bertanggungjawab akan mendatangkan musibah; maklumat bertukar tangan dengan cepat tanpa disedari; dan