Abstract:

There are many conflicts in the world today. Conflicts refer to a hazardous situation: friction, disagreement, violence… in the broad sense we can include also a natural disaster. When a conflict occurs it is important to act as soon as possible in order to avoid risks.

Interventions in conflicts are brought about by different agents: NGOs, the armed forces, international organizations, etc. The Spanish Armed Forces began to act on the international scene of conflicts in 1989.

We consider peace to be an important value. Hence there is a wide variety of initiatives to celebrate. Our story shows efforts contributed by the Spanish Ministry for Defence towards peacekeeping and humanitarian missions in some particular places which has led to our elaboration of the following concepts: defence culture, peace culture and humanitarian action of which should be relevant topics in education. No doubt that geospatial localization of conflicts helps provide a better understanding of the causes of conflict and the need for peacekeeping missions in some parts of the world. Therefore an interactive storytelling map based on conflicts, humanitarian action and peacekeeping which invites one to navigate might well be a good way to learn.

A map already done with these aims reflects 63 peacekeeping missions and around 40 conflicts. But the map can be further developed with new data, updated anytime and anywhere.

Citizens should be made aware of the help that their Ministry for Defence makes for peacekeeping when it comes to natural disasters, international terrorism conflicts, political, regional and socioeconomic conflicts and civil wars. For this reason some questions have been added onto the map to be reflected upon during lectures and lessons on world peace. It is a new way to learn on the Cloud using new methodologies in formal and informal learning processes and in lifelong learning. The new methodologies are focused on collaborative learning which improves interaction between students and also between the students, teachers and professors.

This work is part of a reflection on the state-of-the-art project “School on the Cloud: connecting education to the cloud for digital citizenship” (543221-LLP-1-2013-1-GR-KA3-KA3NW) from the European Commission and the project of the Spanish Ministry for Defence project: "Cartografía de conflictos en un mundo globalizado: De la seguridad militar a la seguridad humana" nº de ref. 023/02 / 2014. I.P. Dra. María Luisa de Lázaro y Torres. Orden DEF/ 887/ 2014, de 28 de mayo (BOE nº 131, de 30 de mayo de 2014).

References:
[1] Buzo, I; Lázaro, M.L & Mínguez, M.C 2014. Learning and Teaching with Geospatial Technologies in Spain, in De Miguel, R. & Donert, K. (Eds) Innovative Learning Geography in Europe: New Challenges for the 21st Century. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 77-86.
[2] Moreno Jiménez, A. 2013. “Entendimiento y naturaleza de la cientificidad geotecnológica: una aproximación desde el pragmatismo epistemológico”. Investigaciones Geográficas 60: 5-36 (julio-diciembre 2013). DOI: 10.14198/INGEO2013.60.01
[3] O’Reilly, G. 2013. “The EU and humanitarian action: breaking down boundaries!” European Journal of Geography 4: 88-97 (December 2013).
[4] Spanish Ministry for Defence portal: http://www.defensa.gob.es/en/areasTematicas/misiones/index.html?__locale=en

Keywords:

Humanitarian action, Peacekeeping missions, Cloud computing, Geography, ArcGIS Online, Lifelong learning, storymaps.