The article is devoted to the problem of incorporation geographic information systems (GIS) in world school practice. The authors single out the stages of GIS application in school geographical education based on the retrospective analysis of the scientific literature. The first stage (late 70 s – early 90s of the 20th century) is the beginning of the first educational GIS programs and partnership agreements between schools and universities. The second stage (mid-90s of the 20th century – the beginning of the 21st century) comprises the distribution of GIS-educational programs in European and Australian schools with the involvement of leading developers of GIS-packages (ESRI, Intergraph, MapInfo Corp., etc.). The third stage (2005–2012) marks the spread of the GIS school education in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America; on the fourth stage (from 2012 to the present) geographic information systems emerge in school curricula in most countries. The characteristics of the GIS-technologies development stages are given considering the GIS didactic possibilities for the study of school geography, as well as highlighting their advantages and disadvantages.

This article is dedicated to the Earth Remote Sensing (ERS), which the authors believe is a great way to teach geography and allows forming an idea of the actual geographic features and phenomena. One of the major problems that now constrains the active introduction of remote sensing data in the educational process is the low availability of training aerospace pictures, which meet didactic requirements. The article analyzes the main sources of ERS as a basis for educational resources formation with aerospace images: paper, various individual sources (personal stations receiving satellite information, drones, balloons, kites and balls) and Internet sources (mainstream sites, sites of scientific-technical organizations and distributors, interactive Internet geoservices, cloud platforms of geospatial analysis). The authors point out that their geospatial analysis platforms (Google Earth Engine, Land Viewer, EOS Platform, etc.), due to their unique features, are the basis for the creation of information thematic databases of ERS. The article presents an example of such a database, covering more than 800 aerospace images and dynamic models, which are combined according to such didactic principles as high information load and clarity.

The article dwells upon the scientifically relevant problem of using cloud-based GIS-technologies when training future geography teachers (based on ArcGIS Online application). The authors outline the basic principles for implementing ArcGIS Online in the educational process (interdisciplinary integration, the sequence of individualization in training, communicability, distance education and regional studies), and provide an example of an interactive map created with the help of the specified cloud GIS, since this kind of map is the most popular a form of research by geography students. In the article it is noted that integration of ArcGIS Online into the educational process allows the teacher to follow a clear pedagogical strategy, taking into account possible variants of its use (demonstration, direct mastering of GIS in a computer class and independent work in an individual mode). Considering cloud GIS as a new stage in the development of geoinformational education, the authors emphasize their key benefits (round-the-clock access, work with GIS package in the cloud, the ability to use other maps as well as the creation of their own maps and web-applications) and disadvantages (monetization of services, underestimation of the GIS role in the curriculum of the higher school, the lack of Ukrainian content, etc.).

The article dwells upon the Earth remote sensing data as one of the basic directions of Geo-Information Science, a unique source of information on processes and phenomena occurring in almost all spheres of the Earth geographic shell (atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, etc.). The authors argue that the use of aerospace images by means of the information and communication technologies involvement in the learning process allows not only to increase the information context value of learning, but also contributes to the formation of students’ cognitive interest in such disciplines as geography, biology, history, physics, computer science, etc. It has been grounded that remote sensing data form students’ spatial, temporal and qualitative concepts, sensory support for the perception, knowledge and explanation of the specifics of objects and phenomena of geographical reality, which, in its turn, provides an increase in the level of educational achievements. The techniques of aerospace images application into the modern school practice have been analyzed and illustrated in the examples: from using them as visual aids, to realization of practical and research orientation of training on the basis of remote sensing data. Particular attention is paid to the practical component of the Earth remote sensing implementation into the modern school practice with the help of information and communication technologies.

In the new socio-economic conditions in the education system, forms of organization of tourist and local history activities are developing, which are based on traditions, experience of extracurricular and extracurricular work, taking into account the changes that have occurred in the country. Life requires that the tasks facing educational institutions are resolved quickly and have not just any solution, but one that optimizes the pedagogical process. At the same time, these requirements come into conflict with the state of the education system, the limited ability of most parents to create conditions for the full development of the child. The tasks facing the education system can be implemented in tourism and local history activities. The main task is to create the necessary conditions for the comprehensive development of the child’s personality, his social adaptation in the process of participation in various types of tourist and local history activities. However, the school teacher is not ready to organize and conduct tourist and local history activities at school, as he is not professionally prepared for this activity. Questions of the organization, forms and methods of teacher training for the organization of tourist and local history activities are practically not reflected in the educational and methodological literature. There are no scientific studies that would allow us to effectively solve the pedagogical tasks of preparing the organizers of tourist and local history activities in the school.