Educational cartography in Austria - its status and prospects for the future

Within the framework of educational politics and the developments of cartog raphy in general as well as of publishing, for more than two centuries educ ational cartography in Austria evolved rather independently, kept diversify ing and succeeded in attaining the excellent reputation it still has today, both on a national as well as on an international level. The disadvantage of the small Austrian market is offset by excellent cartographic know-how a nd skills. In the time to come, a wider range of multi-media products will gain more s ignificance, but printed atlases will not be replaced by electronic media w ithin the foreseeable future for organizational, financial and didactic rea sons. For designing maps, more sophisticated graphical and 3D elements will , however, have to be introduced. Many of the technical prerequisites for d igital mapping sire already existing. Cartographers engaged in research ought to take more interest in educationa l cartography again, as the field's prestige largely depends on the achieve ments of this specific segment. Many pertinent problems, such as designing maps in a way appropriate to the pupils' respective ages or the development of map reading skills, are not solved yet.