FROM MAPS TO APPS: STRATEGIES FOR CRITICAL THINKING DEVELOPMENT IN GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

The advancement of digital technologies has redefined Geography education, offering powerful tools to fostercritical thinking, civic engagement, and spatial literacy in public schools. Moving beyond traditional approachescentered on rote memorization, digital strategies—ranging from interactive maps to immersive applications—encourage students to investigate, analyze, and problematize socio-spatial realities. This article examinespractical strategies for integrating geotechnologies into Geography teaching, comparing traditional and digitalmethodologies, and emphasizing the role of teacher training in ensuring meaningful and equitable outcomes. Byframing digital tools within critical pedagogy, this paper proposes a set of approaches that enable public schoolstudents to move from passive recipients of knowledge to active agents of inquiry and transformation.