Geography Activities and Tools for Teaching and Learning

I collected the activities and tools below in my reading about geospatial education over the last few months. My criteria for including one in this list: These are ideas/technologies I might actually use in my own classes.

Mystery Skype

Remember the good old "twenty question" game? You ask "yes" or "no" questions try to hone in on a famous person, place or thing. Mystery Skype is similar, expect that it's played by two classrooms in different geographies using Skype and the goal is to determine the location of the other class.

One class in Massachusetts divided into teams with different jobs ranging from those who asked the questions, to those who used Google to learn more, those who used Google Maps to find possible answers, to those who used state puzzles to remove states that could not be a possible answer.

Could this fit into your educational objectives for geography, even for college students?

- Mr. Avery's Classroom Blog
- Stamford Advocate

Overlap Maps

This online tool allows users to compare the size of a one feature (country, county, river, etc.) to another (country, county, river, etc.) You simply select the two things to compare from pulldown menus, then click the arrow for the Overlap Map! Or as the page puts it:

An Overlap Map is a map of one part of the world that overlaps a different part of the world. Overlap Maps show relative size.

- Overlap Maps

NoteMap

NoteMap is a web-based app that allows the user to draw lines and polygons or add symbols, notes and icons to a map. The result is basically a unique webpage, with its own URL. That URL is available for sharing. (The site is built on open source OpenLayers and Dojo and uses OpenStreetMap basemap data). I can imagine students using NoteMap to produce project reports or quiz answers.

- NoteMap
- details

Scholars Lab Step by Step

While the Scholars Lab offers far more than tutorials for bringing data into maps, that part of it is quite valuable. The short "cookbook" type lessons include text and graphics outlining basic mapping appropriate for non-GIS users. Most tap ArcGIS Online, though others use Google Maps and HyperCities.

The description from the site (which reveals other reasons this is an authoritative resource):

Spatial Humanities Step By Step is a peer-reviewed series of tutorials and guides to getting things done in teaching and research with spatial tools and resources.

- Scholars Lab Step by Step

Eighth Graders Tell Teachers How to be Engaging

Go read this great post on the Edutopia Blog. An eighth grade teacher asked her students to tell her how to be engaging. The responses to Heather Wolpert-Gawron are quite profound. She helpfully assigned them to ten topic areas that I suspect will sound familiar to educators of all stripes.

1. Working with their peers

2. Working with technology
3. Connecting the real world to the work we do/project-based learning
4. Clearly love what you do.

5. Get me out of my seat!
6. Bring in visuals
7. Student choice
8. Understand your clients -- the kids
9. Mix it up!
10. Be human

I wanted to share some thoughts on and implementations of some of these ideas from my years of teaching geography and GIS both in the classroom and online. First off, I want to share something I learned very early on: if an education methodology works with young people, it will work with adults. You might change the terms, depth and exercises the adults do, but solid methodology can span the ages.

I used to be involved with a Women in Science and Engineering program up at Salem State College. It was for middle school girls and each instructor had about 20 girls for about 45 minutes. The goal was to complete a hands on experience that introduced the girls to what we women scientists "do." I usually had three 15 minute activities. One was explaining how GPS worked. After my "song and dance" I'd point out the the four satellites we had in the classroom (they were always up near the ceiling). Each one had a piece of yarn indicating how far away it was from the GPS receiver. Four girls would each take a piece of yarn and figure out the one place they all must meet. That must be the location of the GPS receiver! Who ever was sitting in the chair at that location found a prize underneath it. (Typically, I taped an "I Love Geography" pencil under the chair.) I've used the same activity with adults. I'm not sure which group enjoys it more.

Now, on to the ten topics from the article.

1. Working with their peers

I'm a big fan of a loud classroom. Talking is thinking and talking to peers on the topic at hand is thinking together. Whether the goal is to come to consensus on an issue (Is global warming for real?) or to create something new (A commercial to encourage better care of our watershed) the process of discussion is sometimes more valuable than the final product. I think so much of these discussions that I taught a seminar online, I found technology that let my students talk to one another. They really got to know one another and they worked on their oral presentation techniques. I was especially proud of my "English as a second language" student who went from writing down and reading her comments to speaking off the cuff.

3. Connecting the real world to the work we do/project-based learning

Connecting work to the real world can be so rewarding for students. While the epitome of GIS project work is to "do a project" in the community or for a local agency or non-profit, there are other ways to connect to the larger world. I taught a lesson on user interface design. (Note: too few GIS people ever even get one lesson on this!!!) Once the students learned some basic concepts, I turned them loose on actual mapping websites. Which websites? Sites their owners/developers/hosts wanted critiqued. I found them by posting a note on my magazine's blog (with permission). We could only tackle three of the six requests that came in. I'm pleased my students allowed me to share their audio conversations with the submitters. Some owners/developers/hosts made changes to their mapping websites the very day they received the feedback. I let my students know they were changing the world even as they learned the material. I was pretty jazzed, too.

7. Student choice

Student choice can be a challenge. With too much freedom, some students are overwhelmed. With too little, they can't find something to match their interests and needs. I like to give different kinds of freedom in different kinds of assignments. Sometimes students are free to pick a topic within a broad GIS application area such as "resource management" or "health GIS." Other times I give them choices on how to present their work via a paper, a video or another way. 

10. Be human

The "be human" suggestion is a good one. The tag line is "have a little fun yourself." And, the opposite is true. Be prepared to goof up in a variety of ways. Among my goof ups:

• The link is bad.
• The instructions to download the software didn't work. 
• I gave overly critical feedback to a student. 

I was pleased I learned early that it's ok to say "I'm sorry" to students. That's both being human and giving students a real world experience. People, both teachers and students, goof up. Educators  need top model good behavior when we do.

How do you embody these engagement areas in your geography or GIS classes or projects?

Which Comes First in EdTech: Ed or Tech?

Don Boyes, who teaches GIS at the University of Toronto, wrote a thoughtful post last week about his current work preparing to move one of his face to face GIS classes to an online format. He addresses the key areas he needs to explore: content, pedagogy and technology. It's the last one that interests me. Boyes writes:

Technology
Teaching GIS in general, and certainly online, requires more than a passing familiarity with a host of technologies.  I have been thinking about the software I use, or might use for my online course.  Just off the top of my head, the list includes: PowerPoint; Adobe Photoshop, Captivate, Presenter, Premiere, and Connect; Blackboard; and Citrix XenApp.  I also have to understand issues concerning bandwidth, mobile devices, podcasting, open learning, etc.  As a technophile/early adopter, I love learning about all these things, but it takes a lot of time.  For every technologic tool or solution, I have to be mindful of the actual benefits for improving communication, teaching, and learning and judge whether the invested time will be worth it.

I am pleased Boyes has such a long list of tech tools in mind. And, I'm pleased he's aware that it's possible to get swept up in the tech and perhaps lose site of the goal, that is, learning.

That brings me to the question in the title: In the development of a course (residential or online), which should come first: the full syllabus with course and lesson objectives or the tech that will enable to objectives?

In an ideal world, educators would have the luxury of paid time to consider the content and pedagogy and develop a course. Then and only then, they'd have the resources (skilled instructional designers, hardware, funds, time to test implementations, etc.) to weave in the appropriate technology. I'm sure I'm not the first to notice it rarely works quite that way.

Still, I think it's valuable to try to work that way, especially now when education technology tools are exploding. Why?

• While the tool you may want may not be available when you begin to develop the course, it might be in beta by the time you start to select technology. And, if technology literacy goals are among of the course, why not consider new or beta offerings? Students can learn a lot from how software is tested and input collected. Moreover, you can often use such products for free as part of a beta program or the like.
• You can't possibly keep up with both educational technologies and your discipline. Don't try; rely on others to help identify and select appropriate technology. 
• It's so easy to get swept away by new sexy software and hardware. Just consider the big rush to the iPad when most of the research on its impact on learning is still anecdotal. Hold tight to your educational objectives; don't be swayed by flashiness. 

Education technology is supposed to enhance learning. Thus, by definition, an educator must know what is to be taught and learned before such tools are selected. Be sure Ed comes first when considered EdTech.