Why map images as a teaching method?
As a geographer, my teaching material is necessarily spatial. But the practice of having students illustrate course concepts using examples from outside the classroom is widely applicable. The purpose of these methods is to steer what many students already do—in this case, share geo-referenced media with each other—toward broad teaching goals.
This has the potential to address a gap in how we reinforce course material in the classroom. Assignments like reading responses and term papers often favor students who already read and write well in English, while most courses have neither the built-in time nor the mandate to intensively teach writing. Highly motivated students excel at these assignments, but even dedicated students may struggle to reach their full potential with them. Moreover, the results of these assignments tend to remain between the student and the instructor, and thus do not serve any pedagogical function beyond that individualized relationship.
Meanwhile, students engage with potentially teachable material every day outside of the classroom, and through social media already debate and collaborate with their peers. Geo-located information is an increasingly native element of students’ social experience. These media can form an intuitive way of relating to course material. The assignments I designed using History Pin bring together these two elements—the written and the visual—in a collaborative and intellectually rigorous way. They do not replace written work, but enhance it, by widening the scope of the conceptual connections students are able to make.
This has the potential to address a gap in how we reinforce course material in the classroom. Assignments like reading responses and term papers often favor students who already read and write well in English, while most courses have neither the built-in time nor the mandate to intensively teach writing. Highly motivated students excel at these assignments, but even dedicated students may struggle to reach their full potential with them. Moreover, the results of these assignments tend to remain between the student and the instructor, and thus do not serve any pedagogical function beyond that individualized relationship.
Meanwhile, students engage with potentially teachable material every day outside of the classroom, and through social media already debate and collaborate with their peers. Geo-located information is an increasingly native element of students’ social experience. These media can form an intuitive way of relating to course material. The assignments I designed using History Pin bring together these two elements—the written and the visual—in a collaborative and intellectually rigorous way. They do not replace written work, but enhance it, by widening the scope of the conceptual connections students are able to make.