The centering processes of geographic information system (GIS) development at the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was an extension of past cartographic encounters with American Indians through the central control of geospatial technologies, uneven development of geographic information resources, and extension of technically dependent…

The interaction spaces between instructors and learners in the traditional face-to-face classroom environment are being changed by the diffusion and adoption of many forms of computer-based pedagogy. An integrated understanding of these evolving interaction spaces together with how they interconnect and leverage learning are needed to develop…

This dissertation explores the notion of participatory community mapping (PCM) for Indigenous knowledge production. Three major questions were posed in the study. First, how can PCM foster Indigenous knowledge production and documentation? Second, how can PCM be used to include local voice and input in mapping projects, and third, how can adult…

Knowledge Cartography is the discipline of visually mapping the conceptual structure of ideas, such as the connections between issues, concepts, answers, arguments and evidence. The cognitive process of externalising one's understanding clarifies one's own grasp of the situation, as well as communicating it to others as a network that invites…

After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of state socialism in Eastern and Central Europe, cartographers were faced with choices on how the new post-Cold War political landscape would be mapped. One such group called the Pluto Project had been producing atlases since 1981 with a progressive point of view about the nature of state power…

Even though the appearance and spread of new technologies offer considerable challenges in the design of far reaching and complex pre-test and assessment situations which are in keeping with the trends of teaching and learning, the thematic map is still an insuperable document to value either integral training or academic performance of future…

Access to a quality education is unevenly mapped by the demographic context of the communities in which public school students live. A growing body of research suggests that this geographic effect deeply challenges the goal of equalizing educational opportunities. This paper explores the relationship between students' neighborhood characteristics…

As professionals and families work together to identify and celebrate the strengths and resources unique to each family, new and innovative ways to describe and discuss family characteristics are needed. The eco-map, borrowed from social science disciplines, is one method used to describe family strengths and resources. The eco-map was developed…

The construction and infrastructure of a city provide the foundation of an ideal urban lab for high school students to discover how to dissect the multifaceted layers of a place and make it their own. For six weeks in the winter of 2008, ninth-grade students in Providence, Rhode Island's Hope High School/Hope Arts Community learned to look closely…

English 302: Writing about the Arts is a practicum course offered at the University of Windsor for upper-level English undergraduate students. The course asks students to write about a variety of art forms and requires engagement with multiple genres of writing as a way for students to effectively order their experiences, reconstruct meaning in…

Beyond acknowledging for spatial--more specifically map--literacy to the intellectual development of lifelong learners, teachers need to know how they might teach these tools. This article describes a collaboration to help teachers integrate spatial literacy in the school. The author suggests excellent web resources that supported an integrated…

Children's cognitive skills change substantially from the time they enter school at about the age of five to when they graduate from high school a dozen years later. Some changes can be attributed to the school curriculum, but others are part of children's developmental evolution as they mature and interact with the world. Rather than reviewing…

In an attempt to hone the role of learners as designers, this study investigates the effectiveness of an instructional software application resulting from a design process founded on the tenets of participatory design, informant design, and contextual inquiry, as well as a set of established design heuristics. Collaboration occurred among learning…

Relative to other fields, social work has been slow to adopt geographic information systems (GIS) as a tool for research and practice. This paper argues that GIS can benefit social work by: (1) continuing and strengthening the social survey tradition; (2) providing a framework for understanding human behavior; (3) identifying community needs and…

This study investigates an elective English class, in which students in grades 10-12 collectively read and collaboratively wrote fantasy fiction in four groups. The purpose of the class was to have students consider the choices fantasy and science fictions writers, directors, and video game designers make when creating a fictional world. The…