Place-Based Education

A "MySpace" for Local Studies in Massachusetts

Announcing the launch of a new social networking site for "humanities practitioners" in Massachusetts, built on the Ning platform. 

The National Endowment for the Humanities has funded this experiment, with additional support from the Joseph P. Healey Library at UMass Boston, and Mass. Humanities.

Check out the MAStudies Network at MAStudies.ning.com and join up if this collegial group of Commonwealth collaborators suits you!

Yahoo MapMixer

A map mashup tool that lets you combine two maps and fade in and out between them.  Great stuff!

See this example of modern Roman streets, with overlay of the Roman Forum, and dream of the local history possibilities:

Welcome To EarthShapes

An international collaborative project where students create "place capsules" to connect to and share with others'.

Welcome To EarthShapes.

The Boston Atlas

The Boston Atlas is a mapping application from the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) that includes data from many Boston city agencies, plus information from neighboring towns and the state. Information such as the outlines of planning areas, building outlines, street edges, and property ownership can be turned on and off. And once a plug-in is installed, users can study their area of interest in 3-D.

The Boston Atlas application appears to be related to, or derived from, Bill Warner's great site "Maps Over Time", although it's not clear what the connection might be.  The BRA site also says "There is a new open source version of The Boston Atlas being tested. Please give it a try and report any bugs to greg@agog.com."  All this is a bit confusing, but the ability to view, draw, and compare maps for different parts of the city, with different layers turned on and off, is common to all these apps, and is a great educational tool.

NationMaster's GeoLab

Wonderful creative and interactive tools to teach and learn geography.  This site provides two (soon there will be more, we can hope) GeoLabs that can be used by students to learn about a wide range of geographic and statistical skills, from using per capita calculations to learning about correlations.

Students follow the specific directions of the GeoLab to move through the incredibly rich NationMaster database, answering questions along the way. Their answers are sent directly to their teacher's e-mail address (which students provide before beginning the exercise.) This is a very simple, practical way that NationMaster has bridged the divide between the web page and the chalkboard.

No registration or payment is required.  According to the site, "this is an entirely free project which will hopefully open some young eyes to the rather rewarding field of statistics and country information."

The two Geolabs currently available:

Understanding Statistical Measurements Recommended for Students in 5th, 6th and 7th grade

Correlations and Variable Relations Recommended for students in 11th and 12th Grade, as well as first and second year post-secondary students.

Link: NationMaster - NationMaster's GeoLab.

Google Earth Lessons

Google Earth is a stupendous tool for exploring the geography of the planet, various countries and continents, not to mention your local neighborhood, which is why it's featured here on PBE.  Zoom in and out, "fly" from one place to another, add placemarks, create tours, view 3-D buildings - a great resource, and free besides!  Google Earth installs on your desktop and connects to the Internet on each load to access GIS data.

"Google Earth Lessons" offers a wonderful variety of tools, links, lessons, tips and tricks for using Google Earth®, in the classroom.

Link: GELessons.com