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:

Students Trace Ancestry Through DNA

Approx. 1,000 students from Chicago, England, Jordan, France, South Africa and China are adding their DNA samples to the National Geographic's Genographic Project.

""When their results are ready, each student will discover how his or her ancestors journeyed from the cradle of humankind in Africa to populate the world," said Dr. Spencer Wells, a population geneticist and director of the project, which has collected more than 200,000 DNA samples in less than two years."

Interesting

Bland County History Archives Project

Bland County History Archives Project, created by the students of Rocky Gap High School, Rocky Gap, Virginia.  Oral histories and their transcipts, cemetery record databases, images, life narratives, special exhibits and more.

"The Rocky Gap High School Oral History and Technology Project is place based education. It is grounded past, present, and future in this place, Bland County, Virginia. The history, the culture, the technology, the writing skills, and the organizational and managerial lessons are all rooted in this place, in these mountains.

The project is a unique blend of tradition and technology. Technology is the lure to bring students to their community history through the stories of its citizens. However it is these stories that give content for the technology to organize, manipulate, and publish. The process gives a student sense of place and thus of himself.

The purpose of this part of the Archives is to help teachers or community members initiate similar projects. The links to the right will show how this was done. It will also explain much of the philosophy and thought behind the project.

Rocky Gap students also travel and conduct oral history workshops. A multimedia presentation is available that explains the project.

We plan to have a cd and a short video to share by the end of this school year. "

Place-Based Education Projects - Antioch New England Institute

Horatio Colony Nature Preserve and House Museum education projects in collaboration with local schools follow place-based education guidelines: using the local environment and community to teach students academic concepts across the curriculum. Emphasizing hands-on, real-life learning, this approach helps students develop stronger ties to their community, sound environmental stewardship skills, and a heightened commitment to serving as active citizens. Each semester, Antioch graduate students bring passion and enthusiasm to the planning and implementation of innovative education projects.

The following projects with links for more detailed information are excellent examples of place-based education at the Preserve and Museum:

Colony Video Project
Cabin Restoration Project
Colony Quests
Historical Happenings
Museum Consultation
Natural History Programs

Link: Place-Based Education Projects - Antioch New England Institute.

Introducing "Outside.In"

Outside.In is "an attempt to collectively build the geographic Web, neighborhood by neighborhood. "  How might we use this concept - or this site - in education?

From Salon.com interview with writer and Outside.In developer Steven Berlin Johnson:
The idea animating it is, there's this amazing, beautiful wave of local amateurs out there today. They're writing about their neighborhoods, sharing all this information, writing about all that passionately important stuff that makes up the day-to-day existence of people's lives right outside the zone of the family: the school down the street they're worried about, the park that maybe's going to open or not, the new restaurant that may be there.

Salon magazine interview with Outside.In developer Steven Berlin Johnson , 10/30/2006.

Handbook for Local Scanning Projects

The Mass. Studies Project at UMass Boston announces the availability of a Handbook for Public Scanning Projects. 

Based on our experience with the "Mass. Memories Road Show"", and in consultation with professional archivists and legal and technological experts, the Handbook covers the following areas:

I. Describing and Protecting Images: Archival Considerations

A. Metadata standards and applications
Author: Frances Pollitt, MLS, Consulting Archivist

B. Guide to Preserving Your Family Photos and Documents
Author: New England Archivists' Outreach Committee

II. Using and Sharing Images: Legal Considerations
Author: Christopher Cloud, JD, Consulting Attorney

III. Storing and Accessing Images: Technology Considerations
Author: Rick Mitchell, Consulting Technology Specialist

The Handbook is available online in PDF format, at www.MassMemories.org/handbook/

We hope that this handbook will be of use to other organizations considering public scanning projects.

The Handbook was created with the support of a grant from the Massachusetts Historical Records Advisory Board and the Secretary of the Commonwealth, William Francis Galvin.

1937 Schools Manuscripts Project in Ireland

The Schools' Folklore Scheme

A Valuable Primary Source for the Local Historian

In 1937, an innovative cultural heritage project was launched throughout Ireland:

"...The senior pupils were invited to participate in this work of ‘rescuing from oblivion the traditions…of the historic Irish nation.’  Fifty-five subject headings, with suggestions and guidelines, were given for collection purposes.

Fifth and sixth class pupils (eleven to fourteen year olds) were exempted from their usual weekly essay so as to allow time for written work on their folklore projects. The collecting from family and neighbours was done after school hours. This collecting was undertaken ‘at a time when television was away in the future and the seanachie was still part of the furniture of the Co. Clare fireside.’"

Link: Schools Manuscripts Project