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!

Mapping Out a New Methodology to Study History

Placing History, a Book and CD-ROM from ESRI Press, Shows How Geospatial Technology Helps Historians Analyze the Past 

Redlands, California—Did poor farming practices cause the Dust Bowl in the 1930s? Was yeoman farming in colonial Concord, Massachusetts, environmentally unsound? What could Confederate general Robert E. Lee see at Gettysburg from where he stood? 

Historians and history students can consider these intriguing questions and others using geographic information system (GIS) technology, said Anne Kelly Knowles, editor of Placing History: How Maps, Spatial Data, and GIS Are Changing Historical Scholarship. 

[...]

See more: "Directions Magazine: The WorldWide Source for Geospatial Technology:" Press Releases - Directions Magazine.

The Benefits of Place-based Education

The Benefits of Place-based Education.  Adapted from briefing materials for "All of a Place: A Funders' Institute on Connecting Schools, Youth and Community" prepared by John Ching and Lucy Bernholz.

An evaluation of four place-based education programs.(Reports & Research) Journal of Environmental Education - Find Articles

Link: An evaluation of four place-based education programs.(Reports & Research) Journal of Environmental Education - Find Articles.

"I - Thou" Relationship, Place-Based Education, and Aldo Leopold, The Journal of Experiential Education, The - Find Articles

Link: "I - Thou" Relationship, Place-Based Education, and Aldo Leopold, The Journal of Experiential Education, The - Find Articles.

Place-Based Curriculum and Instruction: Outdoor and Environmental Education Approaches

From the opening of article by Janice L. Woodhouse and Clifford E. Knapp:

Place-based education is a relatively new term, appearing only recently in the education literature. However, progressive educators have promoted the concept for more than 100 years. For example, in "The School and Society," John Dewey advocated an experiential approach to student learning in the local environment:

"Experience [outside the school] has its geographical aspect, its artistic and its literary, its scientific and its historical sides. All studies arise from aspects of the one earth and the one life lived upon it" (1915, p. 91).

Place-based education usually includes conventional outdoor education methodologies as advocated by John Dewey to help students connect with their particular corners of the world. Proponents of place-based education often envision a role for it in achieving local ecological and cultural sustainability (1).

This Digest reviews placebased curriculum and instruction, especially as it relates to outdoor and environmental education, and provides examples of K-12 resources and programs.

Link: Place-Based Curriculum and Instruction: Outdoor and Environmental Education Approaches. ERIC Digest..

Paul G. Theobald, Ph.D. - thoughts on placed-based ed

This introduction to a brief podcast interview with Prof. Theobald includes a nice statement of the use and importance of place-based ed.

Link: Buffalo State College - About Buffalo State - Key Facts and People - Declare yourself. - Paul G. Theobald, Ph.D..