The Blog: A Tool in Youth

Technology Instruction and GIS

Development.
Fatima Abbas
Temple University

November 1, 2006

Presented at the Race, Ethnicity and Place

Conference of the Association of American
Geographers held at Texas State University
in San Marcos, TX
 Purpose
The following presentation addresses the
question of whether “the blog” can serve
as a tool in the development of basic
geographical skills among high school
students as well as an apparatus that
enhances the development of a community
Geographic Information System (GIS).
 Outline
• Introduction to Blogs and GIS in education

• Organization’s Background

• Methods

• Analysis

• Conclusion
 Blogs
• Websites featuring short
and dated entries in
reverse chronological
order.

• Enables commentary,
Trackback and
Permalinks

• Free hosting Software-

Typepad, Xanga and
Blogspot.
 Blogs In Education
• Publishing knowledge construction.

• Improves verbal and digital literacy.

• Enhance collaborative learning

• Contextualization of Knowledge.

• Knowledge Management.
 GIS
• System that enables
and performs
manipulation and
analysis of spatial
data.

• Warehouses spatial
and attribute data .

• Displays
geographically
referenced data in
mapped form.
 Community GIS
• Community of “non-
professionals” collects
data and constructs a
GIS, or professionals aid a
community in constructing
a GIS.

• Uses mainstream and

open-source software to
construct a GIS.
Ex.Google Earth, Nasa’s
World Wind.

• Doesn’t perform analysis.

 GIS in K-12 Education
• Tool to introduce students to spatial
analysis using project based learning.

• Enhances student collaboration and

spatial reasoning.

• Improves student’s attitudes toward

technology.
 Problems
• Software is expensive.

• Teachers lack training.

• Schools lack proper equipment.

• In 2001 only 2% of schools used GIS in

their education programs.
 Building Information Technology
Skills(bITS) ITEST Program

Three Goals

• Provide inner-city public school students with basic geography

skills and knowledge

• Create a community GIS

• Expose students to career exploration in science, technology,

engineering and math (STEM) fields
 bITS Continuation
• Three year research project funded by a
NSF ITEST Grant

• Participants are largely African American

and Hispanic students from North
Philadelphia high schools

• Comprised of three semesters. 90

students/semester.120/summer semester
 Semester Work
• Field Trips
• Lectures
• Neighborhood and
Community Maps
• Blog/weekly report
• Discussions
 Methods
• Summer 2006

• Cluster Sampling

• N= 16. 50% Female. 50% Male. Ages- 14-17

• 81.25% were African American, 12.5% Asian,

and 6.25% Puerto Rican
 Research Design
• Semi-structured individual interviews

• Analysis of blog design

• Qualitative review of GIS and Blogs

 Interview Questions
1. A. What was your previous experience with geography and map-
making?
2. A. Describe your level of comfort in building a blog.
B. Were you previously exposed to or aware of this technology?
C. Do you believe the blog enhanced your understanding of
geographical skills via your journal entries and map-building
exercises?
D. Did the blog structure your learned lessons i.e. making the
purpose of the lectures, field trips, map exercise, and other
activities seem more cohesive?
3. A. Did the program enhance or expand your understanding of
geography?
B. Did it enhance your understanding of community and/or the
facets that compose it?
C. Do you believe the development of a blog played a role in this
expansion?
 Blog Analysis
Three Criteria

1. Post of Google Earth Map

2. Post of Pictures

3. Post Descriptions
 Interview Results
Geography in High
• 69% of students were School
aware of the “Blog”
technology. Some
Geography in
44% High School
• 87.5% felt the Blog 56% No Geography
in High School

enhanced their
understanding of
Blog Ease of Use
geography. 100.00%

• 93.75% felt the Blog

80.00%
60.00%
40.00%

structured lessons. 20.00%

0.00%
Easy Medium Hard
 Question 3 Results
• 81.25% felt the program Blog increased
enhanced their understanding of
understanding of Geography
geography.
• 93.75% felt it improved 70.00%
their understanding of 60.00%
community. 50.00%
40.00%
• 62.5% felt the blog was 30.00% Students
20.00%
central to their increase in 10.00%
geographical knowledge. 0.00%
Yes No
 Blog Benefits
• Structured lessons adding a
cohesive theme to the
material.

• Ability to combine written,

digital, and spatial learning on
one page.

• Allows student’s insights into

the thought processes of other
students.

• Caters to different learning

styles.
 Student Comments
• “The Blog was useful for entries describing pictures
because it (the picture) was directly in front (of the entry)
and it was our original commentary on the blog with the
community map rather then having questions asked as
we did this semester. The Blog made the lesson more
cohesive; maps, commentary, and pictures were all on
the same page. When you read through you can see the
theme. It would be cohesive for this semester (because)
it would bring the theme together.”
• “Yes it made it seem more cohesive because I'm visual
minded so by taking pictures and seeing work it made it
easier.”
 Blog Analysis Results
• The tables correlates with Blog Development
student’s responses
regarding writing and
100%
pictures.
• Only about half of the 80%

students uploaded their 60%

Google Earth

maps to their blogs. Pictures

40%
• Student’s responses Post
Descriptions
20%
suggest some of the
undeveloped blogs 0%
Yes No
belonged to lurkers.
 Blogs and GIS
• Community GIS has roots in Critical
Cartography

• Google Earth and Nasa’s World Wind are

un-disciplining cartography
• Limited amount of academic literature on
blogs and mapping

• Services and applications combining

mapping and blogs have been growing

• Ex: Feedmap, Flickr

 Literature
• Tezuka, Kurashima, and Tanaka (2006)
used blogs to mine attribute data
regarding real-time tourism in Japan and
mapped these experiences in a GIS
• Efimova (2005) calls blogs a personal
knowledge repository
 Blogs and GIS in the Program
• Program used
Blogs as
aggregators of
attribute data for the
GIS in process.
• Enables a greater
explanation of
attribute data,
similar to a PDF for
a census tract
shapefile in ArcGIS.
 Conclusions
• Blog is a excellent medium for teaching geography by its
ability to combine spatial, visual, and written information

• Themes and structures information

• Accommodates different learning styles

• Acts as a knowledge/information warehouse

• Can be used to accompany a Community GIS

 Credits
• Sample Blog Photo
• http://searchniche.blogs.com/steven/
• GIS Photo
http://dramaticmedicine.com/gis/gis4.jpg
• Nasa World Wind Photo http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/features.html
• Google Earth Flu Map http://www.declanbutler
.info/Flumaps1/9_Images/GEMAP.jpg
• bITS Blogs and Maps
http://bits-blogger.blogspot.com/

I would like to extend thanks to Dr. Michele Masucci, Dr.Zebulon

Kendrick, Michael Rovito and Catherine Bartoli for their advice and
assistance. This presentation was made possible by funding from the
Temple University AGEP and BITS Programs funded by the NSF.
 Contacts

Fatima Abbas
Temple University
Email: Fabbas@temple.edu