Mapping in the Humanities Classroom: An Assessment of Tools and Strategies

This panel explores the ways in which digital mapping has been used in humanities courses at Wheaton College (Norton, MA). In it, we discuss the variety of tools and strategies employed by faculty and staff, assessing the effectiveness of “mapping” to meet pedagogical goals and engage students. Jade Werner, Assistant Professor of English, describes how students used mapping tools to study the novel: first, collaboratively in the classroom over a one week period (“one-shot” mapping); and second, independently in a multi-month independent study (“sustained” mapping). Drawing from successes and failures in teaching Heart of Darkness from a “spatial humanities” perspective, she assesses the usefulness of three mapping tools - ArcGIS, HistoryPin, and StoryMapJS - in furthering students’ understanding of this difficult novel. Domingo Ledezma, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies, has built a database of cartographical images of the New World. He discusses how students have used this database in conjunction with Google Earth, Mapbox, and Palladio to support their studies in Early Modern exploration. For several years, students enrolled in Leah Niederstadt’s courses have used digital mapping tools, including Google Earth, Omeka, and StoryMapJS, to trace the provenance, or ownership history, of objects in Wheaton’s Permanent Collection. She considers how well these tools met her pedagogical goals for the provenance assignment and how students evaluated both the assignment and the tools employed. In addition to the 3 faculty case studies, Jenni Lund, Senior Faculty Technology Liaison, offers her perspective on successfully incorporating maps and digital mapping tools into a liberal arts curriculum

Mapping in the Humanities Classroom: An Assessment of Tools and Strategies

This panel explores the ways in which digital mapping has been used in humanities courses at Wheaton College (Norton, MA). In it, we discuss the variety of tools and strategies employed by faculty and staff, assessing the effectiveness of “mapping” to meet pedagogical goals and engage students. Jade Werner, Assistant Professor of English, describes how students used mapping tools to study the novel: first, collaboratively in the classroom over a one week period (“one-shot” mapping); and second, independently in a multi-month independent study (“sustained” mapping). Drawing from successes and failures in teaching Heart of Darkness from a “spatial humanities” perspective, she assesses the usefulness of three mapping tools - ArcGIS, HistoryPin, and StoryMapJS - in furthering students’ understanding of this difficult novel. Domingo Ledezma, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies, has built a database of cartographical images of the New World. He discusses how students have used this database in conjunction with Google Earth, Mapbox, and Palladio to support their studies in Early Modern exploration. For several years, students enrolled in Leah Niederstadt’s courses have used digital mapping tools, including Google Earth, Omeka, and StoryMapJS, to trace the provenance, or ownership history, of objects in Wheaton’s Permanent Collection. She considers how well these tools met her pedagogical goals for the provenance assignment and how students evaluated both the assignment and the tools employed. In addition to the 3 faculty case studies, Jenni Lund, Senior Faculty Technology Liaison, offers her perspective on successfully incorporating maps and digital mapping tools into a liberal arts curriculum

Objects, Omeka, and the Oops! Factor: Two Case Studies of Collection-Based Projects at Wheaton College

In Spring 2014, Omeka was first used as part of a course assignment at Wheaton College. Students in Professor Leah Niederstadt’s Introduction to Museum Studies were each asked to conduct provenance research on an object from Wheaton’s Permanent Collection. They shared their research using Omeka, an online content management platform. Throughout the semester, students learned new technology, conducted research using primary and secondary sources, and identified images to support the provenance narratives they discovered. Lastly, they presented their research using Omeka. Assessment was conducted at the start and end of the semester to determine the project’s effect on student learning. Niederstadt used the results to revise the assignment for her Summer 2014 iteration of the course. In Fall 2014, Professor Claire Buck incorporated a similar assignment into her First-Year Seminar. Fourteen first-year students created an online exhibition of seven WWI posters from Wheaton’s collection. Online tools, including Omeka and Google docs, were used to foster collaborative learning, integrate the acquisition of research skills with new technologies, and move First-Year writing pedagogy beyond the college essay. Both assignments involved learner-centered pedagogies including object- and project-based learning and service learning, as the students’ research results were added to object files held in the Permanent Collection. Furthermore, collaboration was key to the success of these projects; and Wheaton’s archivists, Digital Assets Curator, and Humanities Library Liaisons supported each class with workshops and research assistance. This paper uses these case studies to highlight some of the challenges and successes in using Omeka and object-based learning for course-based assignments. Although we encountered challenges using Omeka, the “Oops!” factor was an intentional aspect of our pedagogy. In each course, students were faced with the prospect of failure, whether technological or research-based, and had to learn to adapt accordingly

Provenance Project for Museum Studies

Curatorial note from Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: In her Introduction to Museum Studies course, Leah Niederstadt has students conduct research on the provenance of items held in the Wheaton College Permanent Collection. The assignment involves students compiling detailed research on the objects themselves and on their previous owners before they each create a “StoryMap” that chronicles the “provenance narrative” for their assigned object. For the Fall 2015 iteration of the course, students used StoryMap JS for their projects. The application is simple enough that minimal student training was necessary. Earlier iterations of the assignment in this course and in a first-year seminar used Google Earth or Omeka, but StoryMap JS was a more desirable option for its functionality and design options