Digital Geographic Tools in the World Literature Course
Submission Type
20-minute Presentation
Abstract
Even as the resources for teaching and learning geography have become increasingly more sophisticated and user-friendly, geography has a decreasing role in general education K-12 and post-secondary courses despite school mission statements that emphasize cross-cultural awareness, global mindedness, engaging in the world, or solving the world’s problems. This presentation explores the value and application of digital geography tools (e.g. Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Trends) in world literature or foreign language literature courses.
Start Date
5-23-2019 3:00 PM
End Date
5-23-2019 4:15 PM
Description
Blended learning is already integral to the teaching of foreign languages in the basic language program; expensive introductory and intermediate textbooks use digital learning tools to justify their price. Upper-level foreign language courses and general education world literature courses, however, use literary anthologies that may only include digital supplements for writing about texts or guided reading questions. World literature and foreign language literature textbooks rarely include maps but they may have digital timelines and glossaries, but reading “foreign” texts are often difficult precisely because students struggle to comprehend the geographic context of the literary work. Why is the Sahara significant? Where is the Sahara? As an instructor of all levels of Spanish language and literature courses, I have found that geography is an easy way for students to better understand the literary texts. Through digitally exploring the real geographies of the authors and literary characters from Spanish-speaking countries in Arica, Asia, and the Americas, students in my Global Hispanophone course have made new connections once they have had the opportunity to explore those landscapes. In my presentation, I illustrate how I employ digital geographic tools so students can visualize the presumably exotic or foreign landscape of the text they are reading for both comprehension and cultural awareness. These Google tools turn the literary texts into an ethnographic field study that encourages students to understand the world of the texts from a perspective outside their own.
Participants will be able to use these digital geographic tools in their own courses. Since they can be assessed on a smartphone, I will ask participants to access the tools and come up with ways they could use the tools to teach their content. I will have all of the resources I use on an accessible Google Site for participants to reference during and after the conference.
The structure of my presentation begins with a defense of knowing the globe to be able to engage in it, then I explore how to use digital geographic tools to meet objectives related to cross-cultural awareness and interculturality. Finally, I demonstrate how to use the tools and ask participants to play with the tools so they can brainstorm ways to incorporate digital geographic tools into their own courses.
Digital Geographic Tools in the World Literature Course
Even as the resources for teaching and learning geography have become increasingly more sophisticated and user-friendly, geography has a decreasing role in general education K-12 and post-secondary courses despite school mission statements that emphasize cross-cultural awareness, global mindedness, engaging in the world, or solving the world’s problems. This presentation explores the value and application of digital geography tools (e.g. Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Trends) in world literature or foreign language literature courses.
Comments
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1iWxwv2KlDsJaXv640No6vd65IAUBdtZH3bJPjwjZTc0/edit?usp=sharing