In mid-March, the spatial@ucsb research center launched a new web site, http://www.teachspatial.org, a collaborative wiki-like portal to serve undergraduate instructors interested in spatial thinking. Users of the site can add teaching resources and links of interest, create blog entries, participate in discussions and pose questions, suggest new source documents on spatial concepts, and present their own theoretical frameworks about core spatial concepts, spatial thinking, and pedagogy.
The idea for the site emerged from the multi-disciplinary Symposium on a Curriculum for Spatial Thinking, attended by ten instructors from different disciplines in June, 2008. Hosted by the University of Redlands, the meeting was organized by Mike Goodchild, Don Janelle, and Diana Sinton. Other participants were Kate Beard-Tisdale (Spatial Information Science Engineering, Maine), Marcia Castro (Global Health and Population, Harvard), Jeremy Crampton (Geosciences, Georgia State), Phil Gersmehl (Geography, CUNY Hunter), John Kantner (School of Advanced Field Studies, Santa Fe), Steve Marshak (Geology, Illinois Urbana-Champaign), and Jo-Beth Mertens (Economics, Hobart and William Smith).
The initial launch of the site was seeded with extensive work on source documents for concepts in spatial thinking and some teaching resources and links of interest. Working closely with spatial@ucsb Program Director, Don Janelle, grad student Karl Grossner designed and built this initial version and is coordinating its further development. They will continue building the documentation of spatial concepts from many more disciplines. Additional research goals include measuring and visualizing the centrality of spatial thinking and providing an alternative interface for organizing the ESRI ArcToolbox, based on cognitive and pedagogical principles. The site is expected to expand and become a valuable contribution to the growing community of interest focused on spatial thinking in education at all levels.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to Karl Grossner for contributing this article
