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USING AN ANIMATED GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF SECONDARY EDUCATION

OF HISTORY IN AMERICA

A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY

IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE

By Brett E. Matney

NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY MARYVILLE, MISSOURI

APRIL, 2008

USING GIS TO IMPROVE HISTORY EDUCATION

Using an Animated Geographic Information System

to Improve the Quality of Secondary Education

of History in America

Brett E. Matney

Northwest Missouri State University

THESIS APPROVED

Thesis Advisor Date

Dean of Graduate School Date

Using an Animated Geographic Information System

to Improve the Quality of Secondary Education

of History in America

Abstract

This study was done to determine if an animated GIS can help enhance the

educational experience for American history students in our public schools. The purpose

was to show that GIS could help alleviate three problems facing our society today. Those

problems are that geographic education is lacking, traditional teaching methods neglect

visual learners, and the average child today has a short attention span. A project was

created with ArcMap and ArcGIS Tracking Analyst designed to present a history lesson

on the American Revolution to an eighth grade history class. The presentation was given

along with pre- and post-tests to determine if the presentation helped them understand the

information better. A control group class was given an alternate PowerPoint presentation

to compare results. The data showed no difference, but there were many issues with the

presentations. More research on the subject is needed. A questionnaire was also given,

and many positive conclusions regarding the value of GIS as a teaching tool can be

derived from these questionnaires. The majority opinion is that GIS could be a valuable

teaching tool used in American history classrooms. The significance of this study is that

the aforementioned problems are hindering the education of our society and GIS could be

the answer.

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Table of Contents

Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii

Table of Contents............................................................................................................... iv

List of Figures ................................................................................................................... vii

List of Tables ................................................................................................................... viii

Acknowledgements............................................................................................................ ix

Introduction..........................................................................................................................1

Research Objective ..................................................................................................1

Rationale ..................................................................................................................2

Significance..............................................................................................................2

Background..............................................................................................................3

Study Area ...............................................................................................................4

Limitations ...............................................................................................................4

Order ........................................................................................................................4

Literature Review.................................................................................................................5

Introduction..............................................................................................................5

The Deterioration of Geographic Education............................................................5

The Importance of Geographic Knowledge.............................................................7

Attempts to Improve Geographic Education ...........................................................8

Future Actions Needed ............................................................................................9

Status of History Education ...................................................................................10

The Importance of Historical Knowledge..............................................................10

iv

Attempts to Improve Historical Education ............................................................11

Different Opinions on Learning Styles ..................................................................12

Descriptions of the Three Different Learning Styles.............................................12

Auditory Learners ......................................................................................12

Visual Learners ..........................................................................................13

Kinesthetic Learners ..................................................................................13

Making Learning More Visual...............................................................................15

Future Considerations for Different Learning Styles.............................................16

Attention Spans of Today’s Youth ........................................................................16

History of GIS as a Teaching Tool ........................................................................17

The Value of Using Geography to teach History...................................................18

The Value of Using GIS to Teach..........................................................................18

Previous Research on Using GIS as a Teaching Tool ...........................................19

Conceptual Framework and Methodology.........................................................................21

Overview of Methodology.....................................................................................21

Data Sources ..........................................................................................................22

Data Used...............................................................................................................22

Research Methodology ..........................................................................................26

Statistical Tests ......................................................................................................47

Limitations of the Methodology ............................................................................48

Analysis Results and Discussion .......................................................................................49

Introduction............................................................................................................49

Statistical Results ...................................................................................................49

v

Questionnaire Results ............................................................................................63

Analysis of the Presentation Issues........................................................................65

Analysis of the Relationship between Results and Study Issues ...........................69

Conclusion .........................................................................................................................71

Appendices.........................................................................................................................77

References..........................................................................................................................79

vi

vii

List of Figures

Figure 1: Rectifying the Scanned Map ..............................................................................23

Figure 2: Beginning of Presentation ..................................................................................28

Figure 3: Beginning Sequence ...........................................................................................29

Figure 4: Pre-War Events...................................................................................................30

Figure 5: Pre-War Events Continued.................................................................................31

Figure 6: Using Bookmarks to Change View....................................................................32

Figure 7: Beginning of the War .........................................................................................33

Figure 8: Nathan Hale’s Last Words .................................................................................34

Figure 9: Philadelphia/Saratoga.........................................................................................35

Figure 10: Philadelphia/Saratoga Continued .....................................................................36

Figure 11: War Out West...................................................................................................37

Figure 12: War Out West Continued .................................................................................38

Figure 13: Using Bookmark to Change View to the South ...............................................39

Figure 14: War Turns to the South ....................................................................................40

Figure 15: Frontier Militia Get Big Victory ......................................................................41

Figure 16: Moving Through North Carolina .....................................................................42

Figure 17: Cornwallis Heads North ...................................................................................43

Figure 18: Converging on Yorktown.................................................................................44

Figure 19: End of the War and Presentation......................................................................45

List of Tables

Table 1: Both Statistical Studies Mean and Standard Deviation .......................................50

Table 2: Variance Test of GIS vs. Non-GIS Results .........................................................51

Table 3: t-Test of GIS vs. Non-GIS Results ......................................................................52

Table 4: Variance Test of Hour 6 vs. Non-GIS Results ....................................................54

Table 5: t-Test of Hour 6 vs. Non-GIS Results .................................................................55





Table 10: Variance Test of Hour 7 vs. Non-GIS Results ..................................................61

Table 11: t-Test of Hour 7 vs. Non-GIS Results ...............................................................62

viii

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to thank Mr. Chet Owens for providing me the

base data to formulate this project, and for allowing the use of his students as research

subjects.

I would like to thank my father, Mark Matney, for providing valuable insight into

different teaching methods and students’ learning styles.

I would like to thank Shafer, Kline & Warren, Inc. for providing me the software

and hardware to accomplish this project.

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1

Chapter 1: Introduction

Research Objective

Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a teaching tool has inspired

much debate since GIS with user-friendly interfaces became commercially available and

accessible to novice users in the early 1990’s (Demirci 2008). There is much debate on

the utility of GIS as a teaching tool because it is difficult to quantify the value of using

GIS to teach. A study in 2000 at Ligon High School in Los Angeles supports the notion

that using GIS to teach history helps to improve the retention of knowledge (Alibrandi

and Sarnoff 2006). However, very few studies like the one done in Los Angeles have

occurred. Finding data on the value of using GIS to teach history is very difficult due to

the lack of research done. Finding data on using animated GIS to teach is even more

difficult as very little has been done in this specific area.

The purpose of this research is to attempt to bring focus to the situation and to

answer the question: can an animated historical GIS database be used to advance

education of history in our public schools?

This thesis project was done to support the Ligon study with more research. A

presentation was given to an eighth grade history classroom using GIS to teach a lesson

on the American Revolution. The objective was to show that taking the extra step and

animating the GIS would enhance history education even more. If nothing else, the hope

was to reinforce the study by Alibrandi and Sarnoff (2006) and demonstrate that GIS can

really make a difference in the retention of historical knowledge.

Rationale

The rationale, or justification, for this question is based upon three separate, but

intrinsically linked, observations. None of these observations can be fully proven, but all

of them are supported with multiple sources in the literature review in Chapter 2. The

first observation that justifies this research is that history and, to a much greater extent,

geography education in this country is severely lacking. “Geography as a school subject

and as a university discipline in the United States is, to put it mildly, underrepresented”

(de Blij 2005, 14).

The second observation is that traditional teaching methods favor students who

learn mostly by auditory means, and neglect students who learn better through visual and

kinesthetic means. “Many academic situations are auditory, so in many classrooms this

type of learner does well. When the teacher instructs and gives the class verbal

directions, has class discussions on a regular basis, and asks questions to clarify the

content, the student with verbal strengths has an advantage” (Fuller 2004, 45).

The last observation that justifies this research is a general lack of attention span

of today’s youth. This is generally due to all of the technological advances in recent

years. The average child has to be presented information in a much more vibrant,

exciting way. GIS can be the tool that allows us to reach children in a new and exciting

way.

Significance

The significance of this study lies in the importance and value of understanding

both history and geography. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to

repeat it.” - George Santayana (Andrews, Biggs, and Seidel 2006). Those famous words

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are the essence of history education. They speak to the heart of why it is important for us

to know what has occurred in the past, so that we may learn from our mistakes.

Understanding how cultures and societies are different from place to place is just

as important as knowing how things have come to be the way they are. Knowing

geography means knowing the world as it truly is. As we learn geography, we develop

an understanding of other people, and are more capable to deal with the conflicts and

clashes that plague our world today. It is also vital to understand how our human

interactions affect the environment and vice-versa. All of this comes from developing a

better understanding of geography.

Background

Herschel Sarnoff is a history teacher in the Watts section of Los Angeles. Due to

the hostile nature of the neighborhood in which he teaches, it is not an area that is prone

to children succeeding at high levels. With his initiation of advanced techniques, mostly

GIS, he has been able to really connect with his students, and they are thriving. Alibrandi

and Sarnoff (2006) detailed a project that Sarnoff’s students did in developing their own

GIS databases to try and answer a hypothetical question of whether or not the South had a

chance to win the Civil War, depending upon whether there was foreign intervention or

not. By being hands on with GIS and history, the students learned the material much

better than normal. The authors documented how using GIS helped the students create

mental maps that come in to focus the more they understand the space-time continuum.

All historical events have geographic bases (Alibrandi and Sarnoff 2006). The work

Sarnoff has done is crucial to the underlying principle of this research project, or at the

least it reinforces the project.

3

Study Area

The American Revolution and the area where it occurred were chosen as the

historical event and study area for this research. The chronological order and geographic

effects that the war’s battles and events had on one another can be difficult to visualize,

which can hinder understanding of the war. The American Revolution is important to

understand because after the war, events transpired throughout the world that led many

other countries to follow the United States’ lead in the practice of democracy.

Limitations

There were many limitations to the research. Five different classrooms were

presented to, totaling 110 students, but to truly get a feel for the effects of GIS, one would

have to sample a much larger number of subjects. Also, just because a student

remembers something that was presented to them a few moments before doesn’t

necessarily mean they will retain that knowledge long-term. Another limitation to this

project was my inexperience as an educator, which could have impacted the clarity of my

presentation.

Order

Chapter 2 of this thesis is the literature review, which lays out the basis for the

research. There are many underlying factors for this research, and the previous research

and observations that others have done is laid out in this review. Chapter 3 describes the

methodology that was used and details the steps taken to fulfill the research objectives.

Next, Chapter 4 presents the analysis and observations of all of the results and findings

from the research. Finally, Chapter 5 documents conclusions, based on the analysis and

experiences within the research process.

4

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Introduction

Before reviewing literature on using GIS to teach history, this chapter reviews

literature on the three observations that are the basis for this research. First, the status

and shortcomings of history and geographic education are discussed. Then, different

learning styles are documented and discussed, and the shortcomings of modern teaching

methods with regard to learning styles are documented. Finally, the lack of attention

spans in today’s youth is documented. After the background for the research is

substantiated with credible sources, the previous research on the subject is documented.

Very little has been done specifically with regard to using GIS to teach history; however,

many similar ideas have been supported. These ideas include using geography to teach

history, and using GIS as a teaching tool in general. These concepts can be pieced

together to support this research.

The Deterioration of Geographic Education

The first observation that justifies this research is the deterioration of geographic

education in the United States and the catastrophic effects this has had. Up until around

1948, geography was held in the utmost regard within American academia (Dobson

2007). Geographers were vital to the early expansion of our country and the important

geopolitical actions of the early half of the last century (the creation of the United

Nations) (Dobson 2007). “Soon after World War II, however, geography was purged in

the United States, and the impact continues today” (Dobson 2007, 1).

Through the 1950s and 1960s geography maintained some of its earlier status, but

was still in a slow decline (de Blij 2005). The turning point came when “social

5

engineers” got a hold of it and changed things in a way that spelled doom for the

discipline in K-12 education (de Blij 2005). “Professional” educators decided to combine

history, government, and geography into a new subject called social studies, because they

thought this was a superior way to teach geography (de Blij 2005). Geographers and

historians alike worried that their disciplines would be purged with this eclectic teaching

method, but geographers fought the trend (Thornton 2007). Historians embraced the

movement and made sure that history became the dominant thread of social studies

(Thornton 2007). Social studies teachers became more history teachers than anything

else (Thornton 2007). University history departments were the ones preparing future

social studies teachers; consequently, geography became an afterthought to history within

the social studies curriculum (Thronton 2007).

As a result, the K-12 curriculum in the United States is practically void of

structured geographic education (Dobson 2007). The idea of earning a college degree in

geography is foreign to most students (Dobson 2007). This has left most Americans

geo-illiterate. “Although U.S. troops have been on the ground there since 2003, as of

2006 only 37% of young Americans could find Iraq on a map” (Thornton 2007, 535).

Surveys have shown that even educated people have severe problems understanding map

usage (de Blij 2005). “At one college, only 42 percent (of students) could correctly name

Mexico as our southern neighbor” (de Blij 2005, 17). The effects go beyond these

appalling statistics. The shear lack of a basic understanding of general geographic

knowledge underlines the more important shortcomings of the public’s lack of

knowledge of geo-spatial interaction between humans, the environment, countries, etc.

6

The Importance of Geographic Knowledge

Most social observers and pretty much all geographers understand the value of

geographic education. Meanwhile, the people that make the major decisions regarding

geography’s place in academia still feel geography is not as vital as other “staple”

subjects, such as math or science. The priorities of policy makers have not been swayed

by the decades of findings that alert to the issues of geographic illiteracy (Thornton

2007). Geography was not included amongst the subjects being funded by the No Child

Left Behind program, even after Congress had said that geography is essential (Dobson

2007). Dobson (2007) goes on in his report to lay out certain things that geographers can

do to help persuade the “people that make decisions” into doing what is right for

geography as an academic stronghold. He says, “Tell people what geography is.” Most

people seem to think geography is just knowing place names. We must tell people “that

geography is to space what history is to time” (Dobson 2007, 2). The idea of a history

department not being included in a university is ludicrous, why isn’t it the same for

geography (Dobson 2007)? He also says we need to “lobby for a rational legislative

agenda” (Dobson 2007, 2). Without the funds to supply the movement, it will ultimately

fail.

What’s the point of trying to persuade the “policy-makers” to help in the

movement to “re-introduce” geography back into the academic fundamentals? What is

the value of this endeavor? Our national security is linked to our geographic literacy (de

Blij 2005). The world is becoming more and more competitive and our lack of

geographic knowledge puts us at a serious disadvantage (de Blij 2005). It is critical to

have intelligent geographic insights to solve geopolitical problems and to make decisions

7

about our economy and culture and many other areas of concern (de Blij 2005).

Knowledge is power in our globalizing world (de Blij 2005). The challenging times

ahead will require us to know as much as possible about our planet (de Blij 2005). In this

regard, the importance of geography has no superior (de Blij 2005).

To truly understand the importance of geographic knowledge, de Blij (2005, 12)

tells a story about a little girl, Tilly Smith, and the terrible tsunami that hit Thailand on

December 26th, 2004. Tilly was vacationing there with her parents, when she saw the

water recede. She remembered what she had just been taught by her geography teacher,

Mr. Andrew Kearney at Danes Hill Prep School in Oxshott, south of London, about

tsunamis and how they suck back the water off the beaches before they come crashing

back as a “wave of death”. Tilly told her parents and they went running up and down the

shore warning as many people as they could. About 100 people followed them to an

upper floor of a hotel nearby, and all of them survived. All of those who stayed behind

perished. The British papers declared her “The Angel of Phuket”, and rightfully so, but

they should have given a “shout out” to Mr. Kearney as well. If Tilly had been an

American, she might have perished, along with the 100 or so others she helped save.

Attempts to Improve Geographic Education

Attempts have been made to improve the state of geographic education in this

country. Over $100 million has been spent by the National Geographic Society on

professional-development seminars, building statewide networks of geography teachers,

and helping to write the recommended national standards for geography (Hoff 2002).

“ ‘The National Geographic Society's efforts have been the most important ingredient in

getting geography taught on a wider scale,’ says Sarah W. Bednarz, an associate

8

professor of geography at Texas A&M University in College Station” (Hoff 2002, 7).

But the progress the society has made is not all that apparent (Hoff 2002). The latest

NAEP states that 34 percent of fourth-graders could not write the name of the state or

district they lived in and mark it on a U.S. map (Hoff 2002). Sixty percent of fourth-

graders and 26 percent of eighth-graders did not know that Florida is a peninsula (Hoff

2002).

Harm de Blij (2005, 16) documents that Georgetown University requires students

to take a one-credit freshman course taught by noted political geographer Charles Pirtle

called Map of the Modern World. In this course, students learn about the layout of our

political world, the general patterns of geopolitical change, environmental and climactic

conditions, and resource distributions. After they graduate, they are asked to identify the

class that “pushed their knowledge forward more than any other. Year after year, this

one-hour freshman course topped the list. “Unfortunately the Georgetown remedial

model was (and still is) a rarity, not a commonplace” (de Blij 2005, 16).

Future Actions Needed

To advance geographic education in this country, De Blij (2005, 22) thinks we

should concentrate on reinstating departments of geography in our “elite” universities, as

many of them have been eliminated. He is accurate in his assessment, but without a basic

understanding of geography at the junior high and high school level, students would be

lost going into these college courses. Stephen Thornton (2007, 535) feels that “with

accountability pressures shrinking the curriculum, there is even less of a chance that

geography will take its place as a separate subject. The best solution might be to integrate

a geography strand into American history courses, which seem to hold a secure place in

9

the schools.” This is where GIS comes into play, and why it can help not only

geographic education, but history education as well.

Status of History Education

Concerning the status of history education in this country, some feel that the

“social studies trend” has crippled not only geography and government, but hindered our

teaching of history as well. “All of the social studies are in the beginning of benign

neglect,” said Peggy Altoff, the supervisor of social studies for the Colorado Springs

District No. 11 in Colorado (Hoff 2002, 9). “The NAEP 2001 U.S. History Report Card

shows a lack of proficiency. Fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-graders were tested, and the

results showed that 89% of high school seniors, 84% of eighth-graders, and 82% of

fourth-graders scored below “proficient” levels” (Paige 2003, 59). Mathew Robinson

(2000, 18) tells of some scary findings in an ACTA report called “Losing America’s

Memory: Historical Illiteracy in the 21st Century.” Apparently, a D or F was scored on

high school level history exams by 81% of seniors at the nation’s top 55 colleges

(Robinson 2002). Most of them did not know George Washington was the American

general at the battle of Yorktown (Robinson 2002). Less than 25% of them knew the

“Father of the Constitution” was James Madison (Robinson 2002).

The Importance of Historical Knowledge

To understand why we must rectify the current state of history education in this

country, we must understand the importance of historical knowledge. George Walden

(Andrews, Biggs, and Seidel 2006) said, “A country losing touch with its own history is

like an old man losing his glasses, a distressing sight, at once vulnerable, unsure, and

easily disoriented.” Rod Paige (2003, 59), the U.S. Secretary of Education, thinks that

10

history education is vital to the health of our republic. He quotes Thomas Jefferson,

saying “Educate and inform the whole mass of the people….they are the only sure

reliance for the preservation of our liberty.” Thomas Jefferson also wrote, “If a nation

expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and

never will be” (Robinson 2000). An informed population was one of the key elements

America was founded upon (Robinson 2000). The problem with our ever-growing

uniformed population is that the masses are becoming unable to understand, defend or

promote the constitutional principles that have made us all free (Robinson 2000). The

educational tactics of history and citizenship must be reevaluated, in light of the almost

total ignorance of the principle of American liberty that the next generation is showing

(Robinson 2000).

Attempts to Improve Historical Education

In describing one attempt to change the current state of history education in this

country for the better, Rod Paige (2003, 59) said the U.S. Dept. of Education has a

Teaching American History program that provided nearly $100 million in the 2003 fiscal

year alone. It promotes the teaching of American history as its own subject in elementary

and secondary schools. It gives awards to local school districts that establish partnerships

with postsecondary institutions, non-profit history organizations, libraries, or museums.

This has helped, but we must be “forward-thinking” to help fix this problem, and that’s

where GIS can help. By “injecting” GIS into our history classes we “would not only

increase the amount of significant geographic content taught but also enrich the history”

(Thornton 2007, 538).

11

Different Opinions on Learning Styles

The second observation that justifies this research is that GIS appeals much more

to visual learners, and somewhat more to kinesthetic learners as well, than traditional

teaching methods. Today, many people feel that learning styles are genetic for the most

part (Lemire 2000). Teachers must learn to adapt their teaching methods to adhere to all

three of the “general learning styles”. “What was once the forum for the classic Professor

personality now demands a combination of three very different personae to address the

diverse learning styles of contemporary students” (Majstorovic 2001, 1).

Descriptions of the Three Different Learning Styles

Sheri Fuller (2004), an author, speaker, and educator at every level from

elementary to college, wrote a book entitled Talkers, Watchers, & Doers in which she

catalogs and details these three distinct learning styles. She also thinks that learning

styles are more biologically based. She compares children’s distinct learning style to

over-the-air network television. One station tends to usually come in much clearer than

the other two.

Auditory Learners

The first learning style that Fuller (2004) describes is auditory. These children’s

strengths lie in their abilities to hear explanations and talk about the information. They

follow oral directions easily and are quick to answer their teacher’s questions. They are

also the children who tend to talk too much in school. They tend to move their lips or

whisper when trying to memorize facts. They need to verbalize everything and hear

information and then say it to themselves in order to learn it. Most importantly for this

discussion, they maintain focus just by listening in a class lecture without having to be

12

actively involved. When it comes to driving directions, they prefer clear, written

directions.

Traditional lecture and discussion teaching methods tend to favor the auditory

learners. Fuller (2004) describes her own school experience as enjoyable, because she

was in fact an auditory learner, and was good with all of the oral instructions and writing.

“At the junior high and high school level, teachers emphasize verbal skills” (2004, 110).

“But kids whose strengths don’t fit in the school system wonder about their worth and

often experience frustration in the classroom” (2004, 111).

Visual Learners

One of those learning styles that tend to struggle in school a bit is the visual

learner. Fuller (2004) says that visual learners tend to learn best by picturing something

in their mind and maintaining a mental image of it. They tend to have great imaginations

and love to draw. They sometimes get labeled as “daydreamers” for their lack of focus in

the traditional educational environment. If there is no outline or visual attention-getter,

they lose focus easily. They tend to like seeing data in graphs, diagrams, and pictures.

They are usually good test-takers, and tend to excel in math. They are best following

instructions when there is a list to accompany them. When it comes to driving directions,

they prefer maps. Teachers sometimes get irritated with the visual learner for “not

listening” to oral instructions. Typically, they are listening, but they need some sort of a

visual or graphic representation to properly process the instructions.

Kinesthetic Learners

Visual learners often struggle with school, but typically there are enough visual

learning devices put in place for them to not fail completely. The same cannot be said for

13

the last learning style, kinesthetic. Fuller (2004) states that kinesthetic learners need to

get their muscles, movement, and touch involved in learning. They have a hard time

learning without some sort of action associated with it. They definitely learn more by

experience and trial and error. They tend to be better athletes than the other two learning

types. They also tend to be much better at taking things apart and putting them back

together. When driving somewhere, they prefer to “feel” their way, as they tend to have

a better natural sense of direction.

Kinesthetic learners are “the most at risk for frustration at school and home

because the majority of instruction, and many of the tasks and testing, are auditory and

visual” (2004, 63). They tend to be labeled as “trouble-makers” at an early age, and are

often the first to drop out of school. Mark Matney, my father, has dealt with kinesthetic

learners for many years in both a positive and negative way (Matney 2008). He has been

a teacher for thirty years, the last twenty-one at Liberty Public High School in Liberty,

MO. Of those twenty-one, he spent the first ten years teaching remedial math to tenth-

graders. There were probably a few auditory learners in his classes, but the majority of

them were kinesthetic learners. Math tends to be a very visual subject, appealing mostly

to visual learners, and it was difficult for him to teach children that, for the most part,

didn’t want to be there, had trouble processing the information without some sort of

action involved, and didn’t really care. Many of these children had already become

“trouble-makers” at this stage in their lives, due to years of “educational neglect”. Then,

at the beginning of the 1996-1997 school year, an opening came up for a new Industrial

Technology Teacher. Most teachers have side jobs in the summer to supplement their

income, and Mr. Matney had always been a mechanic. So, they offered him the position.

14

After becoming an Industrial Tech. Teacher, he found it fascinating that he was getting

essentially the same type of children in his classes that he had before, the “trouble-

makers”, but the educational environment was totally different. Because he was now

teaching something that was very, very “hands on”, these children that had never cared

about school were suddenly paying close attention and excelling. He has helped many

students who were serious dropout risks, and got them into very good trade schools, and

many have gone on to very successful careers (one is even working on nuclear

submarines for the US Navy). He has also connected with his students like never before.

Much of this can also be attributed to his excellent ability to connect with children, but

the match-up of teaching a subject that is mostly kinesthetic with children who are mostly

kinesthetic learners should also be given some credit. This is a prime example of how

presenting information in a way that connects with a particular learning style can really

enhance the learning environment.

Making Learning More Visual

Not all children can be “pigeon-holed” as one singular type of learner though.

“Some kids-about 30 percent-operate out of a blend of two or three strengths” (Fuller

2004, 27). Due to this “hodge podge” of learning styles teachers are faced with, we must

find ways to connect with all three at one time. We must inject more visual and action

learning techniques into our teaching methods. Dr. James H. Madison (2004, 65),

professor of History at Indiana University, claims that most of America’s youth are visual

learners. Dr. Madison states (2004, 65) “Never walk into a classroom without a picture.

It is one of the few “rules” of teaching I have come to believe and usually to practice.”

Putting an image on a screen grabs students’ attentions like nothing else (Madison 2004).

15

Students have been found to retain information and words better when a verbal AND

visual activity is used according to several studies at the UCLA Graduate School of

Education (Fuller 2004). If nothing else, it can be intrinsically obvious that adding visual

aids to a teaching lesson that is already auditory can remain effective to those students

who are more auditory learners, and enhance the lesson for students who are visual

learners. This research is centered on this principle, and while it was not intended to

“reach out” to the kinesthetic learners, the hope was to at least keep them interested.

Future Considerations for Different Learning Styles

How students learn may differ in the future due to an increasing mass of

information and new ways of presenting information (Schnotz 2002). Computers, and

GIS specifically, can make a big improvement in how we connect with all three learning

styles. “Computers offer many possibilities for all learning styles, and visual students

especially enjoy the stimulation” (Fuller 2004, 92).

Attention Spans of Today’s Youth

The final observation that justifies this research is that children today have very

short attention spans, and our teaching methods should take this into account. Teaching

should be done with minimal lecturing (Snell 2000). Today’s youth spend thousands of

hours on the internet and watching cable television with the images changing at an

incredible rate (Snell 2000). “My observation after teaching for thirty-five years is that

they have ‘short attention spans’ ” (Snell 2000, 482).

Sometimes these “short attention spans” are not as much the child’s fault as it is

teachers using out-dated methods. “ ‘Limited attention span’ may sometimes be a

symptom of teaching that does not connect with children’s purposes and interests”

16

(Findley 2005, 653). Children long to succeed in life and understand their world, and can

focus for hours on something they feel has apparent value and appeal (Findley 2005).

Regardless as to whether it is the student’s fault or the teacher’s fault for students not

staying focused in school, it is up to the teachers to do something to rectify the situation.

This is where GIS might come into play; the research and the examples described in this

study will contribute to determining the value of such teaching methods.

History of GIS as a Teaching Tool

The history of using GIS for teaching only goes back about twenty years. In the

early 1990s, GIS was just seen as a way to introduce students to advancing technologies,

and to get them curious about careers in science and engineering (Demirci 2008). The

use of GIS as a teaching tool has advanced after many studies revealed its value as an

educational tool as opposed to just being a “neat” technology (Demirci 2008). Despite

the advancement of the practice, it still has not taken a stronghold on the country’s

teaching methods. “According to the NRC (National Research Council), the current

generation of GIS software was ‘not designed with either children or learning in mind …

(and) there has been very little adaptation of GIS for K-12 education.’ Partly because of

this lack of adaptation and partly because of a lack of financial resources, the council

notes that by 2003, only one percent of American high schools were using GIS” (Waters

2007, 16).

All is not lost, though, as we progress with this valuable teaching method. Many

government agencies are now using GIS in some form and are posting much of their data

on websites available for anyone to download (Demirci 2008). As this continues to

17

increase, students can have more of a chance to use GIS in school projects (Demirci

2008).

The Value of Using Geography to Teach History

There is much value in injecting Geography into our History curriculum. “As

U.S. Geological Survey educator Joseph Kerski put it, ‘Geography is constituted of the

'whys' of 'where.’ ‘Therefore, spatial thinking demands that we ask ourselves (and that

our students ask themselves), ‘Why did this event happen here and not elsewhere?’ ”

(Alibrandi and Sarnoff 2006, 138). Incorporating this question into social studies

discussions or writing tasks expands students’ imagining of a landscape and the factors

that determine it (Alibrandi and Sarnoff 2006). Geography never totally explains a

historical event, but it always plays some role, and this goes unincorporated in most

history instruction (Thornton 2007). “This is just what John Dewey was getting at when

he wrote: ‘This setting of nature does not bear to social activities the relation that the

scenery of a theatrical performance bears to a dramatic representation; it enters into the

very make-up of the social happenings that form history’ ” (Thornton 2007, 537)

The Value of Using GIS to Teach

GIS facilitates both injecting geography into history and adding visual displays to

auditory teaching methods. It is also a very valuable teaching tool, in and of itself. GIS

can allow teachers in K-12 classrooms to modify maps for their own purposes as opposed

to static paper maps (Brown, Ponomarenko, and Purcell 2006). GIS allows students to

apply knowledge using advanced skills such as problem solving and synthesis, and thus

the retention rates are enhanced (Crawford, Kajs, and Sanders 2002). GIS is a powerful

tool for students because of its innate ability to create visualizations and spatial queries

18

(Baxter and Broda 2002). Students using GIS can create their own representations of the

world as they see it (Baxter and Broda 2002). They can visualize the human-

environmental relationship, especially within their own cities (Baxter and Broda 2002).

Previous Research on Using GIS as a Teaching Tool

The Colorado Geography Education Fund did a study to get teachers’ feedback on

the matter (Kerski, Linn, and Wither 2005). In the summer of 2002, they sent ten

teachers to a week-long GIS institute for educators. After that, the teachers went back to

their classrooms with GIS capabilities and used it to help teach their classes. Then, there

was a follow-up session where all of the teachers came back, plus seven more teachers

who had been using GIS in their classes already, and they all had a discussion on the

value of using GIS to teach. The teachers noted that GIS creates a more student-

centered learning environment (Kerski, Linn, and Wither 2005). They also felt that

critical analysis and higher-order thinking was enhanced using GIS (Kerski, Linn, and

Wither 2005). Students completed many of the same tasks using both GIS and paper

maps, but the difference was in the time it took to accomplish these tasks (Kerski, Linn,

and Wither 2005). Students were spending about 4/5 of their time on data acquisition and

representation, leaving them only 1/5 of their time for analysis and interpretation. The

percentages were switched using GIS (Kerski, Linn, and Wither 2005).

In the Introduction of this thesis, it was documented how Herschel Sarnoff

implemented GIS in his history classroom by making his students create hands-on GIS

reports on answering a hypothetical history question, appealing to kinesthetic learners, as

well as visual and auditory. He observed, “Students are constructing their own

understandings of the relationships of economics, geography, and policy in a historical

19

context through data analysis. This differs greatly from reading passages about the war

and is therefore an important supplement to developing historical understanding”

(Alibrandi and Sarnoff 2006, 142).

Another study was done on four fifth-grade classes at Braun Station Elementary

in Northside Independent School District (NISD), San Antonio, Texas (Brown,

Ponomarenko, and Purcell 2006). Two classes were taught plate tectonics using GIS and

two classes were taught using traditional textbook-based methods. The GIS classes were

far more attentive than the non-GIS classes (Brown, Ponomarenko, and Purcell 2006).

The questionnaire responses also indicated that the GIS classes were much more

interested (Brown, Ponomarenko, and Purcell 2006). “For example, to the question

‘What did you like least about using GIS?’ students responded with comments such as, ‘I

liked everything’ and ‘Nothing really because a lot of it is interesting’ ” (Brown,

Ponomarenko, and Purcell 2006, 25). All classes were given pre-tests and post-tests to

see how well the information was retained. The results of these tests turned out similar,

indicating that the GIS method is at least as good as non-GIS methods (Brown,

Ponomarenko, and Purcell 2006). However, on the map-based questions, the GIS class

performed significantly better on the post-test, indicating it is a superior method at

teaching the spatial components of science (Brown, Ponomarenko, and Purcell 2006).

So, even if the outcomes of this thesis study are similar in nature to the study done in San

Antonio, we can deduct from the Texas study that there is definitely some educational

value from teaching history with GIS.

20

Chapter 3: Conceptual Framework and Methodology

Overview of Methodology

The American Revolution was chosen as the historical topic for this research

because geography played a major role in the war and the war was extremely historically

significant. The school class chosen for this research was the eighth grade history class

taught by Mr. Chet Owens at Liberty Junior High School in Liberty, Missouri. Mr.

Owens’ class was chosen because he was my own eighth grade history teacher, I have

kept in contact with him, and he welcomed the idea of something different being

presented to his students.

Environmental Systems Research Institute’s (ESRI) Tracking Analyst extension

was the software used for this research. The Tracking Analyst is designed to track

hurricanes and events of that nature. It is basic temporal display software that shows

simple point features as they occur. A date field must be present in a shapefile or feature

class for Tracking Analyst to recognize it as temporal. Tracking Analyst uses this field to

display events as they occur at a rate and with the effects that the user specifies.

Tracking Analyst was used within ArcGIS ArcMap to create a temporal GIS

history presentation that was then presented to four of Mr. Owens’ five history classes.

In addition to the GIS taught classes, a PowerPoint presentation was created and

presented to the remaining history classroom as a control group to measure the usefulness

of GIS against. Pre-tests and post-tests were given in order to collect statistical data to

determine the outcomes of the project. After presenting, statistical tests were run to

determine the significance of the findings.

21

Data Sources

Four sources of data were acquired for this research. The first source was all of

Mr. Owens’ notes on the unit. His notes contained the events to cover and their

chronological order and provided an excellent base of data for this research. The second

data source was Turning the World Upside Down (Tebbel 1993). This source contained

the exact dates, locations, and associated information for the events. Maps in the book

showed troop movements for 1775-1776, 1777-1778, and 1779-1781 and colony

boundaries. Any information on war events not obtained from Tebbel (1993) was

researched online at Encyclopedia Britannica Online (2007). All other base data (oceans,

boundaries, cities, rivers) was obtained from ESRI’s Data and Maps (ESRI 2006).

Data Used

The first set of data formatted was the base data. This is the data that was the

background for the rest of the ArcMap map document. This data does not change

throughout the course of the presentation. The first of this data is a country outline

polygon shapefile acquired from ESRI’s Data and Maps (ESRI 2006). GCS_WGS_1984

was chosen as the projection of the map document’s data frame so that Great Britain and

the Colonies could be shown simultaneously with an acceptable level of distortion. The

next base layer is a colony boundary shapefile. This was obtained from using a U.S.

boundary shapefile from the ESRI data (ESRI 2006), and overlaying the boundaries from

a paper map in the book (Tebbel 1993). The maps from the book had to be scanned and

georeferenced. (Figure 1) Using a transparency effect on the polygon shapefile of the

U.S outline, and having the scanned .tif maps georeferenced in the background, I was

able to “cut out” the shapes of the 13 colonies.

22

Figure 1: Rectifying the Scanned Map.

23

The two other base layers were a significant cities point shapefile and a significant rivers

polyline shapefile. Significant cities of the war were selected and exported to their own

shapefile from the cities shapefile in ESRI’s Data and Maps (ESRI 2006). The same

procedure was repeated to produce the significant rivers. The information that

determined which cities and rivers were significant was derived from the book (Tebbel

1993).

The other set of data to be formatted was the data to be animated. These layers

were created in a geodatabase because annotation classes were required and these can

only be done in a geodatabase, not in shapefiles (ESRI 2007). The three layers needed

were a battles point feature class, a troop movements point feature class, and an events

callout annotation class. Creating the battles point feature class consisted of selecting the

points from the cities point shapefile, provided by ESRI (ESRI 2006), where the

significant battles took place and exporting those points into the geodatabase in the form

of a point feature class. Then, using the information from Mr. Owens’ notes, the book

(Tebbel 1993), and the Encyclopedia Britannica Online (2007), the associated battle

attribute information was populated, including commanders, the victors, and most

importantly the date. The troop movements point feature class was created by using the

three scanned maps from the book (Tebbel 1993) that had all of the significant troop

movements for the war on them, and placing points on these lines to represent where a

specific troop was on a particular date. In all, 435 points were placed. The dates for

these points were also obtained from the book (Tebbel 1993).

The final data layer was the significant events callout annotation class. With

annotation layers, an associated point file is needed that the annotation is based upon.

24

First, four point files were created that four annotation layers were based upon, and that

was done by exporting the selected cities (that the significant events occurred in) from the

cities point shapefile in the ESRI data (ESRI 2006). Callouts were to be displayed from

the particular cities that gave brief descriptions of the events. Then, the point layers’

attribute tables had to be populated with the descriptions of the events. The font, size,

and other label characteristics were set before exporting the labels to an annotation class.

Four different annotation classes had to be created for different reasons. From

1763 to 1775, proclamations and tax declarations coming out of England were shown.

Then, a second layer was created showing the colonies reactions to these declarations in

the same time span, so the students could see both callouts at the same time. Next, the

colonial events annotation layer had to be split into two separate layers because

annotation classes, unlike feature classes, are set to specific scales. If an ArcMap user

zooms in, a feature class’s symbology will stay the same, while an annotation class will

grow significantly larger. From 1763 to the beginning of the war, events leading up to

the war were shown at a scale that allowed the viewers to see the colonies and Great

Britain. After the war started, a scale was needed to show just the colonies so that the

students could see the battles and troop movements as they unfolded, so the second

colonial events annotation class, (the events, not battles, taking place after the war

started), had to be changed to this particular scale. After creating the point files for these

three layers and getting the scale, data, and the look of the callout to be just right, the

labels were exported to annotation classes. Then, the associated point files were removed

from the map, as they were unnecessary. A date field was created in the annotation

classes and populated with the corresponding dates for each event. The information for

25

these events was derived from Mr. Owens’ notes and the book (Tebbel 1993). Finally, an

annotation layer was created from the battles point feature class, so that the callouts for

the battles could be shown in succession as the battles took place.

Research Methodology

To use the Tracking Analyst, one has to turn the data they want to use into

temporal data by adding a date field that matches with the format that they specify. Dates

were added to the geodatabase feature classes. The temporal layers had to be re-added to

the map document file through the Tracking Analyst toolbar in order for them to be

recognized as temporal. The dates are used with the playback manager of the Tracking

Analyst which displays data based on user-entered start and stop dates, and the rate at

which events transpired. For instance, from 1763 to 1775, the animation was run at about

2 months per second, as usually there were only 1 or 2 events a year. From 1775 to 1781

though, 3 days per second was used, because the war started and significant events

happened much more frequently. Other settings in the Tracking Analyst allow the user to

specify how each layer will look when it appears. The user can specify how long each

event appears on the screen before disappearing. The user can show only the most recent

event in a layer or they can show all events in a layer as they transpire. The user can

even create a time window and specify that they want events to show for six months (or

however long is necessary) after they transpire, and then disappear.

After creating all of the temporal geodatabase feature classes and populating them

with the associated event data and bringing them into the map through the Tracking

Analyst toolbar, the next task was to make them look right so that the maps were clear

and not cluttered, and so that the information was easily digestible. The temporal

26

parameters of the annotation classes were set so that the latest event was the only one that

appeared in the map. The battles were set up so that the British victories were a red,

explosion-looking star, and the American victories were blue. It was designated that after

a battle occurred, the star remained on the map for the duration of the project, but the

battle annotation only stayed until the next battle occurred. Showing the troop

movements was the next step. Each commander’s troops were designated with a

different colored dot. Tracking Analyst has an option to allow dots to appear big when

they first happen, and then slowly get smaller until they disappear. The troop movement

dots lasted for two months; getting smaller the longer they were on the map. This

allowed the viewers to witness the troop movements in “lines” as the dots showing where

they had been get smaller over time. To find out which commander was associated with

a dot, viewers were forced to look at the legend in the table of contents.

Bookmarks were created so that the presenter could easily jump to the scale and

location they wanted the map to show as the presentation progressed. Only once did

significant fighting occur in two different locations at the same time, Saratoga and

Philadelphia, and that was easily shown in one frame. Pre-war, the map document was

zoomed out to show the colonies and Great Britain. (Figures 2-5) When the first

skirmishes occurred, the map document was zoomed into the Boston/New York area

(Figures 6-8), then to Philadelphia and Saratoga (Figures 9-10), then out west from

Pennsylvania to the Mississippi River (Figures 11-12), and then it shifted to the Southern

Colonies (Figures 13-17), and finally to Yorktown (Figures 18-19).

27

Figure 2: Beginning of Presentation.

28

Figure 3: Beginning Sequence.

29

Figure 4: Pre-War Events.

30

Figure 5: Pre-War Events Continued.

31

Figure 6: Using Bookmarks to Change View.

32

Figure 7: Beginning of the War.

33

Figure 8: Nathan Hale’s Last Words.

34

Figure 9: Philadelphia/Saratoga.

35

Figure 10: Philadelphia/Saratoga Continued.

36

Figure 11: War Out West.

37

Figure 12: War Out West Continued.

38

Figure 13: Using Bookmark to Change View to the South.

39

Figure 14: War Turns to the South.

40

Figure 15: Frontier Militia Get Big Victory.

41

Figure 16: Moving Through North Carolina.

42

Figure 17: Cornwallis Heads North.

43

Figure 18: Converging on Yorktown.

44

Figure 19: End of the War and Presentation.

45

After creating the bookmarks, the time order needed to be perfected to traverse

through the war and information as efficiently as possible. Sometimes there were

months, even years, when little action occurred, and other times multiple actions occurred

within a very short amount of time.

At that point, the map document looked appropriate on the screen. Associated

information to say to the class as ArcMap traversed through the war was written on

notecards, using Mr. Owens’ notes and Tebbel (1993) as sources.

Now that the GIS presentation was finalized, a PowerPoint presentation was

created to give to the control group. From the notecards and from the GIS presentation,

all of the pertinent historical and geographical facts were included to give to the control

group. The presentation was 35 slides long, all text, with the information being presented

chronologically. The slides were straight forward with the year as the title, and bulleted

lists of the events and movements organized by dates and months.

A single 15-question quiz (Appendix 1) was created that was intended to cover

the most significant geographical questions, as they related to the revolution. An attempt

was made to make the questions easy, without touching on the most basic of facts (such

as Philadelphia is where the Declaration of Independence was signed). A few of the

questions were multiple choice, but most of them were short answer. The purpose of the

uniform quizzes to be given before and after each presentation was to collect data to test

the thesis question.

Along with the quizzes, a questionnaire of eight questions (Appendix 2) was

created that was given out after the GIS presentations. These eight questions were

46

designed to get the student’s opinions on the advantages and disadvantages of the GIS,

and what parts of it appealed to them. The feedback was invaluable in judging the worth

of the concept.

Finally, before presenting, I gave the presentation to Mr. Owens to get his

approval before presenting to his classes, and to give him an idea of how GIS could play

into his teaching. I went to his classroom a few weeks before I was to present to his

students, obtained his approval, and discussed how I was going to present. We decided

on the first hour class being the control group, and his third, fourth, sixth, and seventh

hours being the GIS groups. The next step was delivering the presentations.

Statistical Tests

After delivering the presentations and collecting the data, a two-sample difference

of means test was used with a 95% confidence rating to determine if one method

improved the scores of the students over the other. A two-tailed test was used, which will

indicate if either one method of instruction in particular faired better than the other, rather

than a one-tailed test, which only tests if one specific sample is significantly greater than,

or significantly less than, the other. First, a null hypothesis and an alternate hypothesis

were established. The null hypothesis is that the average scores of the two methods of

instruction are the same. The alternate hypothesis is that the average scores of the two

methods are different. Also, an Analysis of Variance test had to be run, using Microsoft

Excel’s data analysis toolpak, to determine if the variances were the same. Finally, the

toolpak was used to run a two-sample t-test assuming equal variances on the post-test

results of the PowerPoint class versus all of the GIS taught classes. Because of all of the

“issues” in several of the GIS taught classes, a second set of the same tests was run on the

47

post-test results of the PowerPoint class versus the best GIS taught class (Hour 6). A

third set of tests were run on all of the remaining GIS taught classes against the

PowerPoint class to determine if the issues that occurred caused any significant

differences in the results. The issues for the other classes are discussed later in this

thesis.

Limitations of the Methodology

There were some limitations to the methods that were used. If one really wanted

to prove or disprove the worth of GIS as a teaching aid, they would have to go beyond

the limits of this thesis study and present to many more classrooms, and collect enough

data to overcome any mishaps that might happen in one or two classes. That would be

the only way to truly quantify the value of GIS. Time and money were not sufficient

enough to go that far with this study.

Time constraints also did not permit a follow up visit. To study the long-term

effects of these presentations, one would need to follow up once, or perhaps even twice,

to determine whether the information was retained or not. Also, a random visit to see if

the students retained the information would probably not determine much. The proof of

their retention will come a year or two from now in another history class, when they start

talking about the war again, and the associated information would hopefully be recalled.

The difficulty of the level of questions was difficult to determine. If they were

elementary school students, the most basic of questions would have been used. If they

were college students, the most difficult questions possible would have been used.

Eighth-graders are somewhere in between.

48

Chapter 4: Analysis Results and Discussion

Introduction

The primary statistical test that compares the PowerPoint class post-test results to

the post-test results of all of the GIS taught classes is presented first. Following those

results are the results of the same statistical test comparing the PowerPoint class to the

best GIS taught class (Hour 6). Then, all of the results from comparing the PowerPoint

class to the remaining GIS taught classes will be presented. After that, the questionnaire

results are discussed in great detail, as there was a plethora of useful feedback from these

questions. Finally, there is an in-depth look at all of the problems that occurred in each

individual class and how these problems may have affected the results.

Statistical Results

As one can see from the data collected (Table 1), the student results on the post-

test taught by PowerPoint instruction improved nearly a point better than all classes

taught by GIS. The Analysis of Variance Test was run on these results (Table 2). The F

value clearly falls within the normal distribution, so one can assume that the variances are

equal. Next, a two-sample t-test assuming equal variances was run on these results

(Table 3). The statistical test produced a t value of –0.933. Using a 95% confidence

rating, we can accept the null hypothesis and determine that while there is a clear

difference between the methods, there is not a statistically significant difference.

49

Table 1. Statistical Studies Mean and Standard Deviation.

1st Study:Powerpoint vs. All

Mean Standard Deviation

Pre-Test: 4.3818182 3.202584444 Powerpoint Post-Test: 7.4545455 3.188181639 GIS Post-Test: 6.6590909 3.663696907 2nd Study: Powerpoint vs. 6th Hour


Pre-Test: 4.4545455 3.083749948 Powerpoint Post-Test: 7.4545455 3.188181639 GIS Post-Test: 7.1818182 3.800205053 3rd Study: Powerpoint vs. 3rd Hour


Pre-Test: 4.2954545 2.937959626 Powerpoint Post-Test: 7.4545455 3.188181639 GIS Post-Test: 6.7272727 3.705617591 4th Study: Powerpoint vs. 4th Hour


Pre-Test: 4.9318182 3.150472296 Powerpoint Post-Test: 7.4545455 3.188181639 GIS Post-Test: 6.6818182 3.168090361 5th Study: Powerpoint vs. 7th Hour


Pre-Test: 3.9545455 3.450342386 Powerpoint Post-Test: 7.4545455 3.188181639 GIS Post-Test: 6.0454545 4.088046136

50

Table 2. Variance Test of GIS vs. Non-GIS Results.

F-Test Two-Sample for Variances

GIS PowerPoint Mean 6.6591 7.4545Variance 13.4227 10.1645Observations 88 22df 87 21F 1.3205 P(F<=f) one-tail 0.2386 F Critical one-tail 1.8853

51

Table 3. t-Test of GIS vs. Non-GIS Results.

t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Equal Variances

GIS PowerPoint Mean 6.6591 7.4545Variance 13.4227 10.1645Observations 88 22Pooled Variance 12.7891 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 df 108 t Stat -0.9331 P(T<=t) two-tail 0.3528 t Critical two-tail 1.9822

52

There were certain “issues” in three of the four GIS classes, so the same tests

were run comparing the post-test results of the one good GIS class (Hour 6) with the

PowerPoint class. As can be seen from the resulting data (Table 1), the scores were

virtually the same. After running the same tests again, the Analysis of Variance tests

(Table 4) produced an F value within the normal distribution, so they were the same. The

resulting t value (Table 5) was –0.258, much less than the first test, and clearly within the

normal t-distribution. So, again with a 95% confidence rating, we can accept the null

hypothesis and determine that, with this case, there is no significant difference between

the scores.

53

Table 4. Variance Test of Hour 6 vs. Non-GIS Results.


GIS Hour 6 PowerPoint Mean 7.1818 7.4545Variance 14.4416 10.1645Observations 22 22df 21 21F 1.4208 P(F<=f) one-tail 0.2138 F Critical one-tail 2.0842

54

Table 5. t-Test of Hour 6 vs. Non-GIS Results.


GIS Hour 6 PowerPoint Mean 7.1818 7.4545Variance 14.4416 10.1645Observations 22 22Pooled Variance 12.303 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 df 42 t Stat -0.2579 P(T<=t) two-tail 0.7978 t Critical two-tail 2.0181

55

Finally, the same tests were run on the remaining GIS taught classes versus the

PowerPoint taught class to determine if the “issues” that occurred in the GIS classes

caused a significant difference in the post-test results. The Analysis of Variance tests

(Tables 6, 8, 10) produced F values that all fall within the normal distribution, so they

were the same. The resulting t values (Tables 7, 9, 11) were –0.698, -0.806, and -1.275

for hours 3, 4, and 7 respectively, all within the normal t-distribution. So, again with a

95% confidence rating, we can accept the null hypothesis and determine that, with this

case, there is no significant difference between the scores.

56




57




58




59




60




61



GIS Hour 7 PowerPoint Mean 6.0455 7.4545 Variance 16.7121 10.1645 Observations 22 22 Pooled Variance 13.4383 Hypothesized Mean Difference 0 df 42 t Stat -1.2749 P(T<=t) two-tail 0.2094 t Critical two-tail 2.0181

62

Questionnaire Results

The questionnaires (Appendix 2) showed a positive feedback on the GIS

presentation. Only 32 of the 88 GIS students filled out the questionnaire. In two of the

classes (third and seventh hours) there wasn’t enough time to hand it out. In the other

two hours, twelve students didn’t finish their quizzes in enough time to fill out the

questionnaire. Mr. Owens also filled out a questionnaire. Questions 1 and 2 asked

students to explain how the presentation helped them understand the events, and then the

geography, of the war better. The general outcomes of these two questions were that it

helped them visualize everything much better. A correlation can be derived between

questions 1 and 2, and question 4. Question 4 asks whether the students think they are a

visual learner or an audio learner (I should have included kinesthetic too, but that may

have been confusing to the students if they did not understand what “kinesthetic” means).

Twenty-four students answered this question; 18 said they are visual learners, 4 answered

both, and 2 students said they are auditory learners. This backs up Dr. Madison’s

assertion that most students are visual learners (2004, 65). One interesting note was that

all of the visual learners answered the first two questions in a very positive way, claiming

that the presentation helped them visualize the information much better. The two audio

students did not respond so positively. One of them said, “this presentation helped me

but it was easier to concentrate on what he (Mr. Owens) was teaching.” This auditory

person also claimed that the presentation was boring (question 8 asked to list the least

interesting part of it). Perhaps if a less monotone teacher were presenting the GIS, they

would have thought it was interesting too.

63

Question 3 asked if the students would like for history to be presented to them this

way from now on. Twenty-two students answered this question, and 14 said yes, 5 said

maybe or somewhat, and 3 said no. Again, this appears to coincide somewhat with the

visual numbers.

Questions 5 and 6 asked to list the advantages and disadvantages of the

presentation. Most of the advantages were along the lines of helping to visualize it better.

Some other answers were, “helped me remember it better”, “didn’t have to use books”,

“kept my attention better”, and “it’s more fun”. Some of the disadvantages listed were

that it was “too boring”, “too confusing”, “too much to remember”, and “too hard to

follow”.

Questions 7 and 8 asked them to list what they thought were the most interesting

and least interesting parts. The interesting parts were identified as, “seeing where the

ships were”, “the paths taken by the important people”, “the battles”, and “how they all

converged on Yorktown”. The least interesting parts were identified as, “the colors never

change”, “too boring”, “too long”, “too confusing”, “too slow”, “pre-war stuff”, and “not

knowing which dots were which armies”.

Mr. Owens had nothing but positive feedback for the presentations; of course he

also indicated that he is more of a visual learner. Along with the other visual learners, he

stated how it helped him visualize the information. He also appreciated how it helped

him understand the “flow” of the war. He thought the most interesting part was the dots

showing the troop movements.

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Analysis of the Presentation Issues

The issues and problems with all of the presentations were plentiful and obvious,

and the questionnaires can back my analysis up. The first general issue was my lack of

speaking abilities. I’ve never been good in front of a crowd, but the fact that I hadn’t

given a public speech of any kind in over three years had me somewhat on edge. I’d

have to say that my “flow of speaking” was much better with the PowerPoint presentation

than the GIS presentations, because I’ve given several PowerPoint presentations before,

and this was my first time trying to go through a GIS presentation in front of people. The

first couple of GIS presentations were very disjointed and there were many instances of

having to stop things to figure out where I was in my order of speaking. By the third GIS

presentation (sixth hour), I had sorted those issues out. But, that may have skewed the

overall numbers toward the non-GIS presentation.

Along with a lack of public speaking abilities, I have a lack of teaching

experience. My voice can be monotone at times, and I’ve never had to try and relate to

students before and try to keep their attention. The results of this seem apparent as many

of the students commented on how boring it was. Perhaps a better study would be to

train someone who is already a good teacher in the art of GIS. They would have certainly

been able to relate the information much better than I did.

I was also limited by having an old laptop that ran the software very slowly. I

could have covered more information if my computer had not been so slow, or if perhaps

someone else could have run the GIS while I talked. Ideally, it would have been nice to

have a presentation where I just pushed a “start button”, and then talked as the GIS

traversed through the events, but because Tracking Analyst isn’t designed that way, I was

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forced to be very hands-on with the project as it was presenting so that it looked right.

This was one more factor I had to overcome.

Another issue to consider when looking at the data is how students learn at

different times of the day. Their attention spans and attitudes appeared to vary as the day

progressed, ranging from extremely tired at the beginning of the day, to overly

rambunctious at the end of the day.

Each class had their own separate set of issues that may have skewed their overall

numbers. Hour 1 was the class that was given the PowerPoint presentation. The students

in this class seemed the most bored of all of them. Several of the students had their heads

down, possibly sleeping, by the end of it. This may have been due to several factors.

The fact that it was so early in the day was an apparent factor. My already discussed lack

of teaching skills and monotone voice had something to do with the lack of attention.

Perhaps the PowerPoint method is just as effective at teaching, but not at holding

students’ attention. Whatever the case may be, despite clearly not capturing the students’

attention and holding it for the class period, the first hour class performed better on the

quizzes, although not significantly better.

One theory for why the non-GIS class performed slightly better, even though they

were not as interested, may be that while the PowerPoint method was less interesting, it

was also more straightforward. There was less information to digest in the PowerPoint,

and it was more to the point. Perhaps the GIS presentation was filled with too much

information to digest in a 45-minute class period, and the information requested on the

quizzes was more difficult to recall due to all of the added knowledge to process.

Perhaps the GIS presentation given would have worked better in a college classroom, and

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it was not eighth grade appropriate. That was difficult to judge beforehand. In

retrospect, it would have been better to leave out the events prior to the war taking place,

especially since there was no geographic movement amongst them. This would have

given the students much less information to process. It would have also made it shorter

and would have kept their interest longer. Another possible direction would have been to

leave out the troop movements. Although it was interesting to see, I’m not sure the troop

movements of the war are necessary for eighth-graders to know, and that is content that is

perhaps better left until college. None of the quiz questions had to do with the troop

movements, so perhaps they distracted the students from properly digesting the

information.

Several of the GIS classes had specific issues that caused their own data to be

skewed. Hour 3 was the first class given the GIS presentation. Not only was it

somewhat “choppy and disoriented”, but also I covered every little bit of information I

had written down, significant or not. So, not only did these students really get an

“overload of information”, but they also ran short on time at the end, and were rushed to

finish the quizzes. Most of them did not complete the quiz, although in the end the class

didn’t perform significantly worse than the PowerPoint class. In hour 4, I improved

some. I cut out some insignificant items, and there was plenty of time at the end to take

the quiz, but they still performed poorly, although not significantly more poor. Part of

this could be due to me still trying to cover too much information in the presentation.

Part of the results could have been due to it being right before lunchtime, and the students

were anxious to get some food.

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Hour 6 was the best GIS presentation given, and the numbers coincide with that.

By then, I had finally gotten the “flow” of the presentation down, and trimmed down the

information to its essential elements. The students were attentive and behaved well, and

had plenty of time at the end for their quizzes and questionnaires. Despite the clear

interest that this class had with the GIS, they still performed the same as the PowerPoint

class. Perhaps even after the GIS was “trimmed down”, it still presented too much

information and “counter-acted” the fact that the students were more interested.

Hour 7 was clearly the worst class of the day, and it showed in the results. Even

though the resulting outcome wasn’t significantly worse than the PowerPoint class, it was

by far the closest to being significantly worse compared to the other GIS classes. This

could have been due to the fact that it was the end of the day on a Friday. Whatever the

reason, the students were extremely rambunctious, and one in particular kept interrupting

me. Then, several others joined in the ruckus. I was constantly pausing to allow the

students to settle back down. Perhaps there was an excess of kinesthetic learners in this

classroom. Unfortunately, there were several students in this class that were more

interested in the GIS than any students I taught all day, and they were getting very

frustrated with the ones that were causing problems. The end result was that, like hour 3,

the students were short on time at the end, and had trouble finishing their quizzes.

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Analysis of the Relationship between Results and Study Issues

When looking at the “issues” that all of the classes had, I am not sure one can

make an accurate correlation between the quiz data and the question at hand. Another

underlying factor that has to be taken into consideration is that there was very little

incentive for the students to perform. It was a Friday, and the students were being

presented essentially review data (although in a totally un-orthodox fashion), and it

wasn’t being counted as a grade. Their only real incentives for trying to learn the

information and doing well on the quiz were personal ambition to learn and trying to help

me out (I did give them candy bars). Several of the quizzes could be unauthentic, as that

particular student might not have been taking it seriously. Due to all of these issues, it is

fair to say that while the quiz data can show a little insight into using GIS for teaching

history, the raw data is essentially inconclusive.

Despite collecting only 32 questionnaires (33 if you count Mr. Owens), the

questionnaires can show significant insight into the advantages and disadvantages of

using GIS to teach eighth grade history. Perhaps if there had not been so many issues in

the third and seventh hour classes, many more questionnaires would have been collected.

Regardless, there seem to be some obvious links between some of the positive findings in

the questionnaires and some of the findings in the literature review regarding the general

opinions on GIS for teaching. There are also obvious correlations between some of the

negative findings of the questionnaire answers and my personal assessment of my

teaching job. Visual learners seemed to appreciate the GIS, and the auditory students did

not take as much from it. The literature review supports this notion, although perhaps if a

better teacher had presented it, the auditory students would have enjoyed it as well.

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However, despite my lack of teaching skills, the visual learners still took a lot from the

GIS, indicating that a GIS method of teaching can reach the visual learners no matter how

good the teacher is.

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Chapter 5: Conclusion

The research question for this thesis is: can an animated historical GIS database

be used to advance education of history in our public schools. To test this question, GIS

and PowerPoint presentations were given to an eighth grade American history class to

determine if the GIS presentation helped students obtain historical and geographic

information better. No statistically significant results were found. If we ask a broader

question of whether GIS enhances the overall education experience in an eighth grade

American history class, the overwhelming majority opinion is yes.

The next logical question is how much value is there? Also, to what extent should

GIS be used? These are questions that can only be answered with further research

beyond this study. The issues and problems in this study made it difficult to quantify the

amount of GIS that should be used. There were too many complications in each class to

allow the data to stand on its own. Ideally, the study would have been much more

effective if a GIS programmer had designed a “free-flowing” American Revolution GIS

teaching program. Then, the programmer would work with a licensed teacher to perfect

the presentation on a faster computer. The programmer would run the presentation while

the teacher taught the class, and the students would be graded on how well they

performed, thus giving them ample incentive to pay attention and do well. I am not a

programmer or licensed teacher, however, and the resources were not available to expand

the research in these ways.

This study was not without useful findings though. Insight was gained by giving

these students and the teacher a small taste of what could be and obtaining their feedback

on the matter. It appears that most children describe themselves as visual learners.

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According to the responses from the questionnaires, the visual learners (most of the

students) want history to be presented to them this way. While the short-term effects of

using GIS may not be apparent, it seems clear that it catches most of the students’

attention much better, keeping them interested in the learning experience on a greater

scale. In the long run, this kind of attention-getter would be invaluable. So, yes, an

animated GIS can be used to advance the education of history in our public schools.

Ideally, there would be a way to use GIS to appeal to all three learning styles, and

not inundate the students with an overflow of the technology, but give them enough use

with it to peak their interest, feed them geographic knowledge, and present them with a

career choice that most of them probably don’t know exists. We may be far away from

such a dream, but perhaps not. The ultimate vision would be for programmers to design

interactive GIS history lessons for each unit (i.e. western expansion, Indian Wars, the

explorers, etc.). These lessons would be interactive, appealing to the kinesthetic learners.

GIS is naturally visual and already appeals to visual learners. Finally, they could include

hyperlinks to documents, speeches, and video clips to appeal to the auditory learners.

Perhaps every unit would include a GIS day, when the students would each work on a

computer, or as a group, going through the lesson interactively. To achieve this goal,

relatively inexpensive programs need to be created. Teachers would have to be trained in

GIS, although if the programs were done to perfection, they would be fairly self-

explanatory. The computers and software would need to be available for all of the

children. Finally, the concept and idea would have to be approved by the educational

decision-makers.

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There are three main complications standing in the way of using GIS in secondary

education and making this vision become a reality: 1) the lack of availability of essential

base elements such as hardware, software, and data, 2) the shortcomings of curriculum

materials and training of teachers, 3) bureaucratic issues limiting innovation in education

(Demirci 2008). There are other issues to be resolved, such as time for training of

teachers and the difficulty of GIS software, but these are not as major as the three issues

previously stated (Demirci 2008).

The first obstacle will be rectified by time. All technological innovations are

bulky, cumbersome, expensive, and not very user-friendly when they are first introduced.

As time progresses, though, the technology becomes less expensive, easier to use, and

more readily available to all (e.g., cell phones, computers, and high definition

televisions). GIS has already become more user-friendly over time. It is logical to

assume that GIS animation software will become less expensive and more readily

available for schools.

The second obstacle is a difficult one to overcome. Teachers who have been on

the job for years are difficult to train in new technology. Even when they are trained in

GIS workshops, the information does not always stick. Full-time teachers have a difficult

challenge finding enough time to practice using GIS after going through training

(Demirci 2008). Teaching “old dogs new tricks” may be a troublesome conundrum. The

solution is two-fold. For the teachers already teaching, this technology must be as user-

friendly as possible. As the money becomes available to purchase such technology, the

easy-to-use programs will become available as long as there are some GIS programmers

with enough insight to witness a golden business opportunity. The second method to

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infiltrate GIS into the teaching methods is to alter the source. Teachers in the field do not

have enough time to learn this technology, and many of them are close to retirement so

teaching them would be futile. Mr. Owens loved the idea of using GIS to teach, but he is

retiring this year. By the time he would be taught the technology, he would be out of

teaching. We must start requiring GIS courses for college students who are studying to

be history teachers, so that they can at least understand the basics of GIS and what it can

do for them. This is one major contribution of this research. Hopefully, this study and

others like it will be used to help justify to the powers that be that GIS should be included

in the education major’s curriculums around the country. This is the first step into

infusing GIS into the average teaching methods of history instructors.

The last obstacle is perhaps the most difficult to overcome. Getting an idea as

forward thinking as this to be accepted by those who decide the educational future of this

country is always a daunting task. This is the second contribution of this research.

Hopefully, this study will be convincing to those who read it, and perhaps they will pass

the idea on to others, and then they will pass the idea on to even more people until it

catches on like a brushfire.

The last contribution this study will hopefully have is spawning further research.

More research is needed to quantify the value of GIS for history education. Many

educators will not be convinced of the worth of GIS until they are shown conclusive, hard

data that it is beneficial. Perhaps, someone will take this study further and accomplish

even more toward the ultimate vision of expanding GIS in this manner.

Ultimately, this study was not as successful as it could have been. This study was

done with a grand vision in mind, but the software and people able to use GIS in this way

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are still years away. Plus, the amount of information and complexity of the display were

perhaps more suited for a college history classroom and perhaps too complicated and

distracting for eighth-graders. However, the value of using GIS in this manner has been

substantiated, and the lessons learned from this study are invaluable. Trying to show all

of the events leading up to and during the war was too complicated, and GIS on such a

scale would be difficult to inject into history classrooms across this country. However, if

small displays showing just specific battles or specific campaigns could be developed, it

would perhaps be the first step in the process of using animated GIS to teach history. For

instance, if one were to capture just the troop movements leading up to and taking place

during the battle of Yorktown, the small visualization would be easy to show on most

computers, and easy to convince teachers to use as a visual aid as they teach this decisive

battle. Using the screen capture software Snag-It (TechSmith 2008), one can record just

a specific area on their computer screen as the events transpire on the screen. Using

Snag-It and Tracking Analyst in conjunction, one can capture the animated GIS for a

battle and distribute it to teachers or professors as a movie scene, so that all they have to

do is play it, and pause it when they want to add their own commentary. This would

make it very easy for them to use the visual aid and to see the power of GIS. By limiting

the screen area to just the battle itself and not the toolbars or other such side

visualizations, the display would become much less distracting and “busy” as well, letting

the students focus on just the pertinent information. As teachers begin to use these small

slivers of GIS as visual aids, they would begin to see its benefits and perhaps become

more curious as to the possibilities of using the software to teach on a much larger scale.

Eventually, as the software becomes more developed and less expensive, and teachers

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become more willing to use the software, it will develop into a more versatile tool,

allowing for linking to videos and documents, and then eventually evolving into the

grander vision that was attempted with this study. This grand vision is still perhaps years

away, but the first step in the evolution of injecting GIS into our history teaching

curricula by presenting small battles and events as movie displays is perhaps not that far

away, if someone has the know how and motivation to create such displays.

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Appendix 1

American Revolution Geography Quiz

1. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 forbid colonists from settling west of what mountain range? 2. In what colony did Patrick Henry deliver his famous speech that included the phrase “Give me Liberty or give me death.”? 3. In what country was the treaty signed that officially ended the war in 1783? 4. What city was the site of the first military engagement of the war? 5. What city was the location of the battle that convinced France to join the war? 6. Where were the last major battles of the war fought? a. Northern Colonies (New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut,

Rhode Island) b. Southern Colonies (Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia) c. Middle Colonies (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland) 7. What river did George Washington cross in the middle of the night to defeat the Hessians at the battle of Trenton? 8. What water body was closed by the British with the Intolerable Acts? 9. What front was dominated by George Rogers Clark (North, South, or West)? 10. What city did General Howe refuse to leave, essentially ruining the British Grand Plan? 11. The end of the war left the western border of the U. S. as what geographic feature? 12. What colony was the last major battle of the war fought in? 13. What country sent ships that help seal off the British ships in the last major battle? 14. The first Continental Congress was held in what city? 15. What city was the first major battle, and also the biggest battle, of the war fought in?

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Appendix 2

American Revolution Geography Questionnaire

1. Do you think this presentation helped you understand the events and interactions of the Revolutionary War better?

2. Do you think this presentation helped you understand the geography of the Revolutionary War better?

3. If the means were available, would you rather have history presented to you in this fashion?

4. Do you consider yourself more of an audio learner or a visual learner?

5. What do you think the advantages are of having history presented to you in this way?

6. What do you think the disadvantages are of having history presented to you in this way?

7. What was the most interesting or informative part of the presentation?

8. What was the least interesting or informative part of the presentation?

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