Developing an Online Center for Global Geography Education

(88)地理学世界地理学导论教科书和课程一般强调事实知识和讲授。因此，相对较少的美国学生能够直接接触到世界其他地区同龄人的观点，或者从积极的调查中受益。学生需要国际视野和高水平的地理能力来理解和欣赏这个多样化的、高度相互依存的世界。许多地理学家认为，互联网技术可以帮助建立一个致力于协作教学和跨国学习的整合的国际学者社区。尽管取得了一些进展，但这一潜力仍在很大程度上尚未开发，因为教职员工在规划和开展与国际同行的在线教学合作方面缺乏材料、培训、信息和学科协调。这个概念验证项目致力于创建这个地理学者的一体化国际社区。它致力于为全球地理教育在线中心制作、测试和传播三个教学模块。一个由纪律组织组成的联合体将在两年内参与该项目。在第一年，重点是为模块开发学生活动和超媒体应用程序。在第二年，该项目计划对这些模块进行测试，并设计中心的在线架构。在第二年的基础上，该项目将通过讲习班和远程学习培训教师，促进国内和国际采用这些模块。最终，该中心将成为以学科为基础的国际教学合作的虚拟会议场所和教育材料交流中心。

(88) GeographyIntroductory textbooks and courses in world geography generally emphasize factual knowledge and lecturing. As a result, relatively few American students get to engage directly with the perspectives of their peers in other parts of the world or to benefit from active inquiry. Students need international perspectives and high levels of competency in geography to understand and appreciate our diverse, highly interdependent world. Many geographers believe Internet technology can help build an integrated international community of scholars dedicated to collaborative teaching and multinational learning. Despite some progress, this potential remains largely untapped because of the lack of materials, training, information, and disciplinary coordination available to faculty for planning and carrying out online teaching collaborations with international colleagues. This proof of concept project is working to create this integrated international community of scholars in geography. It is engaged in producing, testing, and disseminating three instructional modules for an online Center for Global Geography Education. A consortium of disciplinary organizations is participating in the project over a period of two years. In the first year, the focus is on developing student activities and hypermedia applications for the modules. In the second year the project plans to beta test the modules and designing the online architecture of the Center. Growing out of that second year, the project will promote national and international adoption of the modules by training faculty through workshops and distance learning. Ultimately, the Center will serve as a virtual meeting place and educational materials clearinghouse for discipline-based international teaching collaborations.