Find more of my geo-literacy writings at natgeoed.org

I have stopped posting my quarterly Geo-Learning column from ArcNews on this blog site.

You can find my more recent ArcNews columns and other writings about Geo-Literacy on the National Geographic Education website at http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/topics/daniel-edelson/.  

ArcNews: Scaling Up Classroom Maps

In my Spring 2011 ArcNews column, I talk about how people respond to very large maps--maps that are big enough to walk on.

Read the column here.

ArcNews: Tricorders—The Next Tool for Geographic Learning?

In my Winter 2010 ArcNews column, I comment on the similarity of today's handheld devices and the "tricorders" imagined by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960's. I discuss the promise of one application of these current-day marvels for geo-literacy education— "augmented reality".

Read the column here.

ArcNews: Back to School with Geo-Literacy

In my Fall 2010 column, I talk about the importance of setting goals in education. I describe the goals of National Geographic's geo-literacy education initiative, which encompasses earth systems understanding, geographic reasoning, and evidence-based decision-making...

Read it here.

ArcNews: A Revolution in Geographic Education

In my Spring 2010 GeoLearning column in ArcNews, I describe a very exciting example of what geographic learning can be like. In this case, it's a project-based high school course on geographic information systems (GIS).

Read it here.

ArcNews: The Importance of Innovation in Teaching

In my Fall 2009 GeoLearning column, I discuss the importance of shedding our old images of teaching and replacing them with new models of more effective teaching.

Read it here.

ArcNews: Get Involved with Geo-Education Reform

In my second ArcNews column, I focus on opportunities for GIS professionals to take action to support geo-literacy education. We've created a new program with ESRI that encourages GIS professionals to adopt a classroom and support a teacher called the GeoMentor program...

Read it here.

ArcNews: Geographic Literacy in U.S. by 2025

In March 2009, I began publishing a regular column in ArcNews, the quarterly news magazine published by ESRI for its user community and other GIS professionals. ArcNews's circulation is more than 800,000.

My inaugural column proposed the goal of 80% geographic literacy for 18 year olds by 2025.

Link.

Education Week: Geography and 'Generation G'

On January 23, 2009, I published a commentary in Education Week. In this column, I argue that the current generation of students is our first truly global generation. I call them "Generation G". I claim that restoring geographic education in the K-12 curriculum is necessary to prepare the current generation of students for an increasingly globalized world.

Link.

Repositioning Geography Education

Geography has an image problem.

Geography is not, as its public image would suggest, about memorizing facts. Geography is something that you do. Geography is about explaining and predicting the events that occur on our planet.

This is an essay I wrote about fixing geography's image problem.

Link