Cartographic Literacy Through Object-Based Learning: The Value of Primary Sources in Instruction

Abstract

The current generation of students has grown up in a visually-saturated culture and are generally savvy about engaging with imagery. In the Map Library at the University of Colorado Boulder (UCB), we build on students’ graphical literacy by using maps in instruction sessions. Many of the maps we use in classes are primary sources. Such maps exemplify production techniques, purposes, and cultural attitudes of the era in which they were created. As physical objects, maps offer a contrasting interactive experience to the students’ daily digital environment, and object-based learning techniques are incorporated in the instruction sessions. Maps usually present an argument or particular point of view, and the analysis of maps as an information format encourages students to critique the maps’ propositions. This article will discuss how instruction sessions at UCB’s Map Library use primary source maps to supplement curriculum and student research, as well as how maps make personal, fictional and historical narratives come alive with an added geographic setting. We will also discuss how the use of maps as objects increase student’s cartographic literacy and understanding of their world and society. The procedure for designing a Map Library instruction session will also be described.