Investigating the Virtualized Cultural Heritage of Piri Reis with Social Participation and Map Literacy Skills

Abstract

In this study, it was aimed to transfer Piri Reis’s 1513 world map into an interactive and dynamic environment to reflect social participation and map literacy skills of pre-service social studies teachers, to determine the reflection of the skills from the views of the pre-service teachers and the information they have structured in the database. In this sense, the virtualized map was integrated into a geographical information system application developed by the researcher. This research, in which a qualitative research approach was adopted, was carried out as a case study. The views of the pre-service teacher’s skills and environment were evaluated with content analysis, and their reflection skills were evaluated with descriptive analysis. Eighteen students determined with the maximum diversity sampling method participated in the study, which lasted for two and a half months. It was concluded through the findings obtained from the views of pre-service teachers that social participation and map literacy skills could be reflected in various dimensions, the map could be interpreted collectively with social participation and map literacy skills, and cultural heritage could be transformed into a form of instructional technology. It was determined that the general views of pre-service teachers regarding this environment were mostly positive and the environment beneficially enabled them to discover cultural heritage, developed various skills and gave different perspectives. Still, some pre-service teachers remained passive in the environment. In the findings obtained from the database of the virtualized map, it was determined that the sub-dimensions of map literacy with social participation skill were mostly reflected in the form of understandinginterpreting symbols, finding location - coordinate, measuring distance, finding direction, reading - interpreting a map, but not reflected in using scales.