Teaching Resources
Author: Tanya L. Roth
Keywords: China, Geography, Instructional Technology, Japan, Northeast Asia, World History
How to Cite: L. Roth, T. (2018) “Teaching East Asia with GIS”, Education About Asia. 23(3). doi: https://doi.org/10.65959/eaa.1565
Twenty years ago, taking a trip meant gathering the right maps or tracing the itinerary in an atlas. In the classroom, maps have long gone hand in hand with studying history: globes, wall-mounted maps, projected maps—these static images also help students in their journey to understand how events unfold across time and space. Maps are important visual reference points: with them, students can see where history happened and better understand why; for example, maps showing the earliest construction of the Great Wall of China allow students to explore questions about the placement of the wall and its construction. But maps are just the beginning: this essay offers resources and information about using interactive maps—geographic information systems (GIS)—to teach East Asia. While static images showing physical or political geography are important and always have been, today we use dynamic, interactive maps every day that help us make sense of the world around us in new ways. With a few taps, we can find the quickest route anywhere, using real-time data fed into apps like Waze or Google Maps. GasBuddy lets users find the cheapest gas in any given area, while Yelp offers a selection of restaurants or other businesses close to where users are. On any given day, many of us use maps that are a far cry from the basic paper atlas that used to live in the car to help find the right roads between point A and point B. Today’s maps are robust GIS—maps that combine endless types of data to help us better understand our world. The Emergence of GIS There is nothing particularly new about GIS; even two-dimensional maps make use of multiple layers of data, such as roads, boundaries, and physical features. In the 1850s, English physician John Snow became the first person to successfully trace the source of a cholera epidemic to a neighborhood well. His work not only marked significant advancement in epidemiology, but also created one of the early examples of GIS in action. Snow mapped the location of cholera outbreaks in a certain neighborhood, then noticed that the affected households used the same water pump. His work helped scientists determine that cholera is a waterborne disease, and Snow’s map remains a significant example of how layers of data (locations of cholera patients, common water sources) combined with geography can help solve important issues.1 Computers and the internet have made it possible to create dynamic geographic representations, pulling data from live sources (apps such as Google Maps or Waze) on anything imaginable. Maps no longer have to be static; with the right tools, users can click layers on and off to show specific types of information that allow them to investigate any given topic. Today, businesses, organizations, and governments around the world are using GIS to address a variety of things, such as handling the opioid crisis, modeling wildfire trajectories, and managing day-to-day tasks in the power industry; visit http://www.esri.com/esri-news to learn more about current projects around the world. GIS tools are used today in many industries and by local governments; it’s also not uncommon to see GIS in STEM classrooms. However, historians have been using GIS tools for many years to perform historical analysis, uncover patterns, and ask new questions about the past. Harvard’s China Historical GIS site (included in the next section, “Applications for Teaching East Asia”) offers interactive tools for exploring Chinese history. Stanford’s Spatial History Project, while not specific to Asia, also highlights the ways historians are using data and maps to explore history in new ways through physical space. Applications for Teaching East Asia For those teaching Asian history, there are several existing resources that make it possible to integrate GIS with premade items such as GeoInquiries and Story Maps. Teachers who want to create their own materials can find online educational materials to learn how to build their own maps. Additionally, teaching students how to build their own maps is very manageable with the right planning. If you are new to GIS, it’s OK to start small; preexisting materials offer the most user-friendly ways to integrate GIS if you have never used it before. These are great starting points to integrate GIS successfully. Links for resources described in this essay are available in the endnotes. Story Maps combine maps, images, and other multimedia to create geographically based narratives. ESRI, the developer behind ArcGIS (the most well-known GIS software), offers a gallery of Story Maps from various sources. Story Maps are excellent to use with students because they provide a guided exploration of a topic. They can be great introductions to the idea of using space and place to better understand East Asia and its history. In “The Two Koreas,” users read about the history of the divide between North and South Korea.2 This Story Map uses images, graphs, a timeline, and dynamic maps of Korea to explain how these two countries became what they are today and how they differ from one another. “Exploring China’s Burgeoning Highways,” is more specific and less history-oriented, but offers a good example of how many Story Maps use ArcGIS online to plot information points (see opening image in the story).3 In this Story Map, users learn more about the recent growth of China’s highway system and see satellite imagery of specific areas. The China “Ghost Towns” map likewise offers a glimpse into more recent issues in China.4 On this Story Map, users can see where the housing bubble has left empty housing developments and districts. The Story Map “An Infamous Day” traces the bombing of Pearl Harbor, providing details of the Japanese crews and their journey, the three waves of the bombing, and the aftermath.5 This map highlights how historical video and images combine with maps to tell this story in a new way. For several years, Paul Salopek of the National Geographic Society has been retracing the Silk Road across Asia. His Story Map “On Foot in the Path of the Silk Road” traces this experience.6 For students who have only ever read about or seen a map of the Silk Road, Salopek’s photographs and videos offer a new way to understand the challenges of trade over the Silk Road. While much of his Story Map focuses on Central Asia, he connects the ancient Silk Road with its related routes and with trade and globalization today, including China’s Belt and Road Initiative. All these Story Maps are good initial entry points for exploring GIS in the classroom. Students might explore these Story Maps as homework, or in small groups or pairs in a classroom. To dive deeper, move into GeoInquiries, which provide fifteen-minute guided explorations with students. Although GeoInquiries are designed to be led by a teacher on a projected screen, it is also possible to let students move through GeoInquiries on their own or in pairs. GeoInquiries are a wonderful teaching tool because they offer hands-on analytical engagement: with these activities, students don’t just view the map and read the information—they analyze and look for patterns. For a full list of GeoInquiries arranged by subject area, visit https://tinyurl.com/y8bq9j6s.