Our Commission is going to have a meeting during ICC 2009 in Santiago de Chile. The date for the meeting will be notified later by email for all Commission members and placing the information to our website too (http://lazarus.elte.hu/ccc/ccc.htm), after receiving information by Chilean organizers. We plan that the meeting will have duration of 90 minutes. A preliminary agenda has been written, containing a brief list of themes that we plan to discuss there:
- Resuming activities between 2007 and 2009;
- Experiences organizing the Barbara Petchenik Map Competition in 2009 and discussion of rules;
- Publication of the second volume of the book entitled "Children Maps the World" in collaboration with ESRI;
- Future activities and meetings.
If any colleague has other theme to propose, please contact Commission Co-Chairs by email with your suggestions.
2. Second Volume of ESRI book on Barbara Petchenik Children's World Map Competition
The second volume of the collection entitled "Children Map the World: Selections from the Barbara Petchenik Children's World Map Competition" (containing a selection of 100 drawings sent to the Competition in 2005 and 2007) was finished during last August and at present ESRI is printing it. ICA and ESRI plan to present officially this book in Santiago de Chile, during ICC 2009 conference. Commission members could contact ESRI national representatives to inform them about the book and eventual future cooperation at national level.
3. Barbara Petchenik Competition 2009
The deadline for the actual competition was over last June. In July we contacted the eight colleagues proposed to be members of the International Judging Commission. The International Coordinators (Peter van der Krogt and Ferjan Ormeling) finished a high quality work processing all the drawings sent to the Utrecht University and making a CD with detailed information and photos of the finalist works for the Judging Commission members. By now, Judging Commission is evaluating the drawings and the winners will be announced in the Closing Ceremony of ICC 2009 in Santiago de Chile.
4. An invitation to discuss the use of maps by preschoolers in Dora the Explorer
Our colleague James Carter, from the Illinois State University, is interested to know members' opinion about this program in our respective countries. He wrote the following comment:
Three years ago I became interested in Dora the Explorer because this television program for young children uses maps in every episode. I sent a note to the members of the Commission on Cartography and Children and heard from Diah Kirana that this program is very popular in Indonesia. That comment contributed to my decision to research the topic.
I published one paper on Dora as a teacher of geography. At the ICC in Santiago I will be presenting a paper looking at Map, a character in the program and the representation of space. The use of maps in each episode is considered to be a cognitive organizer by the designers of the series.
Dora the Explorer is watched by millions of children ages 2 to 5 around the world. I am beginning to realize that young children who watch this program use maps at a far younger age than was assumed possible. Admittedly, they use maps by watching television, which may be significant.
How important is this program in teaching young children about maps? I would like to talk to anyone who is familiar with this program, or with the use of maps by preschoolers.
Jim Carter, Emeritus Professor, Illinois State University
More information on Dora the Explorer:
http://www.nickjr.co.uk/shows/dora/index.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dora_the_Explorer
6. Cartografia Escolar
The Contexto Publishing House published the book entitled "Cartografia Escolar" (School Cartography) in Portuguese language, edited by our colleague Rosangela Doin de Almeida (Sao Paulo University) and counting with the contributions of the most important Brazilian researchers within this field. Some of the aspects presented in this book: Methodology to introduce Geography in Elementary Schools, Tactile Cartography in Geography teaching, Systematization of Thematic Cartography, Learning of diagrams during Geography teaching, etc.
Colleagues interested to acquire this book can visit the website of the Publishing House (www.editoracontexto.com.br).
7. Upcoming conferences
8. Possible date for our next newsletter: February, 2010
Temenoujka Lubenova BANDROVA
Associate Professor
Department of Photogrammetry and Cartography
University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy
1, Chr. Smirnenski Blvd. 1046 Sofia
Tel: +359 887 83 27 02 Fax: +359 2 866 22 01
bandrova_fgs@uacg.bg
BULGARIA
José Jesús REYES NUÑEZ
Professor Assistant
Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics
Eötvös Loránd University
Pázmány Péter sétány 1/A, Budapest
H-1117
Tel: +36 1 372 2975 Fax: +36 1 372 2951
jesus@ludens.elte.hu
HUNGARY