When using atlases, class sets are often crucial to the kinds of activities we do. However, it would be extraordinarily expensive to replace this every 5 years, even if you don't have more than one set for the school, which you need to. Online resources would be great, but then we have to contend with access and the cost of that in the classroom environment.
What this makes me think, then, is this: is it still good practice to use historical atlases for regular use in the classroom? Certainly, it is necessary to have up-to-date information available in the library for when it is needed. When it comes to class sets, however, is it better to have something than nothing?
Realistically, the degree of detail required for classroom use is not often much. Additionally, the areas of the world we tend to study at the elementary level, let's be honest, are not the ones that are doing much of the changing. So long as we have Nunavut when we're looking at Canada, can we use atlases that should be considered historical and still consider it good practice for teaching geography? I'm not sure what I think is the best answer, but I do think I'll go on teaching kids to use maps with what I have, even it means explaining what USSR means.
I think you need to re-think your definition of a Historical atlas. It is indeed a separate entity and very valuable in the school setting. Check out the link I put on the class Web Links.
ReplyDeleteOut of date atlases may have some value in the elem. classroom. But to make them acceptable for use is plain wrong. It's a slippery slope - like when older computers are removed from somewhere and sent to the library or an elementary classroom.