Journal of Geography

ISSN: 0022-1341 (Print) 1752-6868 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjog20

Students’ Perceptions of Their Engagement Using

GIS-Story Maps

Esohe E. Egiebor & Ellen J. Foster

To cite this article: Esohe E. Egiebor & Ellen J. Foster (2018): Students’ Perceptions of Their
Engagement Using GIS-Story Maps, Journal of Geography, DOI: 10.1080/00221341.2018.1515975

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00221341.2018.1515975

Published online: 01 Nov 2018.

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 Students’ Perceptions of Their Engagement Using GIS-Story Maps
ABSTRACT
This article describes the findings of a quali-
tative phenomenographic study that
explored students’ engagement from the
perspective of the students. It describes how
the participants perceived their engagement
when they learned social studies using GIS
Story Maps. Qualitative data collection
involved classroom observations, student-
written reflections, and oral interviews with
fourteen eighth-grade student-participants.
The data analysis revealed that students per-
ceive Story Maps as engaging in four quali-
tatively different ways: generating inquiry,
visualizing information, mapping inter-
actively, and cycling. Students also see a
geographic and cultural connection between
Story Maps and their lives, and additional
connections beyond the classroom.
Key Words: Geographic Information
Systems, instructional activities, secondary
education, Story Maps
Esohe E. Egiebor is a social studies teacher
at Baldwin Arts and Academic Magnet
School, Montgomery, Alabama, USA.
Ellen J. Foster is an associate professor in
the Department of Teacher Education at
the University of Mississippi, Oxford,
Mississippi, USA.
Journal of Geography 0: 1–15
# 2018 National Council for Geographic Education
Esohe E. Egiebor and Ellen J. Foster
INTRODUCTION
The College, Career, and Civic Life C3 Framework for Social Studies Standards
(C3) (National Council for the Social Studies 2013) calls for the development of
questioning, problem solving, investigating, and geographic, civic, and histor-
ical thinking in students. The framework also calls for using varied geospatial
technologies across the curriculum to build students’ understanding and spa-
tial awareness of the world. Therefore, it is imperative today to not only teach
students factual information but to also teach them how to understand and
respond to 21st-century challenges using available technology. When students
are taught to apply their knowledge and skills in social studies, the active
nature of social studies emerges as they participate in the learning process.
Students develop their abilities as problem solvers, inquirers, and decision
makers and “act in ways that promote the common good” (National Council
for the Social Studies 2013). The Geography for Life, National Geography Standards
(Heffron and Downs 2012) also recognizes the importance of skills that cut
across subject disciplines using different types of technologies. These standards
specifically advocate for the use of “problem-solving” geospatial technologies
such as geographical information systems (GIS), global positioning system
(GPS), and remote sensing (RS; Baker et al. 2015) as teaching and learning tools
to create meaningful, authentic, and engaging social studies lessons.
GIS, simply described, is an integrated collection of software designed to
query, question, analyze, and interpret data to understand relationships, pat-
terns, and trends (Esri 2016). Thus, as a computer tool, it has the power to com-
bine interactive maps with tables and geographic data to provide information
on different locations (National Geographic 2017). GIS, as a teaching tool in
any social studies classroom, will enable students to use data and facts from
the map layers to add context to the information they see on the maps (Sinton
and Lund 2007). Some of the most promising applications that have evolved
from the implementation of GIS are Story Maps.
Story Maps are Web applications developed within the Environmental
Service Research Institute’s (Esri) Web-based GIS platform, ArcGIS Online.
They combine interactive maps with stories to tell spatial narratives and digital
stories. Story Maps use geography to organize and present information. To tell
the story of a place, users create maps by linking “interactive maps with rich
content text, photos, video, and audio” (Harder 2015, 37) to build an environ-
ment that actively engages users. Story Maps are easy to create and use, and
they do not require users to have special knowledge of computer programing.
In fact, the relative ease associated with Story Maps makes them ideal for use
as an instructional technology in a social studies classroom.
BACKGROUND LITERATURE
Student Engagement
Student engagement has been a focus of researchers and school systems for
many years. Indeed, one of the most important goals of education is to engage
students in learning. Student engagement is an interrelated multidimensional
1
Esohe E. Egiebor and Ellen J. Foster
construct that includes behavioral, cognitive, and emo-
tional engagement (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, and Paris
2004). While behavioral engagement addresses the
impact of student behavior on academic activities, cogni-
tive engagement allows students to move from lower-
level learning to higher-order learning that demonstrates
their understanding and application of content and skills.
Emotional engagement allows students to make an
investment in learning dedicated to positive academic
outcomes. In view of the multidimensional nature of stu-
dent engagement, this article adopts Newman’s (1992)
definition that describes students’ academic engagement
as “a psychological investment in and effort directed
towards learning, understanding, or mastering the know-
ledge, skills, and craft that academic work is intended to
promote” (12).
Engagement in Social Studies Classrooms
Research in social studies classrooms indicates that stu-
dents disengage and grow “bored” because most assign-
ments lack authenticity and applicable content (Misco
2014; Shernoff et al. 2014). Likewise, investigations of sec-
ondary school (grades 7 to 12) social studies classrooms
show that teachers tend to use the traditional teacher-
centered survey methods of instruction that rarely allow
students to explore the depth and breadth of true, prob-
lem-based learning (Ediger 2014). Consequently, many
social studies educators struggle to engage students in
learning (Gibson 2012).
The need to cover social studies content assessed on
standardized tests has forced teachers to adopt more
teacher-centered instructional methods that rely heavily
on textbooks and lecturing (Anderson and Cook 2014;
Misco 2014). In addition, the continuous use of these
instructional practices does little to encourage skill acqui-
sition in social studies (Kenna and Russell 2015), and this
makes it difficult for students to appreciate the import-
ance of social studies, which leads to reduced student
engagement and learning outcomes.
To make social studies more interesting and relevant,
students want teachers to use different instructional strat-
egies, technologies, and multimedia (Russell and Waters
2010), and they also want an opportunity to connect
what they learn in the classroom to their personal life
outside the classroom (Anderson and Cooke 2014).
Engaging students involves providing learners with a
variety of meaningful and challenging classroom instruc-
tions that will motivate them to express their talents and
to strive for academic success. Therefore, in evaluating
student engagement in secondary social studies class-
rooms, the following questions must be taken into con-
sideration: What instructional strategies can be employed
to enhance student engagement in social studies class-
rooms? Can teachers use new and emerging GIS technol-
ogies to inspire students’ participation and engagement
in social studies classrooms?
2
To promote student learning involvement, a focus on
student engagement using GIS should be explored. With
the increased availability of computers, GIS technologies
are beginning to gain more attention in elementary and
secondary classrooms due to a growing interest by teach-
ers, reliance on technology by students, the growing
accessibility of handheld GIS-enabled hardware, and
easy access to Web-based GIS applications such as
ArcGIS Online (Hong 2014).
GIS and Student Engagement
A limited number of studies have examined the impact
of GIS on student engagement, learning, and perform-
ance in K–12 classrooms (Fitchett and Good 2012;
Goldstein and Alibrandi 2013; Perkins, Hazelton,
Erickson, and Allan 2010; Songer 2007). GIS as an investi-
gative tool that allows students to explore, investigate,
and interpret from a spatial/locational perspective
(Fitchett and Good 2012), with the potential to foster a
resource-rich environment, enhance spatial reasoning,
and support problem solving in the classroom. On pro-
moting students’ positive attitudes and engagement,
Kerski (2003) asserts that “GIS increased student motiv-
ation for geography, altered communication patterns
with fellow students and with teachers, stimulated stu-
dents who learn visually, and reached students who are
not traditional learners” (134). As a teaching tool, GIS
increased content retention, made learning fun, allowed
easy access to informational data, provided hands-on
learning, improved knowledge about maps, and encour-
aged critical thinking (Aladag 2014). Likewise, teachers
in a study involving Story Maps reported that they “were
user-friendly, interactive and engaging, enjoyable for stu-
dents, and able to help in presenting material that meets
academic standards” (Strachan and Mitchell 2014, 204).
Therefore, for those concerned with student engagement,
GIS and Story Maps can be applied across all social stud-
ies disciplines to improve student learning in social stud-
ies classrooms.
Adoption by Schools
While many government organizations and businesses
have adopted the use of GIS, many in the secondary edu-
cation sector have not. Research studies on the adoption
of GIS indicate that the use of GIS in high schools has
made significant progress (Holst and Thebpanya 2013;
Milson and Kerski 2012). The major reasons for the
absence of GIS in secondary school social studies class-
rooms are (1) the time it takes to learn how to use the
software and develop appropriate lesson plans can be
overwhelming for both teachers and students; (2) teach-
ers do not have the background, training, and time to
incorporate GIS-based strategies into their social studies
lessons; (3) absence of specific curricula relating to geo-
spatial technology; and (4) getting the support of the

administration (Aladag 2014; Doering and Veletsianos
2008; Incekara 2010). While there is evidence to show
that more educators in the United States are implement-
ing GIS technologies in secondary social studies class-
rooms, there is still a need for further research exploring
the effectiveness of geospatial technologies as teaching
tools to promote student engagement.
To address the gaps in empirical research, this article
presents results from a qualitative study that explored
how students perceived their engagement when they
used Story Maps as a learning tool. The study answered
the following questions: (1) How do eighth-grade stu-
dents perceive their engagement with social studies
when it is taught using Story Maps? (2) How do eighth-
grade students perceive the relationship between GIS
and Story Maps to their own life?
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The C3 Framework
The National Council of the Social Studies (NCSS) C3
Framework (NCSS 2013) was developed by the NCSS to
help individual states update their social studies stand-
ards. It provides direction for states to include the applica-
tion of knowledge within the disciplines that make up the
social studies curriculum (civics, economics, geography,
and history). The framework underscores the urgency of a
new type of classroom interaction: “Now more than ever,
students need the intellectual power to recognize societal
problems; ask good questions and develop robust investi-
gations into them; consider possible solutions and conse-
quences; separate evidence-based claims from parochial
opinions; and communicate and act upon what they
learn” (6). The framework calls on teachers and curricu-
lum developers to think about acquisition and application
of social studies knowledge; therefore, the emphasis is
for teachers to use The Inquiry Arc as a foundation for
instructional planning and student learning.
The Inquiry Arc
The Inquiry Arc is a connecting set of ideas consisting
of four dimensions of investigations in social studies.
Dimension 1 addresses developing questions and carry-
ing out investigations. Here, the construction of know-
ledge is based on the issues developed by students and
teachers to engage in inquiry learning. Dimension 2 looks
at the application of discipline-specific concepts and
tools. With dimension two, teachers devise a plan to
answer the questions. Here, different disciplinary tools
that include geospatial technologies (like Story Maps)
serve as a foundation for learning. Dimension 3 focuses
on gathering, evaluating, and using evidence. Using
dimension three, students provide the evidence for the
various conclusions they reach. Last, dimension 4 con-
centrates on collaboration and communicating conclu-
sions. Here, students present their answers and ideas
using different types of media. It could be an essay, a
Journal of Geography
video production, or a spatial narrative using Story
Maps. This study is designed to determine whether Story
Maps engaged students in the construction of knowledge
that expanded their “capacity to know, analyze, explain,
and argue about interdisciplinary challenges in our social
world” (National Council for the Social Studies 2013, 6).
The Purpose of Social Studies
Another driving motivation for this study is the aca-
demic purpose of the four subjects within the umbrella of
social studies. As a discipline, social studies explore citizen-
ship responsibilities by investigating the human dimen-
sions of society using a combination of civics, economics,
geography, and history. The main purpose of social studies
education is to provide the foundation and skills for high
school graduates to transition into the larger society as
adults who are responsible citizens and productive mem-
bers of the community (Barr 2017). Geographic literacy and
awareness of civics, economics, and history, are necessary
for decision making on a local and global scale. Hence, the
focus of this study is for students to investigate, under-
stand, and appreciate how Story Maps can be used to apply
knowledge from academic disciplines in social studies to
make sense of a vibrant world.
Study Rationale
This study aimed to address the gaps in the literature
by investigating the impacts of classroom-based inquiry
using GIS to improve student learning. It also sought to
answer the call for more research in the integration of
geospatial technologies in K–12 classrooms. While
Strachan (2014) conducted a study on teachers’ percep-
tions of Story Maps as an instructional tool, unfortu-
nately no empirical study has been conducted on student
perception of their engagement when Story Maps are
used in a secondary social studies classroom. This study
explored the effectiveness of Story Maps from students’
perspectives and endeavored to ascertain students’ levels
of interest and engagement with instruction that allows
them to apply their knowledge to real-life experiences
using 21st-century skills.
RESEARCH METHOD
The study employed a qualitative phenomenographic
method to ascertain the ways students comprehend and
experience a phenomenon. Phenomenography is a qualita-
tive research method effective for researching the different
ways students comprehend and experience a phenomenon
(Pang and Ling 2012). For this study, eighth-grade
students’ perceptions of using Story Maps to learn social
studies created an avenue for students to describe different
learning experiences. As such, the goal of this study was to
identify and describe the variations of experience that rep-
resented the diverse ways in which the participants per-
ceived their engagement using Story Maps.
3
Esohe E. Egiebor and Ellen J. Foster
Figure 1. A sample of the Story Map used for the lesson plan (created by Rebecca Winslow). (Color figure available
online.)
Setting and Participants
Following the normal approval process for human sub-
ject studies, a line of communication was established
with the participating teacher, the school principal, and
the school district. The details of the lesson unit were dis-
cussed, and the participating teacher made suggestions
and additions to the unit. The researcher subsequently
met with the students to discuss the research and soli-
cited their participation. Students were encouraged to
ask questions about the research, and those who agreed
to participate in the study were given parental consent
and student assent forms.
The study was conducted in a school district located in
the state of Mississippi in the United States; the district's
total enrollment is approximately 4,250 students. In add-
ition to the traditional methods of teaching different mid-
dle and high school subjects, the district is involved in
the One-to-One Digital Learning Initiative. Each middle
and high school student has a MacBook Air laptop
assigned as a personal learning tool. The sample class
4
contained twenty-two eighth-grade students, of whom
fourteen agreed to participate in the study. There were
six females and eight males. Among the female partici-
pants, three were black, two were white, and one was
Hispanic. Among the male participants, two were black
and six were white.
Study Context
The first author, in collaboration with the participating
teacher, designed a Story Map–based unit titled
“Traveling Through the Trail of Tears” (see Appendix).
The unit consisted of a series of lessons that highlighted
the Native American experience before and after the
Indian Removal Act (1930). ArcGIS Online software was
utilized in the preparation of the Story Maps (Figure 1).
Several features were taken into consideration when
this unit was designed. The lessons were created using
the national social studies and geography standards.
Strategies such as inquiry learning, group collaboration,
 Journal of Geography

Table 1. The detailed activities of each lesson.

Lesson Activity Data Collection Method

Day 1: Lesson 1 Brainstorming, inquiry learning, questioning and discussion Observation and reflection 1
Day 2: Lesson 2 Content discussion, explicit instruction using Story Maps, Observation and reflection 2
classroom discussion, and 3-2-1 activity
Day 3: Lesson 3 Character quote, content discussion, questioning activity
Day 4: Lesson 4 Analyzing cause and effects, creating map layers Observation and reflection 3
Day 5: Lesson 5 Project introduction, students create Story Maps Observation and reflection 4
Day 6: Lesson 6 Students work on creating their Story Maps Observation and reflection 4
Day 7: Lesson 7 Students present Story Maps Reflection 5, interviews
Note. Data indicate the lesson unit implementation schedule of activities and types of data collected.

and project-based activities were used to promote stu-
dent engagement and understanding. With questions to
guide inquiries, the lessons prepared for this study used
ArcGIS Online Story Maps to support the content stu-
dents learned in the unit. Students used the information
from Story Maps to answer several geographic and his-
torical questions. The project designed for this unit
involved a performance task that required the students
to map historical heritage sites that are significant to the
people of Mississippi. The standards, learning objectives,
materials, and the topic were prepared with the help and
guidance of the cooperating teacher. All the lessons were
taught by the cooperating teacher, while the researcher
observed and provided technical assistance to the
teacher. For the duration of the unit of study, the partici-
pating students sat in groups of four in the first two
rows. Table 1 provides details of the procedure for lesson
implementation.
Before the study, students were exposed to Story Maps
using GeoInquiries (Bunin and Esposito 2014; Esri 2015).
GeoInquiries are inquiry activities designed to incorpor-
ate ArcGIS with classroom instruction in a variety of con-
tent areas. Each 15-minute activity offers students the
opportunity to answer questions comprehensively using
information from the interactive map layers. The teacher
introduced students to ArcGIS Online and walked them
through setting up free Esri accounts. While the short
inquiry lessons served the purpose of introducing stu-
dents to the concept of story mapping, the unit designed
for the data collection allowed students to take mapping
a step further by encouraging the students to create and
use Story Maps to describe a historical event. The fin-
ished product consisted of a Story Map that mapped his-
torical heritage sites on the Natchez Trace.
Data Collection
The first part of the data collection was observing the
students to gather evidence on the students’ level of
engagement. While the collaborating teacher taught
the lessons, an observation checklist developed by the
researcher was used to observe the students. The
checklist contained indicators that described the physical
manifestation of engagement (active interest, effort, inter-
acting with a device, problem solving) and disengage-
ment (off-topic discussion, complaining, frustrated,
looking bored, not concentrating, disruptive). Students
were checked as engaged or disengaged if ten of the four-
teen participants displayed any of indicators in the
checklist (Lane and Harris 2015). To guarantee an
unbiased report of the observation, two additional gradu-
ate student observers were trained and then engaged by
the researcher to observe the students. At the end of each
lesson, the researcher and the observers reviewed the
observation checklist to corroborate the validity of the
information that was gathered from the observation
(Chapman 2003).
Following each classroom activity, the fourteen stu-
dents completed a short reflection. The questions encour-
aged students to write about their experiences and
thoughts before, during, and after using Story Maps.
After the students presented their Story Maps (Figure 2)
to the class, a semi-structured interview consisting of
twelve open-ended questions was conducted by the
researcher. The interviews took place in a quiet section of
the school library. With the approval of the student par-
ticipants, interviews were voice-recorded and transcribed
for analysis. To protect the participants’ identities, the
participating school, teacher, and students were
assigned pseudonyms.
Data Analysis
The data analysis followed the phenomenographic
Seven Steps process outlined by Khan (2014).
Familiarization involved reading and rereading the
observation data, the written reflections, and the fourteen
interview transcripts several times. After thoroughly
reviewing the transcripts, compilation was applied using
line-by-line reading and analysis of answers from certain
questions to identify the significant elements. The
researcher engaged in vivo coding to capture words and
phrases of the participants to “prioritize and honor their

5
Esohe E. Egiebor and Ellen J. Foster
Figure 2. A sample of a Story Map created by students. (Color figure available online.)
voice” and process coding using gerunds to show action
(Miles, Huberman, and Saldana 2014, 74).
Once all of the transcripts were coded, each category
was reanalyzed and condensed to extract relevant infor-
mation pertaining to the study. Through this process, the
data were reduced to find the core parts of the partic-
ipants’ responses. Preliminary grouping was done to
locate and classify similar answers, and preliminary com-
parisons were gathered using pattern codes to identify,
compare, and group the summaries into a smaller num-
ber of variations of descriptions (Saldana 2009) until a
point of saturation was achieved (Creswell 2013). The
categories of descriptions were named to emphasize their
meanings and a diagram was used to discuss the rela-
tionship between the categories.
Research question one generated fourteen categories of
description. They were narrowed down to ten and then
further collapsed to four specific categories (Figure 3). To
answer research question two, a total of fourteen catego-
ries emerged from the codes. They were further reduced
to four and then three categories (Figure 4). The different
descriptions derived from the data analysis were used to
explain and develop a model to answer the research
questions. To ensure reliability of the coding process, a
subset of the data was coded and analyzed independ-
ently by a co-researcher, and the categories of description
6
was discussed with a qualitative research faculty member
for crosschecking.
FINDINGS
The research questions were used as a guide to
develop seven themes from the observation, reflection,
and interview data: four themes emerged from research
question one and three from research question two.
Based on the analysis of the data collected, the research
study found that the participants in the study had differ-
ent descriptions of how they perceived their engagement
when they used Story Maps to learn social studies.
Research Question One

How do eighth-grade students perceive their
engagement with social studies when it is
taught using Story Maps?
“Generating inquiry” represented the ability of Story
Maps to trigger curiosity and promote inquiry learning
as a strategy to improve students’ engagement (Table 2).
Participants identified the different map layers as sources
of inquiry, research, and information that helped them to
answer specific social studies–based questions. All partic-
ipants were asked whether they were engaged in

Figure 3. Emergence of categories of descriptions for RQ1. Vivo Coding ¼ Words and phrases of the participants in
quotes; Pattern Codes ¼ Identification of similar data; Process Codes ¼ Observable action using gerunds.
learning during the past week, and they collectively
described different ways they used Story Maps to gener-
ate inquiry. For example, Ashley described Story Maps
as engaging because she could “find out and search
information about that place.” Other participants com-
pared Story Maps to other sources of information they
use in social studies, namely lectures, textbooks, and
worksheets. For example, Story Maps were engaging to
Janet because they could be used instead of “just going
through the book.” Marty agreed, stating that Story
Maps provided an opportunity to engage in a different,
fun learning activity “instead of just doing worksheets all
the time.” Wesley also expressed a similar idea, stating
that Story Maps are engaging because they are “creative
and it is not straight out of the book.” These responses
suggest that participants in “generating inquiry” not
only experienced Story Maps as a comprehensive source
of information but also as a different and more extensive
source of gathering, explaining, and using information
than the other resources they use in their social studies
classrooms. Responses from the students indicate that
Story Maps reinforce dimension 1 (developing questions
and planning inquiries) of The Inquiry Arc that empha-
sizes using questioning and inquiries to drive instruction
in social studies classrooms.
“Visualizing information” addresses using Story Maps
to visualize data. When describing their engagement
using Story Maps, students emphasized their improved
Journal of Geography
ability to see information using geographical and loca-
tional data. Several participants reported that they were
engaged because they are visual learners. For David,
Story Maps provided “a way to visualize. It helps me
learn better.” While Marty reported that “it helped a lot
seeing where everything was,” others were more specific
about the information and details that helped them learn
about precise areas. Irene described this as “showing
where things actually happened. It showed us better.”
Paul agreed, stating that “You can look in all different
parts of the world and see an accurate map of what the
streets and buildings are like.” These responses suggest
that participants who experienced Story Maps as a visual
learning tool saw actual images that engaged and aided
them in learning social studies. If the purpose of social
studies education is to help students understand the loca-
tion of people, places, and resources around the world,
these responses make an important connection to The
Inquiry Arc. It provides evidence of how students can
ask questions and construct explanations and arguments
using information and data from Story Maps.
“Mapping interactively” is based on the uniqueness of
Story Maps and the different ways users can interact
with them. All the participants in the study recognized
the importance of Story Maps as an interactive tool for
learning. When describing engagement because of his
ability to interact, Josh said, “It allows you to interact
with the things inside of it, like the layers.” Wesley
7
Esohe E. Egiebor and Ellen J. Foster

Figure 4. Emergence of categories of descriptions for RQ2. Vivo Coding ¼ Words and phrases of the participants in
quotes; Pattern Codes ¼ Identification of similar data; Process Codes ¼ Observable action using gerunds.

Table 2. Summary of categories and students’ perceptions for research question 1.

What are Story Maps How are Story

Categorization perceived as?
Generating inquiry Story Maps as a source of
inquiry and research
Story Maps as a source of
information
Visualizing information Story Maps are visu-
ally appealing
Mapping interactively Story Maps are different
Cycling Story Maps are new
Maps perceived?
- More extensive source of
researching relevant informa-
tion
- As a one-point stop for
researching information
- Different from textbooks, lec-
tures, and worksheet
- Imagery to answer specific
social studies questions
- Details of specific locations
- Interactive
- Making Story Maps
- Editing maps
- Zooming
- Confusing
- Challenging
- Easy with time
- Fun
- Unengaging
Point of attention
The focus is on clicking a point
to find out relevant social
studies information.
The focus is on seeing images
and details and visualiz-
ing questions.
The focus is on the interactive
advantages of Story Maps.
The focus is on figuring out
Story Maps and learning
how to use them.

8
 Journal of Geography

Table 3. Summary of categories and students’ perceptions for research question 2.

What are Story Maps How are Story

Categorization perceived as?
Geographic connection Story Maps are a GPS system.
They can be used to
learn geography.
Cultural connection Story Maps are ways to find
cultural and historical
information.
Beyond the classroom Story Map can be used in and
outside the classroom.
Maps perceived?
- Finding directions
- Finding places
- Knowing what a place is like
- Showing where you are
- Teaching about places
- Seeing places of cultural sig-
nificance
- Seeing where historical
events happened
- Learning history from a geo-
graphic context
- Using Story Maps
- Making Story Maps
- Going to places on the map
Point of attention
The focus is on locating, see-
ing, and understanding what
a place is like.
The focus is on locating cul-
tural places.
The focus is on connecting
time and place.
The focus is the application of
knowledge to different
life situations.

shared a similar experience, saying, “It’s being able to do
all the different stuff instead of just looking at the map;
you could add layers.” These participants appreciate that
Story Maps offer an interactive way of learning social
studies. They found it a more engaging and interactive
way of presenting data, which they manifested through
their ability to interact and perform different map func-
tions. For other students, Story Maps are engaging
because of the creative advantages of using them to
organize and present information. Ashley, Bella, and
Ellen described how their ability to edit and make their
own maps makes Story Maps engaging. Ashley said, “I
could go to any place and then pin that out and put
some notes right there. Then I can just search it again
and then have pop-up notes on it.” Bella also agreed, say-
ing, “It is not like any other map. You can actually save
it, and you have your own thing; you can do anything to
it. You can change the basemaps.” Ellen also emphasized
using Story Maps to tell stories, saying, “Instead of see-
ing where this is or where that is, you can make your
own.” These participants perceived Story Maps as inter-
active because of the different ways they can be used in
creating student-centered activities. Despite students’
ability to show locations and edit Story Maps, Marty
emphasized why their ability to interact with Story Maps
makes them different, albeit more engaging than other
sources of information used in social studies classrooms:
“I like them just because it would be easier than just
doing the worksheets. I felt that doing it on the computer
made you more engaged into it, like you had to make it
yourself. It wasn’t just like here is the map, here are the
points. If you make it you will probably remember it bet-
ter. There is something about making [it] on the com-
puter instead of drawing it out on a piece of paper.” This
response implies that Story Maps enabled a personalized
learning experience that is relevant and helped to pro-
mote learning using a 21st-century technology.
Participants’ perception of their engagement with Story
Maps focused on the features provided to edit the maps:
adding descriptions, creating points, and making their
own maps to communicate findings. The students per-
ceived Story Maps as engaging because they interacted
with live maps and created Story Maps to learn and pre-
sent social studies content.
“Cycling” emphasized the importance of cognitive
engagement. It involved understanding how to use a
new technology. Story Maps are new, and strategies
must be used to help students develop a much deeper
understanding of maps. Student perception of their
engagement with Story Maps is threefold: the challenge
of using Story Maps for the first time, personal intrinsic
motivation to develop an understanding of using Story
Maps, and those who consider Story Maps unengaging.
For example, Janet described the primary challenge con-
fronted by the students, saying, “It was sort of hard, sort
of confusing because like you have to click like different
buttons and then you have add on and all that.” Irene
provided insight on the challenging aspect of using Story
Maps for the first time and the influence exerted by the
teacher when describing their engagement: “I got a little
confused, but [my teacher] was good at explaining it and
helping me understand.” Although participants had ini-
tially described how confusing and challenging it was for
them to use Story Maps, they believed it improved the
quality of their learning experiences. According to Irene,
“It was like it helped a lot with learning. It was difficult
to understand sometimes. It showed us where these
things actually happened. It just showed us better.” In
addition to their cognitive ability to engage with Story
Maps, students commented and confirmed the import-
ance of student psychological engagement in terms of
persevering and figuring out the maps. According to
Marty, “They were a bit confusing at first, like doing like
different steps at first. … Even though they were hard to
make, but after like you made them one or two times
they are pretty easy.” Zach agreed, stating that, “I

9
Esohe E. Egiebor and Ellen J. Foster
thought it was going to be hard, then I found it to be a
bit easier when I learned how to use everything.”
Two out of the fourteen participants perceived Story
Maps as unengaging because of their experience with
using technology. While most participants initially
described Story Maps as challenging, students’ responses
in “cycling” demonstrated a broader experience of using
Story Maps. In figuring out how to use the Story Maps,
students at first perceived them as confusing, difficult,
and time-consuming. Notwithstanding the difficulties
students experienced with learning how to use and make
Story Maps, students recognized that the technology was
new and they were able to problem solve as they learned
how to use the new educational tool. From an instruc-
tional perspective, “cycling” promoted the overall goal of
the C3 framework by increasing the rigor of social stud-
ies and building critical and problem-solving skills.
Therefore, student’s perception of their engagement not
only implies the overwhelming and confusing problems
of using a new learning technology but also reinforces
the importance of using effort and perseverance as a
yardstick for determining student engagement in learn-
ing activities.
Research Question Two

How do eighth-grade students perceive the rela-
tionship between GIS Story Maps and their
own life?
“Geographic connection” addressed how students see
the world (Table 3). One of the important goals of geo-
graphic education is for students to think of the world in
spatial terms. To this end, students described how Story
Maps helped build their geographic awareness. The par-
ticipants emphasized two main reasons for using Story
Maps as a geographic tool. First, students saw Story
Maps as a device to locate and find directions and,
second, as an instrument for learning geography. Within
this perspective, Bridgett and Dan focused on the oppor-
tunity provided by Story Maps to find different locations
and directions. According to Bridgett, Story Maps can
help “Find something like directions.” Dan agreed, stat-
ing “It’s a map, so it tells you your location.” Students
also perceived a connection between Story Maps and
learning geography. In fact, all the participants reported
seeing the physical features of locations on Earth’s sur-
face. For Bella, there is a connection between Story Maps
and her life because it helps her understand what makes
a place unique by letting her “know how it was built,
and how it looks like from a map.” Therefore, geographic
awareness offers students the knowledge to be good
decision makers by offering students the opportunity to
answer questions using their knowledge of geography.
“Cultural connection” highlighted the interdisciplinary
approach to social studies that includes history and geog-
raphy. All the students emphasized using Story Maps to
10
locate and see places related to their culture. Because stu-
dents used Story Maps to discover real-life cultural and
geographical phenomena, they were personally invested
in the lesson, especially when their findings focused on
their home, family, culture, or neighborhood. Paul
explained how this connection occurs: “I can search; I
can see buildings that relate to my culture.” This quote
by this student implies that the use of Story Map as a
teaching tool enabled the student to directly relate the
content of the lesson to his immediate cultural environ-
ment. Students also perceived a connection between
using Story Maps and learning about the history of a
place. According to Zach, Story Maps can be used to
“find historical places and their significance.” Ellen
agreed, saying, “It’s like you see the places, where it was,
what they did.” These opinions captured the importance
of using a variety of disciplinary concepts and tools.
Students concentrated on the multidisciplinary nature of
social studies, emphasizing the concept of time and
place. Students understood the advantages of learning
about their culture from a geographic context. They per-
ceived a connection between Story Maps and their cul-
ture because the tool promoted their ability to explore
and spatially visualize historical and cultural locations to
build their knowledge of history and geography.
“Beyond the classroom” is connected with the application
of knowledge. When describing the connection between
their lives and Story Maps, students highlighted going to
places and telling people about Story Maps and using them
in the future. For Marty, Story Maps provided an avenue
for him to see different locations and physically “go to these
places.” While several of the participants associated using
Story Maps for projects, others were more specific about
using them in different life situations. For Josh, “I could tell
people about the Story Maps. I would probably go on using
them in future things. I will probably read history books
and then use what I remembered to make a map.” Because
this group of students was taught using tools of geospatial
thinking and analysis, not only are they exposed to using a
different type of tool for finding information but they are
also enabled to address issues they may face in meeting
future career and civic obligations. Taken together, “beyond
the classroom” reinforces a major purpose of social studies
instruction, which is understanding and being able to apply
knowledge to promote civic competence. It allowed stu-
dents to focus on moving beyond memorizing names of
places and dates to using Story Maps to describe and pre-
sent on a historical event. For students who took part in this
study, the relationship among understanding, usefulness,
and lifelong learning seems very apparent, as they engaged
in disciplinary and workplace skills that prepare students
for life beyond their classrooms.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
This study described how students perceived their
engagement when they used Story Maps to learn social

studies. The study identified several categories of
description that went from simple recall of knowledge to
a more complex synthesis and application of knowledge.
In “generating inquiry,” participants described how
Story Maps enhanced learning social studies. The stu-
dents made references to finding and understanding
social studies content and compared and contrasted
learning social studies through Story Maps, textbooks,
worksheets, and teacher lectures. Generating inquiry
thus provided a foundation for students to further
engage in learning, understanding, and developing
answers to questions. Furthermore, the response from
the students in this category apparently demonstrated
that inquiry is an essential part of students’ engagement
because it empowered students to take responsibility for
their learning. This description corresponds with Fitchett
and Good’s (2012) finding that the use of GIS applica-
tions provides avenues for students to explore and inves-
tigate from a spatial perspective while enabling them to
take ownership of their learning. Also, students believed
that Story Maps were more engaging than worksheets
because they could access a variety of information found
on the different map layers. Thus, generating inquiry
embodies an approach to learning that moves from the
overreliance on textbooks to a methodology that uses
research to trigger curiosity, which permits students to
be active rather than passive learners.
The findings of this study closely relate to other stud-
ies that have shown that GIS promotes students’ engage-
ment. It supports the work of Kerski (2003) and Aladag
(2014), who found GIS attractive to students with a visual
learning preference. In visualizing information, partici-
pants emphasized showing and seeing information
because they could observe and interpret geographical
data using a locational perspective (Baker et al. 2012).
Therefore, students perceived Story Maps as engaging
because it provided them an avenue to visualize the
information they were learning in class. Participants
were also engaged due to the interactive nature of Story
Maps. One possible reason for their engagement may lie
in the fact that the participants saw Story Maps as an
innovative technology that allowed them to interact with
live maps. This belief echoes findings of previous studies
showing that teachers perceived Story Maps as engaging
because they are interactive (Strachan and Mitchell 2014).
While the participants’ ability to interact with the maps
became the main focus of students’ engagement, the
interactive nature of Story Maps elevated the authenticity
of their learning experiences because they had the chance
to practice skills related to the discipline.
This study also identified students’ challenges and vic-
tories. Participants in “cycling” referenced Story Maps as
confusing, time-consuming, challenging, and easier over
time. Their descriptions corroborate studies conducted
by scholars who claim that the time learning how to use
GIS can be overwhelming for both teachers and students
Journal of Geography
(Aladag 2014; Kerski 2003; Shin 2003). On the other hand,
introducing a new technology in the classroom requires
built-in class time for the students to learn. Therefore, fig-
uring out how to use Story Maps involved developing
different cognitive strategies for learning, which then
emphasize an essential aspect of students’ engagement
(Newmann 1992). Therefore, as students continued to
experience using Story Maps, a greater need for problem
solving and perseverance naturally emerged. Although
the participants initially found Story Maps challenging,
they eventually endured through peer collaboration and
teacher feedback.
Participants perceived three different connections
between their lives and Story Maps. First, they connected
Story Maps with the acquisition of geographic know-
ledge. Students described Story Maps as a geographical
tool that showed location and places. These descriptions
by the participants correspond with the research con-
ducted by Perking, Hazelton, Erickson, and Alan (2010)
who pointed out that a placed-based approach was more
attractive to students because they learn how to speak
spatially, ask spatially, and perform spatial analysis.
First, Story Maps in this study allowed students to learn
about a historical event using a geographical tool.
Second, it moved the teaching of social studies beyond
the low-level recall of information to knowledge applica-
tion using a geographic tool. Third, participants
described various ways they could use Story Maps out-
side the classroom. They stressed using information from
Story Maps to connect to future life situations such as
planning trips. Although the participants stressed the
relationship between learning and the application of
knowledge, students perceived a connection between
Story Maps and real life because the lesson incorporated
students' interest, with relevant, meaningful instruction.
Implications for Teachers
Teachers are charged with the responsibility of teach-
ing and engaging student in learning. Students today are
different. They know and want to express themselves
using technology, and social studies teachers should
change their instructional practice to improve students’
engagement and to elevate academic outcomes. The goal
of social studies education is to prepare students to
engage in a world that is constantly changing, and teach-
ers should encourage students to see social studies as an
active multidisciplinary subject that teaches them to be
inquirers, critical thinkers, problem solvers, and
engaged citizens.
In the last decade, research on student engagement is
in support of creating a more student-centered classroom
environment (Glowa & Goodell 2016; Goldman 2017). In
addition, educational stakeholders support the use of
more active teaching techniques that promote inquiry
learning, knowledge application, technology integration,
11
Esohe E. Egiebor and Ellen J. Foster
hands-on learning, and different types of geospatial
technologies.
The result of this research reinforces national social stud-
ies and geography standards, which suggests a different
way of thinking about instructional planning. Instead of
relying solely on textbooks and worksheets, GIS offers
teachers an opportunity to use inquiry, essential concepts,
and skills when planning for instruction. In addition, it pro-
vides an avenue for teachers to engage students in authentic
learning experiences and allows them to apply their social
studies knowledge using disciplinary tools. Rather than
making students memorize the names of countries and
dates, social studies teachers may be able to create a more
powerful and engaging classroom where students are
expected to be active participants in the learning process.
Social studies teachers can help students learn to recognize
and apply their social studies knowledge in creative ways
using Story Maps. For example, students can show what
they have learned by creating a presentation using Story
Maps. Students can also use the information from the maps
to answer social studies questions, develop map reading
skills, and apply their knowledge through making Story
Maps and telling their stories.
Prior research on the application of GIS technologies in
secondary schools has indicated that teachers do not
have sufficient time to plan and develop GIS-enhanced
lessons and activities (Aladag 2014; Kerski 2003; Mitchell
et al. 2018). In order to address this problem, social stud-
ies teachers can use pre-made GIS activities and encour-
age students to use the Story Map application template
to work on different project-based activities.
The results of this study also suggest several recommen-
dations for using Story Maps as a teaching tool. Therefore,
to facilitate engagement, social studies teachers should (1)
model how to use different editing features on Story Maps;
(2) scaffold instruction for students not comfortable with
using technology; (3) teach Story Map–based activities in
small chunks to prevent students from getting over-
whelmed and confused; and (4) teach necessary map-read-
ing skills before introducing Story Maps. On the other
hand, using Story Maps in social studies classrooms
requires teachers to be trained on using Story Maps as an
instructional methodology. Teacher education programs
and school districts will have to provide pre- and in-service
teachers with professional development that moves instruc-
tional planning from low-level acquisition of knowledge to
a model that promotes a higher level of learning and under-
standing. Therefore, training and professional development
should not only focus on implementing the national stand-
ards and using instructional strategies but also on how to
teach using Story Maps.
Limitations and Future Work
The study provides a practical demonstration of how
social studies teachers can integrate GIS technologies in
their classrooms. One limitation of the study is that the
12
results cannot be generalized to other eighth-grade class-
rooms. In addition, the research can be extended to
answer questions generated from the results of the study.
A proposition is to design a quantitative study using pre-
test and post-test to investigate learning content with and
without Story Maps. Another suggestion would be a
qualitative study to explore students’ perception of the
challenges they experience with using Story Maps and a
comparative study exploring students’ engagement using
Story Maps and paper maps (Collins 2018).
Finally, given the significance of student engagement
and learning outcomes, it is hoped that the findings from
this research may help to improve teaching and learning
in social studies classrooms using a variety of GIS tech-
nologies like Story Maps. Furthermore, results from this
study might encourage secondary teachers to incorporate
Story Maps as a tool to improve the way teachers teach
and the way students learn. Finally, information learned
from this study has the potential to inform curriculum
specialists, school administrators, and educators in plan-
ning activities that will improve students’ engagement
and learning in secondary social studies classrooms.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A note of appreciation to the National Park service for the Story Map
and pictures.
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14
APPENDIX. TRAVELING THROUGH THE TRAIL OF
TEARS STORY MAP: STANDARDS AND ACTIVITIES
Standards
National Geography Standards
Geography Standard 2. How to analyze the spatial organization of
people, places, and environment on Earth’s surface.

Models are used to represent spatial processes that shape human
and physical systems.
Geography Standard 5. That people create regions to interpret
Earth’s complexity.

The boundaries and characteristics of regions change.
Geography Standard 17. How to apply geography to interpret
the past.

Change occurs in the geographic characteristics and spatial organ-
ization of places, regions, and environment.
National Social Studies Standards
Standard 3. People, Places, and Environments

Analyze change and continuity in historical eras.

Construct and use mental maps of locales, regions, and the world
that demonstrate understanding of relative location, direction, size,
and shape.

Interpret, use, and distinguish various representations of the earth,
such as maps, globes, and photographs.

Use appropriate resources, data sources, and geographic tools such
as atlases, databases, grid systems, charts, graphs, and maps to
generate, manipulate, and interpret information.
Lesson
This lesson has two parts:

Students to use a pre-made Story Map to answer questions on the
acquisition of Mississippi Native American lands.

Students create a Story Map to explain the history of the
Natchez Trace.
Part 1

Distribute the blank copies of Mississippi outline maps. Have them
read about the acquisition of Native American land from
their textbook.

Go to http://bit.ly/NATRSample. Say: “The map on the screen
shows the part of Mississippi affected by the treaties.” Click on the
different areas affected by the treaties and ask the students to draw
the boundaries of the areas affected by the treaties on their
paper maps.

Ask students: “Can you name the treaties that ceded land in the
State of Mississippi? (Tell students to label the areas on their out-
line maps). Click on any part of the highlighted section and ask the
students to answer the following questions (write questions on the
board or project on a screen) in their notebooks.

What are the names of some of the areas affected by the cessions?
(Fort Adams: west Mississippi, Mount Dexter: east Mississippi,
Doak’s Stand: west central Mississippi [the Natchez Trace],
Dancing Rabbit: central Mississippi, and Pontotoc Creek: north
Mississippi). Which cession appears to be the largest in area? (The
Treaty of Doak’s Stand.) What do you notice about the location of

the boundaries? Which counties today are located in these areas?
(Answers will vary).
Part 2

Part 2 requires students to imagine themselves as historians and
geographers who have been assigned by the Native American
Journal of Geography
Historical Society to create a Story Map presentation to inform visi-
tors about the history of the Natchez Trace. Students will research
a minimum of seven points along the Natchez Trace, to include the
Devil’s Backbone State National area, Mount Locust, Emerald
Mound, Windsor Ruins, and the Sunken Trace. Each of these is
mapped in addition to two other points they consider historically
significant.
15