Brooklyn’s Waterfront as a Living Laboratory:

Place-based Learning Through the Creation of Cultural Heritage Walking

Tours Anne Leonard, Research and Pedagogy Liaison, Living Lab & Brooklyn Waterfront Research

Center, Assistant Professor & Instruction/Reference Librarian, NYC College of Technology

Susan Phillip, Living Lab Third-year Fellow, Associate Professor, Hospitality Management, NYC College of Technology

CUNY IT Conference

John Jay College/CUNY December 6, 2013

About the Living Laboratory A five-year, $3.1M Title V grant from the Department of Education • Revitalize General Education • Incorporate high-impact learning practices • Capitalize on City Tech’s best asset – our location

adjacent to Brooklyn’s historic waterfront neighborhoods

The OpenLab and the Walking Tour http://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/waterfront

Flickr user 007jmontgomery

About the Living Lab Fellows • Faculty Fellows –

equal partners in curating & contributing content

• Reflections captured on OpenLab site

Tour Research

Historic & Contemporary Maps

• Collections • Digitization

Operational Issues

• WordPress plugins • Digital divide • Partnering with local institutions

Walking Tours as Open Pedagogy • Open Pedagogy: learning tools, lessons,

activities, and assessment are open and can be shared

• When we make our pedagogical tools open, they

are used in ways we don’t anticipate • Walking tours are a dynamic and responsive

means of open pedagogy

Place-based Learning through Cultural Heritage Tours

Students with Marlene Butler, a resident of Brooklyn Heights.

Urban Tourism Course

Examines: • Tourism as the largest industry globally • The role of tourism in urban economies • Tourism as a driver of job growth in the

Post-Fordist economies • The transformation of waterfronts from

places of industry to places of leisure

Place-based Education Place-based education is a process of

using the local community and environment as a starting point to teach concepts in language arts, mathematics, social studies, science and other subjects across the curriculum.

Sobel, David. Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms & Communities

(2004: The Orion Society).

Cultural Heritage Tourism

“traveling to experience the places and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past and present. It includes historic, cultural and natural resources.”

National Trust for Historic Preservation

Cultural Heritage Walking Tour Place-based Assignment

• Students conduct research and create cultural heritage walking tours in Brooklyn

• Students create brochures • Students may serve as tour guides

Experiential Learning Process • Research history of neighborhoods • Identify community cultures • Observe the forces driving tourism and

changing neighborhoods • Learn about cultural and social history of

neighborhoods • Interact with the community

Place-based Learning through Cultural Heritage Tours

Students with Marlene Butler, a resident of Brooklyn Heights.

Learning Outcomes (Discipline Specific and General Education)

• Comprehend the concept of urban tourism and its role in the economic renewal and revitalization of cities

• Research urban tourism strategies • Evaluate the role of government and private

partnerships in the success of urban tourism initiatives

• Analyze the economic, environmental and social impacts of urban tourism

High Impact Educational Outcomes in the Assignment

• Collaborative research/project • Place-based learning • Shared experiences Under Development: • Identify Academic Service Learning

partner

Resources • Brooklyn Historical Society

http://www.bobcat.nyu.edu/brooklynhistory

• Community-based observation • Interviews • Google maps

OpenLab • Tours will be posted on OpenLab • Tour may be led by students or be self-

guided • Tour participants will be able to comment

on tours • Students will post reflections on OpenLab

Challenges of the Assignment

• Monitoring the students’ progress as the work is being done outside the classroom

• Making time to do the initial neighborhood research

• Conflicting dynamics in student teams • Finding an organization for service learning

Assessment • Reflection • Rubric • Peer feedback • Revision • Public feedback on OpenLab

Lessons Learned • Share final project expectations day

one • Scaffold the assignment on a weekly

basis to track progress • Include models of tours

THANK YOU:

Jonas Reitz, Project Director, A Living Laboratory Karen Goodlad and Alexander Aptekar, Living Laboratory

Co-directors Richard Hanley, Director, Brooklyn Waterfront Research

Center OpenLab Community Facilitators