Abstract

Today, students in middle and high school, who are highly accustomed to web services and mobile communication and the internet, have enjoyed interactive communications with digital devices. Their participation in the creations and exploration of digital contents suggest a new way of map learning attitude and motivation, showing not just a consumer of information from teacher-oriented knowledge but a mapping knowledge producer. This paper, as a preliminary attempt for exploring map based teaching and learning class at the middle school level, shows a case study using OpenStreetMap based geography class at middle school, have been practising in Free Semester System. The OSM characteristics as a web-based mapping platform were investigated, and the middle school students participated to create their maps and practised their maps into editing and retrieving processes. Finally, from the students’ mapping performance, this study identified the usefulness of OSM in geography class at middle schools, confirming teaching and learning possibilities and competitiveness of student-centred learning of geography and map education in a digital era.