Sketchmap: a system for supporting outdoor collaborative learning by enhancing and sharing learners' experiences (original) (raw)
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KANSEI Engineering International, 2009
In this paper, the author aims to construct the environmental learning program and analyzes the map-making by the PC and examines its value or usability from the viewpoint of Kansei philosophy. First is a description of the design summary of the PC based map-making system. Next, the author explains the flow of the map-making program using this system. After that, the author verifies the practical effect of the learning on 40 sixth-grade children, analyzing questionnaires given to the children. According to this analysis, the children have developed awareness of real places and other people by the process of the PC based map-making. In the world of virtual "play", they were able to develop interpretations of other people, understand real places deeply and come to notice changes in their own recognition.
A Collaboration Support Tool for Cartography Learning in the Open Air
Proceedings of …, 2006
SketchMap [2] is a system designed for use by primary school children in order to draw their 'personal environment maps' -a task habitually tackled when being introduced for the first time to the basic concepts of cartography. The system integrates face-to-face and distributed collaboration scenarios and offers the children a simple means to get accustomed to novel technology such as WLAN and GPS without being distracted from their learning goals. As a primitive use case, we have adapted the original SketchMap system and applied it for use in security map classes (that is the investigation of security issues on the children's way from and to school, creating map sketches to describe the school's surroundings). From participants' feedback of the case study conducted at a local primary school, we received valuable insights, both for the usage of applied technologies in such kinds of educational field activities as well as for SketchMap's further development.
A Collaborative Tool to Learn Basic Cartographical Concepts
2008
In this paper we present SketchMap, a system that integrates face-to-face and distributed collaboration of primary school children. We use small-scale tablet PCs for the distributed field work and an additional normal PC with data projector for the face-to-face situation. Children use SketchMap for creating their 'personal environment' map of an area around their school -a task habitually tackled when being introduced for the first time to the basic concepts of cartography. While the SketchMap version described in this paper focuses on the mentioned task, the system itself can easily be extended or adapted to other related scenarios such as instruction on traffic behavior or on civil protection measures. First user experiences with SketchMap showed that there certainly remains work ahead, but that already now it supports users well in their distributed drawing and face-to-face collaborative 'map merging' tasks.
Kids’ Atlas application to Learn about Geography and Maps
ADCAIJ: Advances in Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence Journal, 2020
Geography is the study of local and spatial variations in physical and human events on Earth. Studies of the world's geography have grown together with human developments and revolutions. Atlases often present geographic features and boundaries of areas; an atlas is a compilation of different Earth maps or Earth regions, such as the Middle East, and the continents of Asia, and North America. Most teachers still use classical methods of teaching. Geographical concepts and map-reading skills are the most common aspects of learning that early-stage students find challenging. Hence, the objective of this application is to develop a geography application for children between the ages of 9 and 12 years that would allow them to learn maps. Nowadays, smartphones and mobile apps are drawing closer to becoming acceptable learning tools. To facilitate this, Kids’ Atlas is an android application, the main purpose of which is to help children to learn easily and test their knowledge. The ap...
Young Children Collaborating to use Maps during Technology based Distributed Learning Activities
2003
How very young children of 6 years old reach to accomplish activities related to map use (reading, navigation); activities so cognitive demanding even for adults? This paper presents certain analysis aspects on a complex cognitive system that is formed by two groups of children collaborating by distance so as to navigate each other, through the use of technological tools of motion representation, cartography and oral communication. The analysis presented in this paper is focused mainly on cognitive processes during intra-group interactions as well as inter- group interactions involving relations and interactions among individuals and artifacts and examines which cognitive activities are emerged or activated by the children in their effort to read a map and navigate others to move in space facilitating learning related to spatial knowledge.
Wandering: A Web-based platform for the creation of location-based interactive learning objects
Computers & Education, 2012
Wandering is an innovative web-based platform that was designed to facilitate outdoor, authentic, and interactive learning via the creation of location-based interactive learning objects (LILOs). Wandering was integrated as part of a novel environmental education program among middle school students. This paper describes the Wandering platform's structural architecture and an evaluation study that was conducted among grade nine students (N ¼ 102) who participated in the innovative educational program. Our goal was to examine students' learning outcomes and experiences while creating LILOs' and providing comments. Findings indicated high motivation among students to use Wandering, not only for completing their school assignment, but also for contributing to the community. Despite the fact that the tagging and commenting tools could have been used more efficiently by students, more than one third of the LILOs received an excellent grad. In addition, our findings indicated that Wandering is a good platform for enhancing 21st century skills, including: engagement with others, personalization, control release, and change adaption.
” Hide and Tweet”: A game to teach schoolchildren about spatial technologies
As part of the Geotechnology research team at NUI Maynooth we were involved in the preparation and running of various activities in the Summer School on Computer Science for school children aged between 12 to 18 years old. Since year 2009 we have been constantly developing, testing, and deploying some geospatial software applications which were used by the children for activities in the summer school programme. The high level goal of this development was to help school children become more familiar GPS devices and computerbased Location-based services (LBS) technologies which are now playing such a crucial role in today's Internet connected society. The software applications were used as part of games and tasks for the children. In our paper we shall describe how these games have evolve during these years, the educational aspects and benefits of the game and how both the software components and devices were developed. Overall, children participating in the summerschool provided their comments in the form of a survey. They felt that there were now more aware about possibilities in geoinformatics available with "ordinary off the shelf devices". Different issues related with webbased maps (Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, Bing Maps, etc) were introduced and we explained the differences between them. Most importantly in case of geo-technologies we felt that the activities helped the children become aware that that computing and positioning happens everywhere and is not tied with the desk and the desktop computer. We summarise our experiences gained in these last three years and discuss the educational gains of this type of game-based approach to location-based technologies to schoolchildren. All of our software is developed using free and open-source components meaning that it can be deployed by any school or educational facility with minimum cost. A smartphone-based version of the software has also been developed.
Primary Children's Collaborative Cartography: Communication and Mapping Processes
Simple but powerful computer drawing tools give primary school pupils the opportunity to act as creative cartographers and to collaborate in the construction of electronic maps. Use of such technology in schools is promoted by the Ordnance Survey and by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the body responsible for the delivery of the National Curriculum in English primary and secondary schools. However, there remains much work to be done in developing effective teaching and learning approaches that make the most of both new technology and well established cartographic principles. This paper presents data and analysis from an ongoing PhD research project. The research focuses on the collaborative processes used by children aged between seven and ten years old to solve mapping problems. During the current school year, 80 children from one primary school worked in pairs to make collaborative maps. They used a computer drawing application to represent nominal and ordinal data in the creation of a map of the locality surrounding their school.