Final Pitch: Mastering Map Scale

This is the final assignment (Assignment 6.2: The Final Product Pitch) for the MOOC I'm currently taking: MITx: 11.132x Design and Development of Educational Technology. We were asked to create a complete pitch for the educational intervention we've been developing during the course.

Large and Small: Understanding Map Scale Assessment

This is an assignment (Assignment 5.1: The Assessment Plan) for the MOOC I'm currently taking: MITx: 11.132x Design and Development of Educational Technology. We were asked to create an assessment plan for our educational intervention. My intervention is detailed here.

"No Cell Phone" Summit

At this year's New York State Geospatial Summit the organizers, via Bill Johnson, asked that attendees challenge themselves to refrain from checking their mobile devices during the single day event. How'd it go?

Exploring a Learning Community: The Somerville Road Runners

This is an assignment (Assignment 4.1: Amateur Ethnography) for the MOOC I'm currently taking: MITx: 11.132x Design and Development of Educational Technology. We were asked to observe and reflect on teaching and learning within a learning community. Ideally, it would be one in which we were not a participant, but that was not possible for me. Thus I chose a learning community with which I'm very familiar.

---

Observations

As soon as the idea of a learning community was introduced, I immediately thought of my running club, the Somerville Road Runners. While I’d never thought of it as anything more than a social and competitive running club, I began to realize, it is indeed a learning community as the members:

are diverse: The club includes old and young, experienced and beginner, sprinters to ultramarathoners.

have shared goals: run in general but also: run further, run faster, run with more fun, get fit, meet people involved in running, etc.

come together regularly: There are three or sometime four “official” events per week which members ,and those who want to explore membership, can attend: track practice, two fun runs, and a formal or informal long run.

knowledge sharing: There are lots of informal chats during warmups and long runs; some include experts and apprentices and others are peer to peer interaction.

I’ve been in the club for about 10 years, so my observations stem from my own participation.

Experts and novices are hard to spot until the running begins. Everyone slowly learns who the fast men and women are as they win our fun runs and are called out for achievements on our Yahoo or Facebook groups. But there is also a culture that encourages more experienced participants to link those with questions to the “right” person. If you are considering running the Chicago Marathon, you will be pointed at those who have run it before.

There is far more informal mentoring than direct instruction. Sub groups that form at track practice and for long runs (those who run at roughly the same pace) become environments for mentoring. It’s certainly not called “mentoring,” and most participants probably think of it as “taking about one of my favorite things: running.” Direct instruction occurs at track practice when the coach describes the workout and how to get the most out of it. “We are doing 6 x 800, so don’t due the first ones too fast. The goal is to get them all done close to your goal time.” There is also direct instruction for those who choose to ask for input from the coach or other more experienced runners.

Questions run the gamut from: How do I train for a marathon? What race should I pick for my first marathon? How fast should I run my long runs? What do you eat before a marathon? What are the best shoes for trail running? My foot hurts; should I see the doctor? I’m exhausted; when can I take a day off running? How many calories per hour do you need to run 100 miles? The answers typically include a response from recipient but more often than not, a referral: “You should talk to x, he just ran a 100 mile race. Let me introduce you!”

The level of engagement varies. There is a core group that appears regularly. Other members 
 come and go. Some members are very social and have lots of questions and want to chat, others attend runs just to have companionship.

The "Aha" moment for me was in the first readings about learning communities. That’s when it occurred to me that this running club is indeed a learning community. As I noted above, I’d never thought it that way before!

Learning Theories

While I’m sure there are more than just two learning theories represented in my running club interactions, I want to focus on social learning and simulations.

I’ve detailed many of the kinds of interactions that involve social learning above, but have some specific examples. Social learning ideally involves all participants and offers a safe environment to try something new. At track practice the 60 (+/-) attendees typically break into groups of five or ten who run about the same pace. The runners in each group work together to complete the workout. Most workouts involve several repetitions (short runs) with a break in between. To share the load, different individuals will lead each repetition. Newer runners are often nervous about leading, fearing they’ll “do it wrong.” The community builds a backstop by having a more experienced runner provide some perspective: “Only two things can happen: you can run too fast or run too slow! I’ll run behind you and help you adjust the pace.” With that help nearly every first time “leader” is successful, which helps him or her move confidently into being an active community member.

The expert/apprentice model, part of social learning, pops up quite a bit. I had an experience several years ago that confirmed its value to me. I was warming up for track practice with one of our most experienced (65+) members. He’d asked how I was doing and I explained I was depressed, craved carbs and was not running well. I was “not myself.” “Hmmm.” he replied. “It’s October, the days are getting shorter, I wonder if it’s the lack of sunlight, seasonal affective disorder.” I went home and Googled it and found I had a classic set of symptoms. I bought a “wake up light,” which gradually wakes you up  in the morning, like the sun would. I’ve not had the problem since! 

I’ve been on the expert side of the equation, too. A first time ultrarunner approached me about nutrition during a 50 mile race. His first one was the next week. I shared my experience and helped him place in the top ten. To be fair, he was talented to begin with, but clearly he felt there was value in my input. I felt valued as an expert which perhaps tied me closer to the community.

The other learning theory we use within the running club is simulation. Many longer runs are meant to simulate, at least in part, the longer races we do (marathons, 50k, 50 mile and longer races). We’ll plan a long run to start about the time of race, have water and fuel when we expect to have it in the race, and attempt to cover terrain (hills, trails, flats) just the race course. Those of us who run through the night try to include at least one “night run” to gain experience for the challenges of running at night after being on one’s feet for 12 hours or more.

Reflection on Experience

While I did not consciously and formally observe the Somerville Road Runners, just thinking back on my experience helped think of it in a new way. I think it’s interesting that this club. and I suspect many other clubs related to sports or arts or other topics, have characteristics of learning communities though none of them set out to instill them. 

I’m curious how those of us who are trying to create learning communities can learn from these groups that seem to have its hallmarks in their DNA.

I’m sure being a researcher/participant skewed what I saw and how I reported on it. In an ideal world I would have tried to visit with another community and act solely as an observer. 

Large and Small: Learning about Map Scale

This is an assignment (Assignment 3.2: The Elevator Pitch) for the MOOC I'm currently taking: MITx: 11.132x Design and Development of Educational Technology. We were asked to pitch our chosen education technology intervention with a one minute video. A more detailed document is below.

Large and Small: Understanding Map Scale

Students of geography typically know how to use a map’s bar scale to estimate the distance from one location to another. They can also use the representative fraction (RF, 1:24,000, for example) to do similar tasks. But ask them if they need a large or small scale map to explore the trails in the town park or the route a car might take from New York to California and they are stumped. In short, they can use map scale, but don’t really understand map scale.

My intervention is designed to teach about map scale for understanding, which should also help in its use and connect it to real world use. In particular I want students to understand:

• Larger scale means more potential details can be seen, smaller scale means fewer details.
• Larger scale maps cover smaller areas (details of one tree, rather than a forest), smaller scales cover larger areas (rivers in a country, rather than paths trough a town park).
• Using a map to find an answer depends on it being at the appropriate scale.
• The RF is like a fraction, a larger fraction (a bigger piece of pie) means a larger scale.

The intervention takes advantage of active learning tapping both a simulation component and a constructionist component.

The first element is an enhanced online world map, akin to Google Maps. The difference is the addition of a few tools. Students can enter a scale by keying in a number in an input box. In short, they’d put in in x in 1:x. The map responds by “zooming to” that scale. There’d also be two buttons labeled “larger scale” and “smaller scale.” Each one would change the scale by a factor of perhaps 10. Thus, hitting the larger scale button would change the scale from 1:1000 to 1:100. I’d also like my map to cover scales beyond 1:1, that is 2:1, 10:1, etc. I’d also like a way to visualize that 1:1000 is smaller than 1:100 visually, perhaps by using a grid of dots and turning one of the 100 or one of 1000 bright red.

Mock Up of Interface of First Element

The workflow might include a series of problems asking, essentially, what scale map might be appropriate for a map showing:

• your walking or driving route to school
• where you hid a treasure in your back yard
• a car trip out of state (or country)
• which states in the United States grow wheat
• countries that are members of the European Union

The second element of the intervention involves students drawing their own maps. They’d do so on the left pane of a window. That would be the “real world” side. They might sketch a penny, a pencil, a toy bicycle. The other pane would, in as real time as possible, show the representation of the object at whatever scale is assigned in an input box as noted above. As before the student would also have access to a “larger scale” and “smaller scale” button to adjust the mapped representation. 

Enhancing Maps101’s Field Trips

This is an assignment (Assignment 3.1: Make a Mod) for the MOOC I'm currently taking: MITx: 11.132x Design and Development of Educational Technology. We were asked to identify an existing educational intervention, identity some weaknesses and suggest some modifications to make it better based on ideas we explored about educational theories and proven methods.

The Learning Intervention

I discussed Field Trips in my post from Week 1. It’s a tool to help knit history and geography together by integrating text, maps, images and videos. I felt that it had potential to be better than a textbook, but in its first iteration, offered a very passive experience. Students click through numbered topics and occasionally watch a video.

The product is rather new and I have found no information about its effectiveness. I did find that the product is part of a “pivot” and update to the company’s base product “Maps101,” a database of resources for social studies, history and geography. Sadly, a discussion of the rebranding and product development seemed to focus on teacher, rather than learner, needs. The other key drivers were support for standards and the development of a modern and fun user interface. I did not find any discussion of learning theories or user engagement from the designer who shared these insights.

I think Field Trips could be enhanced with some active learning!

The Weak Points

I will focus on just one part of one Field Trip: the second element (Pin 2) called Geography of the Nile in the Field Trip titled Gift of the Nile (it’s a sample Field Trip, open to all). Here are the concerns I shared about this content in Week 1.

It [Pin 2] discusses how the river is formed by the merging of the White and Blue Niles. It goes on to mention some rapids [caused by cataracts] that are treacherous for boats at a location called The Giant Bend. I zoomed in and out on the map but could not find the two tributaries. Perhaps they were there, just not labeled? I could not find where the rivers merge or the location of The Great Bend. There is no search tool for the map. Even worse, the location “pin” for Item 2 on the map is not even on the river (see below)! A motivated learner would quickly jump to a search engine to find a better map of the waterways of Egypt!

Here's a refresher on the current interface and workflow. Students click through each piece of numbered content.

Overall interface and workflow for Gift of the Nile Field Trip

Here are details of the current map interface. Note the limited zoom tools and lack of a search box.

Limited Interactive Interface for Map Exploration

Suggested Active Learning Enhancements

1. Give the students a search tool and a more complete set of "zoom" tools on the interactive map and ask them to find where the rivers merge. Ask them to explain, in general, why locations where rivers merge, are important. Ask them to give examples nearby or ones made famous around the world. (Three Rivers Stadium ring any bells?) 
2. Ask students to ponder why the rivers might be called the Blue and White Nile. Have them offer up a hypothesis and a made up story of the names. Then, have them research the origin of those names to see if their hypotheses held any truth.
3. Have students, again using the search tools, find the Great Bend and some of the cataracts. Ask them to consider how the bend and the cataracts might impact choices of where Egyptians live or work. There’s a great day vs. night set of satellite imagery of the area that helps reveal where the settlements are today. 

Why These Enhancements Might Work

1. Having students seek and explore via an interactive (or even a static) map is active learning. Asking them to look at the merging of rivers in general ties what they are learning about Egypt to their general and perhaps local knowledge of rivers. This might be part of a reflection exercise, asking how the study of Egypt relates to their region.
2. Hypothesizing about how physical features or their names appear is a kind of modeling. Constructing a story (constructivism), even a made up one, enhances build model building prowess. Identifying the “true story” can help students update their models and knowledge.
3. Moving beyond the idea that that there are cataracts and a Big Bend helps push students beyond memorizing facts to more generalized knowledge of how physical geography impacts human geography. This is teaching for understanding, rather than just for content.

Being new to educational technology, I’m not aware of how similar interventions have panned out. Not only is Field Trips new, the underlying technology, story maps, is also new. In fact an example of embedding quizzes into story maps just appeared in August of this year. I’ll be curious to see if enhancements like those I’ve suggested are implemented in future editions.