Geoliteracy, Geospatial Cognitive Development and Cartology: Using Digital Maps and Mobile Serious Games on the Terrain
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1Ferland, Y.; 2Kaszap, M.
1UNIVERSITÉ LAVAL Email: yaivesferland@gmail.com
2UNIVERSITÉ LAVAL Email: margot.kaszap@fse.ulaval.ca
Abstract
The potentially positive impacts of digital information technologies on various mobile or portable devices are questioned in terms of elementary education objectives that have to be met for the development of necessary geospatial competencies at school, therefore called as Geo-literacy. The role and effects of using both digital maps and “serious games” in educational context should be considered altogether, in order to take advantage of (the assumed) children’s easiness and abilities with such technologies for enhancing their structured comprehension of geographical space, land organisation, and cartographical representation. The scientific problem and the educational concern are both about an apparent threshold or level in the development in the geospatial competencies and cognitive representations of the child that. If this stage is not sufficiently reached by the end of elementary school programme, the pupil would “regress” in terms of capability, skills, and interest to look at maps efficiently, with pleasure. Thereafter, it should be difficult to address that deficiency of the teenager further in high school. That impedes seriously geospatial behaviours and attitudes toward maps reading, location, orientation, and landscape interpretation at the adult age. The four piagetian phases of geospatial cognitive development of the child seems incomplete as just achieving “formal operation” of mapping. That is why a fifth phase for geospatial structuration is suggested to improve teenager cognitive development that overpasses the critical “threshold”. Comparison must be done between different technology devices (e.g., from pen-on-paper to smartphone) in order to verify if these ones really modify or make a difference in learning multi-scale geography on digital maps at this specific developmental stage (about 10-12 years old) and its corresponding school grades (5 to 7). For experimentation, two different software games dedicated to learning in active fieldtrips were tested in both rural village and urban district, with teachers and small groups of children. Adapted “serious games” have been prepared and documented, with rules, scenarios, trajectories, themes, and description files for observation and data collect (e.g., tagging location notes on digital maps or images), with support of GPS and augmented reality (AR) capacities. That is far more than passive touristic audioguide, treasure hunt, orienteering course or “geocaching” play! Based on a conceptual frame that considers both particular cognitive learning styles and socio-constructivist method, semi-formal activities (e.g., mobile serious games) of our GeoEduc3D research project took place within the “social universe” curriculum, which encompasses geography, history, and civic education, to which the teacher can associate topics on architecture, toponymy, or forestry, for instance. As for many digital applications in educational context, the danger to elude is to look too heavily at the child’s funny adaptation to the mobile gadgets and contingent psychomotor skills of reaction to the game, instead of the substantial learning of some disciplinary matter based on intensive map use. The concern is to develop geospatial awareness and onsite map reading competencies by active comparison directly to the ground truth, what we call “cartology” (i.e., map telling). But even serious and designed for learning purposes, a game must be played as such and not just as a metaphor. Results show that behavioural aspects of such game (competition, cooperation, attention, reaction, interaction, reflective and critical thinking) appears more efficient in multi-modal mix of realities (concrete and virtual), by playing many sets with increasing challenges, in order to capture, analyze, and synthesize geospatial information. But after each set, consolidation activities must follow in the classroom by recalling the information gathered on the terrain along with a dozen of complexity levels.
Keywords
Geoliteracy learning threshold; Maps in mobile serious games; Cartology cognitive devlopment