A project to link students through mapping

Introduction

In December/January 2009 a pilot project was carried out in Ziguinchor, Senegal to trial the use of interactive map making as a way for students in Africa and the UK to creatively communicate and strengthen their school links. By supporting students to create online maps of their own local area, partners across the world can share their own perspectives and stories about their communities. The goal of the pilot was to develop a creative and practical model for students in the UK and Africa to communicated and collaborate through mapping.

The Project

We conducted a series of meetings and
workshops for teachers and students at Lycee Djignabo High School in Ziguinchor. In total 17 students and 4 teachers were trained. The programme began by discussing how maps could
be used as a new means of communication, and what a map made by students should highlight. Students were then supported to identify categories of information they wanted their map
to contain, such as things in the community they like, problems they see and interesting places they want to share.

Ziguinchor students discussing what should be on their map

A field day took the students out into the town to
photograph and log details about some of these key
places. Photographs are an important part of the map and
help to instantly give international partners a window
into their link community.

The final workshop taught students and teachers how to
use the MfC Community Maps website to create their own
school map, add information and photographs to this map
and manage their own data.

Field Day: Organising students to venture into town

How the maps work

Each partner school owns their own map on the MfC Community Maps website. Students can add their own information to their local map, highlighting things they want to share with their partner
students. Text and photographs add further context and help to give partner students across the world a more intimate understanding of the area. Students in the UK can visit the Senegalese website (and vice versa) and explore the student created maps to learn about their partner community from the perspective of students there. The maps are owned and maintained by the schools themselves.
Dynamic maps can be continuously edited and added to.

In addition to simply visiting one another’s websites, students in one school can post questions directly to their partners map. These can then be answered on the map itself, providing a means of dialoguing directly through the map.

Map training day in Ziguinchor

What now?

The pilot programme was very successfully. Students in Ziguinchor were excited by the prospect of creating their own maps and quickly learned the technical skills necessary to manage and edit their online map. Since the programme students have continued adding information and photographs to their map.

Students at Fortismere school in London have seen the Ziguinchor map and are keen to get their own map up and running! Mapping ambassadors have been identified and trained to lead the map creation on the London end. The maps have successfully sparked a joint interest, and students in both schools are eager to use the maps to learn more about their partners and share about themselves.

This pilot offered the unique opportunity to trial a methodology in both the UK and
Africa, allowing us to identify and overcome barriers to a truly successful linking
programme. Based on the success of this pilot we are now developing a project
methodology and toolkit which could be used to initiate similar programmes elsewhere. A full report is currently in development.