The session was inspired by a life drawing project created by Lucia Vinti during the pandemic lockdowns of 2020. (Lucia Vinti, Google Maps Travels.) The digital artefact the participants were asked to engage with was a StreetView location on Google Maps, provided via a URL. This was an opportunity to try out an idea for our cohort of second years. While we would not have time to explore every aspect the activity would touch on, the microteach held valuable feedback.
‘We are going on an adventure!’
The students are transported to ‘Happy World’, a mysterious theme park. They cannot move, but they can turn and zoom in and out. The first task is an attempt to situate themselves.
The intention was to encourage the participants to be curious and open to the unexpected. This was received with a mixture of anxiety and positivity.
I loved all the twists and turns and not really knowing why we were on google maps in this unfamiliar place and then everything being revealed afterwards.
– comment from Jess B.
This is an example of ‘safe anxiety’, a concept I am exploring in my teaching practice.
The participants wrote their initial impressions and I read them out loud as a way of familiarising myself with names and dissuading nerves about presenting ‘incorrect’ information. In my experience, if I ask a group of students a question that has a firm answer I am less likely to get a forthcoming response. This decision was received positively by the participants.
I wanted the participants to embody a character: an explorer gathering information. I find that roleplaying in this way can open students to consider new perspectives. Role-play is something I am exploring in my case studies.
“I also appreciated your description of us being time travellers – it takes us out of our lived biases and experiences and makes us look at the world in a bare lense [sic], more open to the wonder and excitment [sic] of random places.”
– comment from Kitty B.
Returning to Happy World, they were tasked with gathering information. Initially, this caused some students to freeze:
… at first I was daunted by the open endedness of “collect information” but I ended up really enjoying the freedom to look at whatever I wanted and the lack of pressure to do something specific or follow strict instructions
– comment from Kitty B.
I gave three ways to gather information: writing, taking ‘photographs’ (screenshots), and observational drawing. The way I delivered these prompts could have been improved, I have a tendency to throw ideas out in order to meet the student where they are, rather than offering clear steps and waiting for the student to meet me half-way.
My choice of location was meaningful to me. I am Burmese on my mother’s side, and have not been able to visit Myanmar for some time now due to the ongoing civil war.
I wanted to touch on the politics of maps, and technology. I showed two screenshots, one with the street view routes highlighted and one without. Thailand and Bangladesh, Myanmar’s neighbours, light up in blue. Myanmar is a desert in comparison.
This was the ‘twist’ of the workshop. (As an illustrator I often think of things as narratives, I love a twist ending.)
I loved all the twists and turns and not really knowing why we were on google maps in this unfamiliar place and then everything being revealed afterwards.
– comment from Jess B.
I wanted to speak clearly and with empathy about conflict and separation from family, but this microteach was too short to really give this reveal space to sink in. In fact, it’s quite problematic as noted by Tim. It is more thoughtful to give a warning before jumping into these topics. In our feedback tutorial, I was reminded of a time I received a news notification of a particularly violent incident in Yangon, and how distracted and unfocused that made me when teaching. I will be much more careful in the future.
After sharing this personal history with the place we have explored, I asked the students to think of and find a place of their own. We spent the last moments of the activity visiting each others links and speaking about topics such as home, wanderlust, and family.
What went well?
- Roleplaying to induce safe anxiety
- Workshop planning as storytelling (using a twist ending for memorability)
- Immersive and exploratory learning
- Image gathering as research, using alternative techniques
Areas to Improve
- Sensitivity warnings
- Giving space for conversation to breathe
- Time management, restructuring to prevent rushing or pushing students before they are ready to move on from a task
- Practicing with technology before the session
Bibliography
Lucia Vinti. Google Maps Travels. 2020. Pencil drawing. https://luciavinti.com/google-maps-travels.
‘Myanmar’. Google Maps. Accessed 25 March 2024. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Myanmar+(Burma)/@18.7158842,86.0119698,5z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x305652a7714e2907:0xba7b0ee41c622b11!8m2!3d21.916221!4d95.955974!16zL20vMDR4bl8?entry=ttu.
Sanjay Kumar. ‘Happy World Amuseument Park’. Google Maps, July 2022. https://www.google.com/maps/@16.7943306,96.1499252,3a,75y,287.49h,78.38t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPEfUwvGJZb9dZPZD0Mt8pccPxcRqpAofbNiXEK!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPEfUwvGJZb9dZPZD0Mt8pccPxcRqpAofbNiXEK%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya100.82141-ro-0-fo100!7i6080!8i3040?entry=ttu.