Overview
Mapping Self in Society (MaSelfS) is a framework for teaching personal geography and critical spatial inquiry. Teachers working in different disciplines such as social studies or computer science can use this framework to engage learners in activities where they learn how to use open source tools to collect and dynamically visualize their physical movement data over thematic maps to explore relations between people and the social and cultural life of neighborhoods and communities. These activities align the experience of personal geography with analyses of society and integrate ideas in human geography with contemporary ideas about data ethics and computational analysis. The framework is also designed for researchers who are considering using new location-based technologies in ethically sensitive ways for research about public history, critical spatial and computational analysis of human geography, and design studies of learning on the move.
This website brings together free, open source tools for gathering data on personal mobility, structuring these data to explore the “daily round” of personal experience at community scale, and visualizing personal geography over time and thematic maps created with larger data sets in these communities. Sections of the website are organized as a sequence of 5 activities that are summarized below. Concepts and tools introduced in each activity can be used separately, or recombined to create novel forms of teaching or research. This work is a collaboration between researchers and teachers at Georgia State University and Vanderbilt University and is generously supported by the Spencer Foundation and the National Science Foundation.
Activity 1: Capturing the “daily round” & exploring personal geography
You will learn how to collect your physical movement data using a free and award-winning application called OutdoorActive. You will also be introduced to concepts and questions in human geography and topics relevant to the ethical use of personal data.
Activity 2: Placing Yourself on the Map
You will learn how to process the physical movement data you collected using a free platform called GPS Visualizer. You will also critically consider how others see you as a digital self represented through digital mapping technologies such as coordinate systems.
Activity 3: Mapping Social Life & Basics of Spatial Data
You’ll learn about thematic maps and what makes a good thematic map. You’ll also create a few thematic maps of your own for use in Activity 4.
Activity 4: Visualizing self in relation to society
You’ll learn how to use novel visualization tools to dynamically visualize your physical movement data over different thematic maps you collected in order to see yourself in relation to society.
Activity 5: Reflecting on personal geography, data ethics & social and cultural life
Mapping your personal geography over thematic maps with novel visualization tools raises new questions about how social and cultural practices relate to experiences in everyday life. This section shares questions and assignments to reflect on your experiences in activities 1-4 and sample responses from teachers and learners who have used the MaSelfS framework.
