Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The TweetMap also permits tweets to be arranged temporally to allow a
threaded discussion to be visualized with commonly used terms on the outside of
the spiral (Fig.
6
).
By focussing on the temporal aspect of the discussion we select a spatial
location in the area that the exercise is taking place (in this case the city of Valetta
in Malta). The avatars of contributors are arranged in a spiral so that the largest,
outermost avatar is the most recent contributor. The content of the discussion is
arranged around the outside using the visual variables of size and transparency to
highlight the most frequently used concepts.
5 Results
The #malta10 TweetMap provides a number of ways of supporting collaborative
learning. Firstly, student groups were working in disparate locations (see Fig.
5
)
and the Tweetmap allowed a common communication framework in which stu-
dents could post messages, work in collaboration with other groups and commu-
nicate with staff.
The TweetMap provided a social network for students that pulled information
from individual Twitter accounts into a common, shared platform adding value by
defining the spatial context and enabling collaborative learning.
The loosely defined task of the landuse mapping exercise forced students to
interact as demonstrated by them sharing images of unfamiliar landuse types via
Twitter and asking questions such as ''Is this garrigue?'' and ''establishing whe-
ther farm land is derelict or not is difficult twitpic.com/atj12''. Responses from
classmates who provided alternate views (bottom-up) and staff who could share
textbook examples, images and definitions (top-down) informed and guided the
implementation of a data collection schema (ontology) based on the students
sharing their epistemologies and experiences.
Students debated this need for consistent data collection via Twitter (e.g. ''we
need to sort out standardisation'') and developed an ad-hoc schema after delib-
eration (e.g. ''@rafchris #malta10 map these cats: ftpth, main rd, resid rd st furn
aband agri, agri, agri bld, beach, com bldg, garrigue, maqu/@wedwobin'') and
built on experience of their environment the previous day which was then dis-
seminated via Twitter. As documented by the students:
Axxxx had looked up the definitions for Maquis and Garrique land types for us to use.
Bxxxx then sent out our agreed standards into the Malta10 twittersphere for the other
groups.
The students used a Delphi approach sharing potential categories via Twitter
while being advised by staff. These categories were refined through iteration as
groups shared ''what if?'' scenarios and individually observed categories were
added to the developing schema (e.g. where students observed a new potential data
type).
