| dc.description.abstract | Sketch maps or croquis are a tool widely applied in geography research and education. In education,
the main goals of using sketch maps are geographically structuring information and distinguishing
between main and side issues. In education, the most important goal of using sketch maps is thus
training higher cognitive skills: to create new knowledge or information by combining information from
different sources into one sketch map. A sketch map is used to tell a story, with the map maker
interpreting information that is told to readers through the map.
In this research, an attempt is made to find requirements from didacticians, teachers and students
active in secondary school geography education for creating a digital sketch map making tool. For this
purpose, theoretical research, focus groups, try outs and coding are applied.
A first theoretical exploration suggests that sketch maps are an effective tool when used in education.
From literature, both advantages and disadvantages of hand-drawn of digital methods of sketch map
making can be found. In the Dutch context, sketch maps are occasionally applied. Using sketch maps
in education could however be a useful addition to the curriculum, as is for example the case in France.
The results in this research are determined using qualitative data. A total of five didacticians, three
teachers and 62 (of whom 19 were interviewed) students participated in the research. After
conducting a focus group with the didacticians, a prototype sketch map making tool was created and
tested in four different tryout sessions. The created tool was aimed at providing not only basic drawing
functionality for users to create maps, but also to provide flexibility for users to be able to change and
correct mistakes made in a sketch map easily. More importantly, the tool provides the possibility for
teachers to create assignments, which can be opened and used by students. This enables teachers to
provide the necessary structure to students of different levels, an important prerequisite for sketch
map making didacticians stressed. In the test, the most important functionality of the tool – being able
to successfully create sketch maps – seemed to suffice. This meant the users not only saw the relevance
of digital sketch map making, but also the practicality and the effectiveness of the tool is expected to
suffice.
Concluding it may be said that in order for the application of digital sketch map making in education,
it is important that sufficient structure can be provided to students through differentiation.
Furthermore, it is important for the tool to be easily accessible by everyone. This means the tool should
be web-based, and drawing should be possible on different kinds of hardware.
Further research should be aimed at further developing the tool. This requires trying to fix some issues
with zooming and panning found in the research. Also, more extensive functionality with lower priority
found in this research may be added to the tool. After a more extensive large-scale field test, more
definitive results about the quality, relevance, practicality and effectiveness of digital means of making
sketch map can be provided. | |
