Saturday 11 April 2009

Maps

My Easter Reading is "The Grid Book", a fascinating history of ten grids that have influenced human culture. The ten grids are: brick, tablet, gridiron, map, notation, ledger, screen, type, box and network. I've got as far as maps and came across the following which caused me to reflect on the ways in which we might map the school:

"This fundamental shift away from the collective grid heralds a fundamental transformation in the perception of space in the twenty-first century...Unlike the standardized road maps of the past, highly individualized maps covering specific interests sit side-by-side in a digital universe where every fear and every pleasure has its map...These new maps index a physical world in ever greater detail at the same time as they are constantly adaptable, receptive to collective and individual needs and fantasies about that world."

Could we consider ways in which maps of Thomas Tallis School could reflect this shift in perceptions as a consequence of increased access to new technologies? Might this also be a useful metaphor for thinking about how learning is changing? What might these maps be like and how would they be constructed?

1 comment:

Amber Rowe said...

I can't remember who it was that showed me the maps of London that were recorded depending on peoples emotions at that time. They had 3 simple things like happy, OK and sad as options and then asked people in main locations over a week which was presented as a graph. But digitally you could 'zoom in' to more information about the people like whether they lived in London or were visiting family, tourists so on.
I'm sure it was a webpage actually I remember looking at it, but there are hundreds of examples of these - this could be an option, some sort of web page database that presents a visual pattern. Could be shown against a wall through video? or as part of a game. Which part of the school would you imagine people to be feeling like this, and who would you think it would be e.g student/teacher...