An updated version of the slides about my master thesis from a talk i held at GIZeitgeist 2012

1. Investigating cognitive aspects in
digital maps
Using VGI to create a child suitable map

2. Who am I?
 Philippe Rieffel, student of Geoinformatics from Muenster,
Germany
 Student assistant with GI@School (www.gi-at-school.de)
 Our Mission: Introduce new concepts of Geoinformatics to
teachers, pupils and parents
 Supported by Thomas Bartoschek with input, ideas and
supervision
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
2 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

3. Why maps for children?
 Map literacy is crucial for everyday life, school, university,
work and an independent life
 Lines up with other basic skills that are necessary
 Literacy
 Math
 Use of information and communication technologies
 Those skills are taught explicitly, while gaining map literacy
is often implicitly done
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
3 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

4. Why maps for children?
http://walrusmagazine.com/articles/2009.11-health-global-impositioning-systems/
http://www.thedailygreen.com/media/cm/thedailygreen/images/green-kids-treasure-hunt-lg.jpg
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
4 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

5. Why maps for children?
 The high school curriculum in Germany demands the
“[..] building of a topographic knowledge base
about a theme-based global orientation grid as prerequisite
for a differentiated spatial integration-related thinking”.
(Core curriculum geography, high school, NRW)
 This process could already be stimulated earlier, starting
from kindergarden
 Learning to Think Spatially: GIS as a Support System in the K-
12 Curriculum
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
5 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

6. Theoretical foundation - Piaget
 According to Piaget, infants and children form schemas to
impose order on the world
 Those schemas undergo constant variation and modification,
depending on the age
 Piaget: Assimilation and adaption
 Foundation for constructivist learning
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
6 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

7. Theoretical foundation - Piaget
http://wps.prenhall.com/hss_kassin_essentials_1/15/3935/1007493.cw/index.html
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
7 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

8. Theoretical foundation - Piaget
 Piaget: Advancement through the stages is biologocally
driven (aging)
 Newer studies show that maturing is the basis, but the speed
and quality of the advancement are influenced by external
stimuli and experience (e.g. by Newcombe, adaptive
combination)
Those stimuli can be provided from kindergarden on
 Technological advancement allows easy to use and specially
tailored methods towards spatial thinking
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
8 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

9. Piaget - criticism
 Newcombe: 4 stages are too strict
 Features of each stage are also found in earlier stages
 Automatic advancement through the stages is questioned
 Environmental factors influence the speed of development
 Piaget underestimates children abilities
 Theories are still valuable
 Theories + Criticism justify the approach of using
support tools for spatial learning from early on
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
9 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

10. Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
10 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

11. The actual topic of this talk
 (Digital) Maps are undoubtly important for the process of
spatial learning of kids, starting at very young ages
 We worked with several software products lately, even
created some, that support spatial learning processes
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
11 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

12. Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
12 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

13. The actual topic of this talk
 (Digital) Maps are undoubtly important for the process of
spatial learning of kids, starting at very young ages
 We worked with several software products lately, even
created some, that support spatial learning processes
 All lack the same problem
NO basemap especially suitable for kids!
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
13 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

14. Motivation Why is that street
yellow on this map?
I see that is grey
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
14 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

15. Research questions
 Theoretical analysis
 How do kids perceive their environment?
 How is that perception „stored“ in their imagination?
 How can that perception be transfered into a cartographic
representation?
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
15 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

16. Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
16 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

17. Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
17 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

18. Kids need „easier“ maps!
..that reflect their world!
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
18 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

19. First thoughts
 How should a map for kids look like?
 Remove unnecessary features off the map
 Use more uniform signatures
 Use clear fonts and easy symbols
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
19 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

20. First thoughts - survey
 Ask kids, how they would make a map
 Features
 Colors
 Geometries
 Icons
 Survey and sketchmaps
 Conducted during a stay in Campinas, Brazil
 Repeated in Germany soon
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
20 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

21. Survey - Map orientation
Can you identify the
area of your school
and of your home?
Please rate the maps!
general/orientation
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
21 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

22. Survey - Map orientation
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
22 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

23. Survey - Symbology I
Symbols are taken from the OpenStreetMap renderer Mapnik:
https://trac.openstreetmap.org/browser/applications/rendering/mapnik/symbols
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
23 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

24. Survey - Symbology II
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012
24

25. General information
 General information
 Gender
 Age
 Experience
 With paper maps
 With digital maps
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
25 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

26. Survey results
 35 usable datasets
 Age: 9-12
 Gender: 20 f / 15 m
 Majority (60%) had at least some experience with paper
maps
 Experience with digital map was generally little (71%)
 Map ranking:
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
26 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

27. Survey results
 First interpretation:
 Orientation along districts
 District names prominent on
selfmade maps and osm
 No district names on the OSM
excerpt
 No.1 Map had a lot of details
removed  clarity
 No. 3 Map, too much removed?
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
27 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

28. Survey results - Symbology
 Most icons were identified “correctly”, some deviations
 Parking
 Cinema
 Police
 Mail
 See-saw
 Reasons:
 Lingual differences
 Symbol design / Symbol unknown
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
28 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

29. Survey results - Colors
 Some trends
 Yellow for roads (“Google design”) only mentioned twice
 Roads either black or grey
 Red for borders
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
29 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

30. Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
30 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

31. Implementation
 Create a digital map service
 Render raster maps from OpenStreetMap Vector data
 Flexible design scheme
 Whole world data coverage
 Setup: PostgeSQL DB + Renderer + Webinterface
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
31 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

32. Implementation - flexibility
 WMS-like functionality
 Advantage: Cater the changing requirements during aging of
the children
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
32 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

33. Extent Resolution
Feature
Variability Scale Density
Map Scale Coverage
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
33 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

34. Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
34 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

35. Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
35 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

36. Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
36 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

37. All maps taken from OpenStreetmap.org || CC-BY-SA license
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
37 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

38. Map design principles
 Generalize the world as little as possible / as much as
necessary
 Use symbology that is easily connectable to the real world
 Identify important content for children, omit unnecessary
information that obstruct the map
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
38 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

39. Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
39 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

40. Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
40 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012

41. Contact
Philippe Rieffel
p.rieffel@uni-muenster.de
@p.rieffel
Progress blog:
http://52north.org/GeospatialLearning/
Philippe Rieffel, Thomas Bartoschek
41 University of Muenster, Germany March 17, 2012