Revolutionizing Geography Education: Remote Mapping Platform Enhances Classroom Learning

The Center for Metropolis Studies (CEM) will launch a new mapping application in the workshop of the 24th USP Escola Meeting. The Interactive Mapping Platform (MAPi) can be used by teachers and students in the classroom to study the urban environment. Kaue Oliveira Almeida, researcher from the Transfer Team at the Center for Metropolis Studies (CEM) at the University of São Paulo, explains the device’s functionalities and how it can be applied in school teaching.

According to the researcher, the idea of ​​enriching studies on elements of urban space arose during the pandemic period, when a teacher from the basic education network contacted CEM, stating that he used spatial data visualization and analysis tools in his work. remote classes and asked for the reestablishment of the platform, which was experiencing instability.

“The team responsible for the tool has public managers as its target audience, but this contact established by a teacher turned on a warning light that made them realize the potential of these platforms also in basic education. However, for this to happen, it was necessary to think of an entire specific structure to serve this segment”, he says.

Use

According to Almeida, the platform makes it possible to create maps on a variety of topics, such as, for example, the location of schools and transport routes, which could help to better understand access to education for those who depend on the public transport system. Another feature of MAPi, according to him, is the generation of graphs associated with geospatial data, thus allowing the analysis of the distribution of phenomena on a Cartesian plane that summarizes the information presented on the map.

Furthermore, he says that students have the ability to record geographically located elements of the surrounding urban characteristics, such as the condition of sidewalks or areas with low light, using textual information, photographs or videos. This data is organized and can be examined and interpreted through the MAPi map to promote collective reflection within the class or in collaboration with other classes, and can expand the visualization with additional information from official sources or other classes to analyze its social impacts .

“So it’s a collaborative tool where anyone can upload these photos and they can be viewed within our platform. And with that we have another layer of data, another perspective on visualizing this spatial information within cities”, he explains.

Launch

The application will be presented by Almeida with the CEM Transfer and Diffusion Team on July 18th, in an interactive workshop at the 24th USP Escola Meeting. Registration for the workshop is free and must be done by May 11th on the event’s official website , where you can also see the full schedule. He highlights that, in addition to being introduced to the program, teachers will also be heard to understand how they perceive the use of the device within the classrooms.

“It is a first version of the application that we are launching for teachers, so we want to create a dialogue with them that continues even after the event. In this way, we will try to improve the platform, whether by resolving any errors, or by adding new features to meet the demands of the entire school community”, he concludes.