How and why do people's mental maps differ? What do the mental maps of many Americans say about the state of geographic education in the US? Who knew they'd ever need to know where Islamabad, Kandahar and Kabul were?!
These were the questions that I first had when I was thinking about developing an online project for this course. I had done mental map exercises with my geography students for years, but was excited about the prospects of having online collaborators--ideally from countries other than the US--so I could see how their maps differ. I was motivated, additionally, by the numerous reports that indicate US high school students' inability to locate places like Florida and California, not to mention other countries...
My students generally approach this task with equal parts of fear and loathing, and I think that's because they're embarrassed of what they think they'll produce. Most complain about not being a good "artist", "just give me a blank map to fill out". But I insist on the blank page, because a lot can be learned from how people construct these maps: what they include, what they omit, and where they locate things.
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