Quite a few tweachers have asked me why did I create the map? So I thought I’d do a quick piece on what its all about, why I did it and why I REALLY did it!

 

Several weeks ago, I was having a conversation with the rather wonderful @fullonlearning also known as Zoe Elder, writer of the quite dazzlingly brilliant book ‘Full On Learning’ about an article I read on the BBC website about the design of underground maps across the world, following the publication of a book by psycologist, Dr Maxwell Roberts. He states,  “A nice map in front of you says ‘you can go anywhere and do anything and here’s how to do it”. That quote really stuck with me. I ADORE the tube map. It’s probably my all time favourite piece of design. It reads brilliantly for pretty much everyone and has influenced so many other map designs across the globe. It makes what might seem a complex, difficult journey seem as easy as ABC.

So, as I said, a few weeks ago, I created a simple twitter map, using the central area (zone1) to link some of my important twitter friends together. It was ridiculously popular. In fact so popular that I spent several days emailing a copy to pretty much everyone on there. Anyway… A few weeks after that, I took the plunge and created the entire map, including overland routes, over 360 stations and created The Tweacher’s Map. What was an incredibly long slog….Deleting all the old names of stations, redrawing all the blue lines and grey and white background areas took scores of hours to do, but I guess I wanted to do a proper job this time round.I filled in as many of the stations as I could with the magnificent people I follow. I am not and will never be highly organised, so of course I had no check list of who was on there, who was missing that really should be on there, but I got to a stage where about half of it was finished. I then tweeted where I was up to and asked for people to get intouch to fill the spaces. I looked at blogs, tweeted with new followers to ensure they were right for the map. Finally after probably 100 hours work, the map was finished. Special mentions were made to the first inspiring tweachers I met and the rest as they say is… well on the map.

Twitter has completely transformed my perceptions of what I do everyday. I have always been (I hope) a fairly decent teacher, who likes to constantly reflect and adapt my teaching. Joining Twitter has allowed that journey to become a shared experience and I have gained SO MUCH from reading fellow teachers blogs, tweeting with truly awesome teachers from across the globe. It has been transformational for me. So… The map is my way of saying thank you to all the brilliant teachers, educators and thinkers on Twitter who have helped shape my thinking far more than I could have hoped to do in a lifetime of teaching by myself. Having only been tweeting since early Summer this year, I cannot get over how much I have learned from so many people. I am sure by this time next year, I could fill ten tube maps, but it’s probably time to hand the baton over to someone who knows what they’re doing…. Using illustrator. I hear it’s being used for inset, on staffroom walls, offices and even in homes, such is the love for my map!

When I first read the article I mentioned earlier, I was transported back to something I created a few years back using the map called ‘My Brilliant Future’ a sort of NLP mini book I made for my form, which used the map to discuss some ideas. It also made me think of Zoe Elders work on the PLTS in her book, where she mapped how projects can be designed, integrating the PLTS (personal learning and thinking skills for my non-UK readers). I started to think about how the map could be used to record learning or to explore characters in a book and a whole range of education applications.

I have what I think could be an awesome idea for creating an app which you can draw your own map, creating interactive ‘stations of learning’ which could house a whole range of evidence, but I will save that for another post once I’ve done some further thinking… and tweeting….

For now, let me leave you with the new phenomenon of London stations being overtaken by their new tweacher identities …