Maps for Teaching, Teaching to Map. Digital Tools and Didactic Workshop Models for a Geo-Cartographic Analysis of “Lived Space”

The paper aims to present the main outcomes of two Didactics of Geography laboratory courses held at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and Roma Tre University. Both relied on the same methodological approaches and analytical digital tools (Google MyMaps) and aimed at understanding and digitally mapping students’ different perceptions of urban space. The analysis will focus on the processes that enabled students to acquire pieces of information and useful data on their own, as well as to gain more indepth knowledge of their territory. Such processes entailed the use of digital technologies for the graphical representation of geographical space. By presenting two extremely different case studies, the purpose is not to draw a comparison between two different spatial contexts, in order to understand in which of them the application of the presented theoretical and methodological approach would be more successful. The study rather focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of such methodology when it is used at different scales. Furthermore, the goal is to acknowledge the shades, similarities and differences of different spatial perceptions by peers who come from different parts of the country.