Spatial missions: My surroundings, my neighbourhood, my school

Abstract

Akbari provides a detailed description of how the MonCoin missions “My Surroundings,” “My Neighbourhood,” “My School,” and their related micro-missions “Nature,” “Notice,” “Change,” “Paths I Take,” “What I Love About my School,” and “Where I Learn Best” encouraged students to attend to their surroundings. Deploying theories of spatial awareness, Akbari considers how art making through mobile media can be designed to intervene in one’s awareness within everyday spaces. Using specific examples of students’ visual and interview responses to the MonCoin curriculum, he derives general principles for designing curriculum to increase spatial awareness such as taking into account the attitudes of students towards their everyday spaces, and including a diversity of themes and levels of complexity.