In celebration of the 63rd anniversary of the Scout Movement on August 14, 2024, the Branch Quarter of the Bogor City Scout Movement organized a Branch Jamboree at the Tanah Sareal Campsite in Bogor City. This event gathered various youth members of the Scout movement, including 6th-grade elementary school students and 7th-9th-grade middle school students. The Branch Jamboree took place from August 13-16.
In conjunction with the Jamboree, Mr. Adhie, the event coordinator from the organizing committee, invited the OpenStreetMap Indonesia Association (POI) to contribute to the event. POI was asked to share knowledge and skills related to technology, specifically digital mapping technology, which is POI’s area of expertise. The introduction to digital maps was expected to serve as a foundational knowledge for the Jamboree participants, making them more familiar, understanding, and skilled in using digital maps in their daily lives.
More than 800 Jamboree participants attended the event. POI was allotted two sessions to guide 60 Jamboree participants, divided into morning and afternoon sessions. The main challenge in introducing digital maps during these sessions was ensuring that the participants did not get bored, lose interest, or find the material too difficult to follow. This challenge was particularly relevant given that digital mapping is a topic that may not be very familiar to many, especially young people in elementary and middle school. Therefore, the trainers from POI made every effort to present the material as engagingly as possible, so that the participants could stay focused, follow along, and practice the material being taught.
The material provided was quite in-depth but not complex. The trainers made every effort to explain how digital maps are actually used in daily life by teenagers, whether for playing games, watching movies, going to the mall, going to school, or even when the participants traveled to the campsite. Whether consciously or unconsciously, the participants likely used digital maps to help them save time and costs in reaching a location. The participants were given a basic understanding of what a location on a map is and how a location is fundamentally an object that will always be found on both paper and digital maps.
To support the participants’ understanding, the trainers also offered several engaging sessions, such as prize games and practical exercises. The participants were very enthusiastic about participating in both the games and the hands-on sessions using digital map applications that could be downloaded onto their mobile phones. Through simple location-guessing games, the participants gradually began to understand spatial contexts, locations, coordinates, and how to navigate themselves when trying to find a location on a map. They were asked to guess the locations displayed on the digital map by identifying directions, reference objects, landmarks, parks, or roads that could provide clues about the name of a location or the route to that location.
In the practical session, the participants were asked to imagine and draw a layout of the campsite on paper provided by the trainers. Working in groups, the participants actively discussed and debated the locations of various activities within the campsite area and how these locations could be represented on paper according to the actual conditions in the field based on the participants’ memories. This first practice session required significant mental effort from the participants, as they had to recall the fairly large campsite area. Key activity points such as parking areas, male and female tent areas, the canteen, and the worship area were all drawn and mapped on paper. This exercise essentially trained the participants’ spatial imagination skills, enabling them to visualize a space and navigate it based on real-world conditions.
At the end of the session, all participants, without exception, were asked to practice using the MapSwipe digital map application on each group’s mobile phones. After going through the spatial brainstorming process, including the introduction to satellite imagery, the participants were ready to use the digital map application to contribute in a meaningful way. Without significant difficulty, all participants were able to use the MapSwipe application to help complete available projects related to identifying buildings on satellite imagery in various locations around the world. MapSwipe is very easy to use for teenagers, and the impact of their activities is also very meaningful for remote locations worldwide, helping to ensure that all people are mapped.
The introduction to digital maps during the Branch Jamboree of the Bogor City Scout Movement provided valuable lessons for the trainers, Scout leaders, and participants. The importance of digital maps in helping to depict real-world conditions on paper or digital maps will greatly assist many people in supporting their daily activities. Equally important is ensuring that the younger generation can easily and effectively understand the vital role of digital maps in daily life in a way that is engaging for them.