The interesting thing about Dave Cromier’s (2018) tension map is you can use the map to help show any two dimensions and how you are asking students to engage digitally with them and to what extent. You can use this as a tool for program and course design to show you what you have in a program when you really are not sure.
I can see how you could use tension maps like this in a process of designing learning. In my case our institution is hesitant to move towards face to face classes in the fall. We have some time for deliberate design considerations and because we know there are certain characteristics of our program that make our program our program we can use the tension maps to ensure those aspects are not being missed. My tension map may have the dimensions of place or place-less as an example and within that we will see where students are engaging with the topics unique to our environment and how digitally. If we did this exercise perhaps we would find that all our place based content is our students watching videos. Which would show a need to change this aspect of our courses for better engagement. This tool can help ensure there is a variety of digital competencies and types of tasks or content being designed into the course or program.
When I think about using this map for course considerations it can help us see the distribution of different types of course demands. When we ask students to work collaboratively are we also asking them to adopt a technology that is less available to them? This can reveal if every time we ask students to collaborate we require them to be reliant on a technology that is complex or are we scaffolding towards these competencies.
Cromier, Dave. (2018) Digital Practices Mapping – Intro activity for Digital Literacies Course. Dave’s Educational Blog
Retrieved from: http://davecormier.com/edblog/2018/03/31/digital-practices-mapping-intro-activity-for-digital-literacies-course/