A city is not a museum. A lot of things about a city remain what they are -unlike a museum, where you can have travelling exhibits and themes and so on. It is a little difficult to do that for a city. By and large atleast. And cities need to be the ‘same’ in order to preserve character as they call it.
Boston is a great example of a ‘happening’ city with a deep underlying character – yet, there is only so many ways and so many times you can see a city. Why would you come to a city a second time to see and do the exact same thing? And that is what struck me this time while I walked around Boston.
I have been to Boston before and used one of the trolley bus tours to see the place. This time I opted to explore it on foot. But there are still more options to explore the city which have come up in the past few years. There is a bike (bicycle) option and there is a Segway option. The same damn city – yet some 5-6 different ways to see it. Each of those trolley tours are slightly different – there are amphibious tours, old bus style tours and so on. And this is just the city at the surface – if you have more time on your hands, you can explore the city by yourself and spend a longer time at many of the sites – some of them as much as a day or a half day depending on the depth which you want to soak it in.
We all know this by the way – I mean, a lot of cities on the tourist circuit have figured out innovative means to get people to come to their city multiple times. And yes, we in India do all we can to ensure that anyone who steps into our city by mistake does not repeat that mistake. But that is a rant for another day.
Think of this from a learning perspective. If a student could explore the same subject multiple times through various means, will stickiness go up? The more perspectives we offer, the better it is for a learner right?
Boston is a great example of a ‘happening’ city with a deep underlying character – yet, there is only so many ways and so many times you can see a city. Why would you come to a city a second time to see and do the exact same thing? And that is what struck me this time while I walked around Boston.
I have been to Boston before and used one of the trolley bus tours to see the place. This time I opted to explore it on foot. But there are still more options to explore the city which have come up in the past few years. There is a bike (bicycle) option and there is a Segway option. The same damn city – yet some 5-6 different ways to see it. Each of those trolley tours are slightly different – there are amphibious tours, old bus style tours and so on. And this is just the city at the surface – if you have more time on your hands, you can explore the city by yourself and spend a longer time at many of the sites – some of them as much as a day or a half day depending on the depth which you want to soak it in.
We all know this by the way – I mean, a lot of cities on the tourist circuit have figured out innovative means to get people to come to their city multiple times. And yes, we in India do all we can to ensure that anyone who steps into our city by mistake does not repeat that mistake. But that is a rant for another day.
Think of this from a learning perspective. If a student could explore the same subject multiple times through various means, will stickiness go up? The more perspectives we offer, the better it is for a learner right?
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