Improve classroom learning with interactive maps

Key points:

As most teachers will tell you, in the post-Covid world, technology is an everyday part of education. Without a doubt, it has transformed the way educators engage students and deliver content.

As an educator with 10 years of experience teaching in various settings in the United States and abroad, interactive maps have become a staple in my lessons. While primarily a geographic resource, interactive maps can be used on a variety of topics within the domain of social studies. Teachers can integrate maps into lessons related to history, cultural studies, and geopolitics. These maps go beyond traditional static maps and allow students to investigate, evaluate and interact with spatial information.

Interactive maps help students develop a more complete understanding of spatial relationships. They may find it difficult to grasp distances on a static map. By manipulating an interactive map, they can understand the scale, proximity, and relative locations of various places, allowing for a deeper understanding of global contexts. Interactive maps have the advantage of integrating multiple layers of information, unlike traditional maps. This feature allows educators to present numerous data sets simultaneously, helping students analyze correlations and patterns more effectively. I find this particularly valuable as I seek to differentiate myself for all students, ensuring that each student can interact with the material in a way that suits her abilities and strengths.

Some interactive maps provide real-time data, allowing students to stay informed about current events and changes around the world. This is useful to demonstrate how historical research is connected to current events. This is an effective way to prepare our students to be global citizens and fosters cross-cultural understanding.

Additionally, interactive maps are a great way for students to explore new areas of the world. Students are generally drawn to maps and globes in the classroom and the beauty of the interactive map is that it allows them to zoom, pan and click on specific regions or events, encouraging even more active participation and sparking their curiosity.

There are many interactive digital maps available to educators today, but these are my top three options:

He Discovery Education interactive map: This resource within Discovery Education Experience The platform is easy to use and covers a wide range of topics and all continental regions, making it a versatile tool for various social studies lessons. Allows students to explore changes in human geography over time with overlays such as political boundaries, political labels, relief labels, water labels, major cities, etc. and various basemaps such as physical, elevation, climate zones, biome, predominant religion and more. . Discovery Education enables seamless integration with multimedia resources, allowing teachers to complement map exploration with videos, articles and images. Save hours of searching for resources on the Internet because there are a wealth of quality supplemental materials found on Discovery Education. For what I need in the classroom, Discovery Education's interactive map is ideal.

He National Geographic Map Maker: This is another valuable classroom resource that I recommend as part of your teacher toolkit. This functional tool includes a getting started guide for educators and allows teachers or students to create custom maps. MapMaker allows in-depth investigation of locations down to street level. This program allows the integration of data in real time, so that students interact with current information. MapMaker also offers interactive learning activities that encourage student participation. Whether creating custom maps, exploring overlays, or analyzing geographic patterns, these activities strengthen the learning experience. There is a learning curve with MapMaker and it will probably require more support than other resources, but tech-savvy students will love it.

Running reality: Running Reality is a digital story tool that brings history to life in an accessible, immersive, and engaging way for students through striking visual storytelling. It is a remarkably easy-to-operate resource that allows students to see the events that have shaped national borders and culture throughout world history. With Running Reality, students can explore historical events and understand how they affected the world as we know it. They can visualize changes in national borders, observe the rise and fall of empires, and understand how various cultures have evolved over time. Running Reality uses innovative technology to create a fully immersive experience, allowing students to feel like they are witnessing events as they unfold.

These tools are a wonderful way to make history come to life for students who may struggle with textbooks or traditional lectures. By engaging with history in a more interactive way, students are much more likely to retain what they have learned and develop a deeper understanding of the world around them. If you want to teach history in an engaging and accessible way, these are some incredibly valuable tools for you!

Laura Ascione is the editorial director of eSchool Media. She graduated from the prestigious Philip Merrill School of Journalism at the University of Maryland.

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