I was reminded earlier this week about Open StreetMap.
This is a wiki-style project that aims to create free geographic data for everyone to use. I took a look at the area around my school and was delighted to discover that the coverage is very patchy, raising the prospects of a nice school project based on my favourite maxim, Chris Durbin’s ‘Real Geography, Real Outcomes’
To get going requires a little more than a GPS and a web browser. The Open StreetMap wiki provides a very good Beginners Guide. Start by creating an account and locating your home area. You then go out and collect data with a GPS. This as straightforward as walking, cycling or driving around an area while recording a tracklog. The next stage is to extract data from your GPS, save it as a GPX file, (I use Easy GPS for this) and upload it to the OSM server. Don’t forget that GPS Visualizer offers a range of options for viewing your GPX data in the classroom.
The next stage is to edit the GPX file to create OSM data. There are a few options for this, the simplest by far is to use the online Flash editor provided, that allows you to edit map data in your web browser. Finally the map is rendered and changes can be seen in OSM, (although this doesn’t happen immediately.)
I started contributing data for my local area this morning.
When I’ve done a little more experimenting, I think that this could be a really excellent way of teaching mapping to quite young students.
Another demonstration of the usefulness of the Google Map Embedder tool.
The original Earth As Art Google Map was created by Jonathan Perkins. I’ve taken his KML overlay of images from the NASA/USGS website Our Earth As Art and displayed them on the map below, using the satellite view instead.
Our Earth As Art
Here’s a great classroom example from a UK geography teacher who has created a map of a local fieldwork enquiry:
Surely the long awaited moment when video can be embedded in Google Earth placemarks is almost upon us? Click this link and then the placemark balloon to see video of a lightning strike on the Empire State Building.
Digital Urban demonstrated this new feature of Google My Maps; more information can be found at Google Maps. I’m looking forward to seeing students creating their personal geographies via multimedia Google Maps.
Ed Parsons likes the “2.5D” rendering of buildings in Google Maps, sadly not happening for the UK any time soon!
The Map Room recently posted an article on the intriguing series of maps and data published by the G-Econ research project, based at Yale University. Gross cell product (equivalent to GNP) is measured at a 1-degree longitude by 1-degree latitude resolution at a global scale. Centres of economic activity are topographically represented, and the maps are great for discussing theories of regional development.
Economic activity Ireland Core and periphery thriving!
Val Vannet has produced an excellent PowerPoint (13mb) to introduce the maps in the classroom.
The theme of happiness was investigated by a group of UK teachers last year, see Geography Pages for more. The Map Room now reports the publication of a map of well being.
The map was published in an article by Adrian G White of the University of Leicester. The accompanying text is well worth reading for such gems as:
A recent survey (Easton, 2006) found that 81% of the UK population agreed that the Government’s primary objective should be the creation of happiness not wealth. Earlier this year David Cameron, HM Leader of the Opposition, put happiness firmly on the political agenda by arguing that “It’s time we admitted that there’s more to life than money, and it’s time we focused not just on GDP, but on GWB – general well-being” (BBC, 2006).
I never thought I’d hear that from a Tory!
I’ve been experimenting with mapping data inside Google Earth. The latest version of the excellent GE Graph includes the ability to add data to polygons. Here is an example:
source data
The method is detailed in a post at my Google Earth blog.
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