What it is: Mapness is a site, still in beta, that students can use to make interactive, virtual travel journals. First students add points of interest to a map, then they can add descriptions, photos, and videos right on top of the map. As virtual travelers visit the map, they are led on a virtual tour depicted on the map. This is really neat!
How to integrate Mapness into the classroom: Mapness is perfect for integrating into the geography classroom. As students study different parts of the world, they can create their own virtual tour of that place by collecting photos and videos during their online research and embedding them into maps. Split students into several groups, each group can be assigned a different place to create a tour for. When the tours are finished, hold a vacation day where students can visit each other’s assigned places. This would be an ideal day to reserve the computer lab! Students can also create literary tours. As they read a book or learn about an author or genre, they can pinpoint places on the map and add descriptions and pictures. This would also be a wonderful opportunity to map out historical events. Bring events to life for your students and weave in some map reading skills while you are at it! Mapness sure beats the maps I completed as a kid, labeling places on a 8 1/2 x 11 photo copy that always looked sloppy after trying to fit in all of the requirements.
Tips: After students create an account, they can add several map tours to their account making it a nice place to save up work throughout the year. Mapness does require a working email address to activate the account. If your students don’t have an email address they can create a temporary email address at a site like Mailinator. (As a side note, if you regularly give out your email address on websites a Mailinator account would save you from a lifetime of spam.)
Check out my Mapness map of my recent vacation to California.
Leave a comment and share how you are using Mapness in your classroom.
