Travel and geography as a political act

Every once in a while, while traveling around the country, I’ll get the chance to meet and chat with one of them. My daughter calls them fanboys. You might call them uberfans. A polite term might be avid followers. But we’ve all met someone like this. People who just can’t get enough of The Avengers or the Kansas Jayhawks or House of Cards or whatever they’ve decided is the thing around which their world rotates.

And whenever I run into this particular type of fanboy, I have to smile. Because they are so passionate and fun to be around.

I’m talking, of course, about the people who just can’t get enough of Rick Steves. And if you’ve never heard of Rick Steves, well . . . you just haven’t had the chance to spend time with one of his uberfans. Because if you had, you would have definitely heard all about him. They take their love of Rick to a whole new level.

I get it. Rick Steves is the ultimate in travel advice. He has books, TV shows, radio, podcasts, websites, articles, and blog posts – all talking about and sharing information about travel. Where to go. What to take with you. The best places to eat. To stay. The best museums. Suggestions for planes, trains, and automobiles. He does it all and he’s been doing it for a long time.

All of this to say that Rick Steves knows travel. And he has a ton of followers who know he knows travel. So when he shares his ideas about the whys and hows of travel, it’s probably a good idea to listen to what he has to say.

And while I’m not a Steves uberfan, there is one message he shares that I really like.

Tip of the Week: David Rumsey Historical Maps and Georeferencer

In my perfect world as a map nerd, I would have grown up living my life as if I were David Rumsey. Make a ton of money and spend that money finding and archiving historical maps. Then figure out ways to share those maps with other people.

Because that sounds like a very sweet way to spend my time.

If you’re not familiar with the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, you need to head over and check out his more than 55,000 maps digitized maps, the more than 150 Google Earth layers, and the nine different mapping tools. Be prepared to spend some serious time here. There is just so much cool stuff.

One of the easiest ways to find handy maps for use in your classroom is to use the

Google My Maps: Life just got way more fun for us geography nerds

Long time readers of History Tech already know how much I love maps. They how much I love Google goodies. So they also know that Google Earth and Google Maps just might be the sweetest tools of all time.

And recent changes in Google Maps make the tool even better. They’ve created a separate map creation tool called Google My Maps that makes creating online maps easier while storing the completed maps in your Google Drive.

Too sweet.

This fall, I’ve had the chance to work with all sorts of teachers and districts as they’ve moved deeper into the Google world. Google My Maps just adds another piece of Google goodness to the GAFE world.

With the new Google My Maps, you have the option to 

4 free tools for making your own maps

Most of us are very familiar with Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Tour Builder, and ArcGIS. Awesome tools all. But there are other tools out there to help you and your kids create and share maps.

They may not have the same cache and brand name awareness but these types of tools can be very handy. Play with them a bit and run them by your kids. You may be surprised.

#NCSS14: Mapping the Social Studies

So. Very. Tired.

I love social studies but my feet hurt. My brain is full. The back of my head is buzzing from the last of more than several caffeinated drinks. And what seems like an endless series of apparently important meetings (instead of awesome sessions). It’s been a long two days. Too much learning, history nerdness, and Diet Pepsi.

Yeah, I know. Pretty much the ultimate in first world problems.

One more session today. Then the two hour session that I’m co-presenting with the awesome Deb Brown tomorrow morning. Finish up with Ken Burns at noon and two totally hassle-free flights back home.

But I am excited about this session. And you all know how much I love a good map so no matter how tired I am, it’s gonna be good. Joseph Kerski from ESRI is gonna demo some cool uses of maps in a variety of different content areas.

I love National Geographic. I really love their MapMaker Interactive tool

We all know that I love maps.  Seriously. Love. Maps.

I still remember spending hours in the cool basement in my western Kansas childhood home reading old National Geographic magazines, spreading the pull-out maps on the floor and using my finger to trace over map features. My favorite? Civil War battle articles with sweet map extras.

It was easy to lose a couple of hours digging into the details, comparing areas on one map with another, reading the sidebars.

Take a look at these and you’ll understand.

You’re welcome.