The Garden as a Story Map and in Virtual Reality

The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch features prominently in the The Bonobo and the Atheist by Frans de Waal. Of course, to see it you need to visit the Museo del Prado in Madrid, so here are a couple of less expensive options:

• You can experience The Garden in Virtual Reality if a) you own Google Cardboard and b) download the free Bosch VR app.
• Or, download the Bosch Non-VR app for your iPad.
• Jheronimus Bosch, the Garden of Earthly Delights is an interactive and narrated documentary or Story Map.
• Or, keep it simple with this one: The Garden of Earthly Delights.

Bosch VR app trailer from BDH on Vimeo.

Story Mapping with ThingLink

This week is Geography Awareness Week and ThingLink is an easy way to make a story map: just upload a picture and 'map it' by adding tags and links to multimedia. Here's a simple example: GPS Survey of the Quelccaya Ice Cap.

ThingLink is basically a simpler (and commercial) version of StoryMap for Images, the tool behind the awesome 'map' of the The Garden Of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch which is featured prominently in this year's First-Year Read The Bonobo and the Atheist by Frans De Waal.

Mapping Bonobos

The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism among the Primates by Frans de Waal is a great read as-is, but you can also 'read' the book in space as an interactive story map. So, click around and explore the places, links, connections, websites, videos, and more!

Want more? How about Atlas Obscura's Guide to Literary Road Trips.

Story Maps are ways to present information in a geographic context, or, more simply: to tell your story using interactive maps, for example The Connecticut River Higher Education Greenway.

Making story maps is actually quite easy and we will be offering a series of story mapping workshops later this semester. Or, swing-by and we can chat about how this spatial technology could be useful for your teaching, research, or other activities.

Going Google (Part 5): My Maps!

Google My Maps is a nice and simple way to create and share maps online. There are fancier apps such as Tour Builder or Esri Story Maps, but Google My Maps is about as easy as online map making can be: 1) add markers, 2) connect photos and videos, and 3) share!

Here's a quick tutorial and a simple example.

Story Maps and Tour Builder

What are story maps? Fun ways to organize and present information in a geographic context! I think storytelling with maps can be an effective way to facilitate, scaffold, and assess student learning while using 21st-century technology. Here are a few examples:

1. The Mount Cardigan Story Map. This map tells a simple story: hiking Mount Cardigan, but with embedded photos, videos, web links, audio, and panoramas.
2. Costa Rica (2014). This is a similar type of story, but this time using Tour Builder.
3. Along 40 Degrees North. Travel across the US and experience how and why the landscape changes.
4. Light Rail in Denver. Travel along the new West Rail Line.

You can story map using Esri's Story Maps and Google's Tour Builder. They both do the same thing (sort of...) but differently. Story Maps sits on top of Esri's ArcGIS Online and therefore provides more options and analytic functions - although most people will be satisfied with the online Map Tour template. Tour Builder is still in beta (and has been for over a year - not sure what that means) and uses the Google Earth browser plug-in for 3-D tours.

Best of all you can create these maps without any special technology right now from your desk or classroom, but it is more fun with a smartphone and some fieldwork with students (using, for example, the Snap2Map app). Here's all you need to know!

Alternatives to Esri and Google are explained in these Seven Ways to Create a Storymap. Or, just try Visits or Heganoo or StoryMap JS.