STEM Education Institute Tuesday Seminar
“Displaying Maps and Providing an Integrated Framework Linking Maps, Images, Guide Texts and Data through CD and Web Publication as Dynamic Digital Maps (DDMs)”
Chris Condit
Dept. of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts
Maps can provide an essential context for teaching and interpreting the many geographically related subjects. High quality color maps, images, movies, analytical data and explanatory text, including field guides, can be integrated in a cross-platform web enabled DDM format that is intuitive to use, easily and quickly searchable, and requires no additional proprietary software to operate. The media are stored outside the program, which acts as an organizational framework and index to present these data. An open-source DDM-Template into which one can insert their data, and an accompanying "Cookbook" on how to do this are available at http://ddm.geo.umass.edu, along with six DDMs that demonstrate this potential. Making a DDM from the Template requires the use of the English-language programming environment Revolution (www.runrev.com) which has a low learning curve and excellent built-in tutorials.