Journey to the Tech Side of Education: Augmenting Mapping Labs

I love using maps in my geography class. I believe teaching a geography class without using maps is just like teaching an English class without reading anything, or a science class without performing any experiments. It is how we as geographers see the world.

One of the best resources I've used for years is TCI's Geography Alive Mapping Labs. They are a great way for students to see various aspects of a region. The students would use the placards provided by TCI and a transparency with a map as the overlay to locate where things are. This is a great skill for the students to acquire, but it became troublesome. The transparencies would began to smudge and not be usable after a few classes, students would be absent so they would have to come in sometime to complete the task, or the placards would get ruined. All of these problems were solved when I augmented the lab!

Now, all the student needs is the target image and a device with the DAQRI app, and they can complete this assignment wherever they are. My students have loved the augmented mapping labs. It really has increased their engagement in an already engaging learning experience. Here are the targets I've created for the lessons.