The mapping project and elgg are getting my students really fired up. We have settled in and gotten all our usernames for our moodle, quia, student accounts at school, and now -- finally they get to start their elgg and communitywalk's - Personal Learning Map - Entry Points!

It is interesting to see the list of interests being added to profiles in elgg. One student wanted to be sure others would find him with the following interests... fish, fishing, fisherman, fiy fishing, surf fishing...As the class noticed his interest list the question came up as to how effective that type of repetition would prove to be. Frankly, I do not know. Yet! 

I am working on getting things unblocked at school..especially the broadcasting port so we can start a webcast for all the elgg and Entry Points students. We called it Spacecast last year and it was wonderful to hear how the student hosts handled the interview process. I will edit the recordings from last year and post them again to share with all of you. 

So our year begins and I am just as anxious to learn the nuances of the apps I am using this year as my students are to get involved in their new 21st century connections! 

After my first full day of working with my high school students on the CommunityWalk Map, "Entry Points," I'm pretty excited about some of the possibilities -- especially since I figured out a way to link between particular map views and that student's profile on the elgg. See my post of examples, "First Entry Points." I need to get these examples broken down into step-by-step instructions.

I'm also realizing that any teacher involved in this project will probably want to be able to edit his/her students' work on the map. A couple of weeks ago I emailed Jared Cosulich, the developer of CommunityWalk, and I asked him if there is any way to give a group of users administrative access to a map. He answered that this was in the works, but that he couldn't promise when it would be ready.

Anybody who wants the administrative username and password for my CommunityWalk maps should let me know: allisonpr@gmail.com

Please let me know how it is going, and let's get together on Wednesday evening!

Here is a thorough screencast tutorial on how to use BlipTV on the Community Walk map.

http://blip.tv/file/31472 

I think CommunityWalk is what we've been looking for!  Take a look at Vacation Stories (last gasp!). Join, find "Vacation Stories," zoom out, then add your own. In the map settings I checked this permission:

Logged In User Can Manipulate Own Locations	Any logged in user can add locations to the map and then they can manipulate only the locations they added.

 

That should make it possible to build a map together, yet we won't have to worry about losing things.  

Try it out! it's as easy to make paths as quickmaps, open to rich media as mapbuilder, and as collaborative as buddy maps.

Sticky Map is an interesting tool. One of my hopes is that we can find a central map that is easy to access (like buddymaps), and that allows each student to link to other maps he/she has created that shows more detail... tells a story... includes rich media.

Here's East Side Community High School on Sticky Map.

This is the way I'd like a mapping project to work: See ActiveTrails.

Maybe we can get links in BuddyMaps which link to rich media stories in quickmaps?

Here's an example of a project that I started with students, and never finished last semester:  

Map Builder is a tool worth our consideration. I've set up another collaborative map about vacations. You need to be registered at Map Builder, then I can add your username into the list of users for that map.  So please register, and list your username in the discussion below.

Problem is I don't see how to make journies easily on this mashup.

Thanks!  Also I really like the 43 Places possibilities.

Go here, and take us on a virtual tour of your best vacation. Take us to that place where you will never forget.

Login : educationbridges
Password: welcome

Imagine students describing their own neighborhoods by adding places "interesting to everyone" and facts that are important to everyone. It would be interesting to compare the experience of writing on this wiki with the more personal virtual tours that I've suggested could be done with quickmaps.

Even though a student would be writing for everyone and with everone, he/she could save a section of the map to a blog... or at least link to that section. Look here to find my school, East Side Community High School, for example.

Here's an example of Quickmaps. We need to test how easy it is to post on a quickmap like this collaboratively, but so far I'm liking this mashup best.

What I can imgine is that students could create tours of different places in their hometowns (not where they live). Jon Udell's work like this has been a model for Susan Ettenheim and me in thinking about such projects.