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Just posted this challenge over at GeekDad.

Just posted this over at GeekDad.

It’s official. I’m a GeekDad. I joined GeekDad as a contributing writer last week. My first two posts were repackaged postings from snagle.net (Apollo Missions and Hubble Archives and Model Train Puzzles), but I intend to post future original geeky dad stuff over there. Other stuff will remain here.

[Cross-posted on GeekDad.]

Layering content on Google Maps has been far into geek territory up until yesterday, when Google released its new My Maps feature. No need now to know anything about KML, Google Maps API, or coding. You can now create your own maps using drag and drop tools right on Google Maps interface. Placemarks (virtual pushpins), lines, shapes, embedded photos, and videos can all be added to your map. All maps have a URL that can be shared with your friends, and if you choose to make the map “public,” the content you have created will be included in search results for queries on Google Maps.

I tried the thing out yesterday to plot all the Geekdad destinations in the San Francisco Bay Area (from here and here). Elapsed mapping time: 20 min.

As Google put it in announcing the feature, it’s “so easy a caveman could do it,” which means kids ought to be able to figure it out. Take a second to think about the possibilities of involving a kid in creating and sharing these sorts of maps. Plotting fun spots around town for sharing with their friends, tracing vacation routes, using it to take geographically tagged notes on schoolwork (or pleasure reading, if they’re trully geeked out)….

Geography education just got a whole lot more fun.

It’s also interesting to think what will happen if (when) Google adds the time dimension into this space. Imagine assigning not just a physical location but also a time and duration to each item. With a pan control across the time dimension, you could watch the historical events you just read about in your history book unfold visually in front of you at whatever temporal resolution you would like. As a visual thinker, I would have had a much easier time remembering my history if I had had something like this.

Now, unless I’m missing something, the major downside of My Maps in its current incarnation is that it cannot…yet…be configured to allow a group of people to collaborate in creating a single map. (Listening, Google?) In the meantime, I’ll be updating the map with the other locations referenced in Geekdad postings as they come in.

On Saturday, J spent the afternoon with her book group, and K and I headed out to Tilden Park and the Redwood Valley Railway. Operating with 5-inch scale (5/12 of full size) live steam locomotives and rolling stock on 15-inch gauge tracks, the train takes you on a 12-minute trip through the rugged terrain atop the hills behind Berkeley. Tickets are only $2. Very, very cool.

(And if you’re chained to your keyboard and can’t get out to something like this in person, check out this nice YouTube video of the railway.)

Just down the hill from the Redwood Valley Railway is the Golden Gate Live Steamers club with its extensive tracks for model steam engines in 2.5-, 3.5-, 4.75-, and 7.5-inch gauges. Serious hobbyists, these. Unfortunately, they only operate on Sundays, so we’ll have to come back another weekend. Twist my arm.

Addendum: So there I am, working on this entry, when I notice that Geekdad has just posted an entry on this very topic. Looks like they were up there on Sunday — and have almost the exact same photo as my lead-in. Hilarious!