Tool Review: Tripline

Thanks to my buddy Mike Hutchinson, I stumbled across an interesting new tool the other day called Tripline, which allows users to create sweet little photo-enhanced interactive map-based presentations. 

As the Tripline guys explain, the possibilities of sharing and learning through locations are almost endless:

At its most basic level, Tripline is a way for you communicate by putting places on a map. That's a very human activity that has been happening for thousands of years.

We've added a social layer to that communication so, whether you're a regular person or a rockstar, you can share where you're going, where you are and where you've been with the people you care about.

While many users have embraced Tripline as a tool for telling the stories of their favorite vacation destinations -- my personal favorite is the guy that traveled through the West with his dog in his motorcycle's sidecar -- literally ANY topic built around locations can be "Triplined."

Here's a sample that I whipped up spotlighting some of the people in the world that my middle school microlending club has helped:

(Click here to see the entire presentation on Tripline's site.  It's worth it.)

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Pretty snazzy, right.  And RIDICULOUSLY easy to create.  After thinking through the locations that I wanted to spotlight and collecting pictures from our portfolio on the Kiva website, I think I spent about 35 minutes putting this together.

There are literally TONS of educational applications for Tripline, aren't there?

And while TONS of educators haven't discovered Tripline yet, there are some great examples of Tripline's potential in the classroom already on the site -- including this map of Paul Revere's midnight riide, this map of Lewis & Clark's Western adventure, and this map of the escalation of the Arab Spring protests.

What I love about the Tripline is that it  makes engaging visual maps possible.  Ask any long-time social studies teacher and they'll tell you that's pretty darn valuable.

Here's how the Tripline guys explain it:

When we first started, I was amazed that map-based visuals of events like these were so difficult to find online. I think now that Tripline exists, that sort of map-based content will have a home.

And the possibilities are endless: author and band tours, charity walks and rides, culinary adventures, fictional trips from books and movies, sporting events, scientific expeditions, etc.

Check it out, y'all.  And consider nominating it as The Best Free Web Tool in this year's Edublog Awards contest. 

It really is THAT good. 

Comments

[Reidun]

I am doing a global card trade with my after school program. I can't wait to incorporate this tool! Thanks.

[Blairteach]

Thanks for sharing this tool through your Kiva example. I share your Kiva example in many schools. Now I have something more concrete to show, both to demonstrate a useful tool and to promote participation in Kiva.

[Hatchderek]

Great story, Bill...thanks for sharing. This is an awesome tool! The first thought I had was to get our ELL kids to use it to tell the story about coming to Canada. For example, we have some students from Sudan who had to move to Egypt in order to become eligible to immigrate to Canada. Tripline would be a great way for them to tell their story!

[Bill Ferriter]

Hatch,

I CANT WAIT to see the immigration stories that your kids put together in Tripline. That would be a PERFECT use of the tool and would spark thinking in a bunch of other teachers with kids who are in similar circumstances.

Rock on,
Bill

[DMS_Principal]

Thanks for sharing this tool along with your Kiva example. I clicked on the link to read your post, "How One Tweet CAN Change the World." Wow! That is an outstanding project and one that I will be sharing with many, many colleagues. Thanks again for sharing and for all you do.

[Bill Ferriter]

Glad that you liked this, Nancy!

And thanks for plugging Kiva....Its definitely something that I believe in -- and that my kids are proud of.

Be sure to tell your audiences that were more than willing to Skype with other classes that are interested in learning more about what we do and why we do it.

Hope this helps,
Bill

[GetVetter]

Good on you for getting the kids using Kiva Bill. What a service it is.

My grandmother gave me $100 to invest in Kiva for her after I told her about it last Chrismtas. I feel a bit like a con-man, but that feeling should go away when I show her a printout of all the loans the two of us have done.

Duncan

[Bridgette]

Thanks for sharing this! For elementary students, this would also be a good tool to record where they went during the summer or during the holidays while also including pictures.