Tuesday, March 11, 2008

The Horizon Report Research Assignment

Pick one of the technologies from the Horizon Report and report back on the blog.

Mash-ups! I chose mash-ups as an emergent technology because they are cool! Mash-ups, according to the Horizon Report, are web applications that combine data from more than one source via a single, unified tool. How cool is that?

I found two mash-ups that were of interest to me.

The first is one that uses Google maps and allows any Google user to add information as to where the local pot holes are in the city of Portland. Only in Maine would this be of utmost importance. My brother mentioned this mash-up to me several weeks ago; today on Google chat my friend Gretchen mentioned it again. The power of the mash-up!

Portland potholes

The second mash-up that was of interest to me was one that shows the growth of Wal-Mart (almost like a virus) in the United States over the span of thirty years. This mash-up was created using several different programs. I was fascinated by the data and how it was presented.

Wal-mart

The bottom line with mash-ups is that they are created almost painlessly and are used to show data in fascinating ways. I can envision my students using mash-ups to chart several types of data, especially data that pertains to my unit plan on what we eat.

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