Google My Maps - An awesome product with endless possibilities

Wouldn't it be exciting if you were able to put events, places, people along with their timeline at one place or diagram? It will be a thousand times more understandable than to read it out on the text book and then remember all of them.  From my childhood days I've always wondered if it would be possible to learn history along with the actual location where those events have occurred.

I've always believed that a sense of direction and place gives better understanding and helps you remember the facts quickly. I've always liked Geography. It was my favorite subject in childhood but somehow I was not able to pursue anything in the field. I couldn't imagine how easier it would have been for me to learn Geography if I would have google maps at that time. It is a proven fact that when you learn by visualizing, you tend to remember it longer.

Recently I came across My Maps and I can't imagine the endless possibilities it gives you to learn and explore in a visual way. I created a simple route map for the famous Dandi March. I've added just one layer for the route, we can add another layer where we can specify the timeline and then another layer for people who joined at a particular place. I mean you can just take the whole story from the past and create a visualization on the maps. What could be a better way of looking into the History with a visual map? Have you ever learned History that way? Wouldn't it be easier?

History is just one of the numerous examples where you can utilize My Maps. Take another example, lets say you want to understand the public transport system in an area, what will you do? Go to wikipedia and read all of it. Will you be able to remember the number of lines or the major stations or say the kind of transports available? Certainly not.  I tried to understand the railway network of Kuala Lumpur using my maps and created a Rail Route map for KL. Instantly this map gives lot more information than the static maps or the text readings on wikipedia.

The possibilities are endless, we just need to figure out where and how to use this product. If you haven't came across this, do give it a try.

Happy Mapping :-)