Making maps

I've posted before about map-making tools.  These are excellent learning tools for students, whether it's mapping out the places in a novel they're reading, or planning a wildlife refuge, or examining the historical development of their town. 

Two new things to share on this:

Google Earth, which used to be an installed app, is now web-based.  However, you'll notice that there seems to be no way to create your own "tour" in the web-based version.  There is now a tool called TourBuilder that solve this problem.  It's in beta, but seems to stable.  Here's a tour I made of CVSD schools:

In TourBuilder
In Google Earth

If you want to use a powerful app to create maps with lots of geospatial data, take a look at ArcGIS.  I got to know this software at a recent conference.  We have free accounts for all students at CVU.  Here's the kind of map you can produce with ArcGIS.