Through Larry Ferlazzo’s great blog (go subscribe to it now if you haven’t already) I learned about a new map creation service called Tripline. At its most basic Tripline is designed to enable anyone to record a trip they’ve taken or to design a trip itinerary. What Tripline is really intended to do is to give you a platform to “present” your trips to others. To do this Tripline allows you to add details to each stop on your itinerary, add images, and add music to the presentation of your trip. When completed your map essentially becomes a slideshow tour.

There are a few different ways that you can create trip on Tripline. You can use your mobile device to check-in at different locations and have Tripline plot those points for you. You can do that using Foursquare or by geolocating your Tweets. The other way that you can create trips on Tripline is to plot them directly on the Tripline site, that is what I did for the map below.

To create a trip directly on the Tripline site log-in, click “create a new trip,” enter a map title, then type the first location on your map. After entering your first location, you can add more by simply typing location names into a list. Tripline will place the placemarks for you (you can also rearrange them manually if you like). Should you desire to enter information about each place on your map , just click the edit icon to type information and or to add an image. When your placemarks are completed you can then select music to accompany your tour. Maps can be embedded into your blog or website. See my map below.

Applications for Education
Tripline could be used by students and teachers to create a walking tour of their communities. Use Tripline’s mobile services to plot a tour while walking then come back to school to edit and add information to the placemarks. Tripline could also be used by students to tell the story of a summer vacation. Or use the Google Lit Trips idea to have students plot elements of novel or biography.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Google Earth Across the Curriculum
Free 33 Page Guide – Google for Teachers
Using Maps in an Elementary School Math Lesson