Why Go Beyond Existing On-line Digital Maps?
If capturing and showing existing maps in the low-tech classroom is so easy, why take the time and trouble to use more complex computer equipment and software to make other ones? For anyone wanting to put materials up on the web, the first -and very compelling – reason is legal. My university has now adopted the policy that all online classes, even though password protected, may not include substantial pieces of anyone’s intellectual property without clear permission to use it. That means I can’t include, without permission or clear evidence that it is copyright-free, any images either copied from the web or scanned in from print sources. Intellectual property rights also mean that I shouldn’t put up on the open web anything copyright protected, including those images found on other websites. Of course I could just tell my online students “it’s there on the page X map in your book. Be sure to find it,” – and make sure to confine myself to map points that can be found, eventually, on te
