National Geographic MapMaker is a nice mapping tool that I’ve used in the past with my students. It was recently updated with an improved user interface, additional data sets, and more annotation tools.
With NatGeo MapMaker you can create custom maps to display datasets, to compare datasets and to illustrate correlations and geographical points. National Geographic MapMaker includes a wide variety of datasets that you can have displayed on your map with just a click. It’s also possible to have Multiple datasets on the same map for comparison or correlation illustration.
National Geographic MapMaker can be used for more than just displaying datasets. You can also use it to illustrate ideas for students by highlighting, annotating, and adding custom points to your map. Additionally, you can choose from six base maps the one that best fits with the purpose of your lesson. Maps that you create with National Geographic Mapmaker can be shared online and or printed as PDFs to distribute to your students.
In this video you can see how to use National Geographic Mapmaker and there is also a good user guide available here.
In terms of applications for Education, National Geographic Mapmaker is an excellent tool for making maps to distribute to students to use in all kinds of geography lessons. For example, National Geographic Mapmaker could be used to create lessons in which students make correlations between population density and light pollution. Or you might simply use it to print a map with latitude and longitude lines to help students learn about where they live in the world relative to other locations.
