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Worldology.com was conceived with the objective of making history and geopolitics (the relationship and dynamic between geography and politics) more easily digestible and understandable. As one who has long been interested in this topic, I have been intrigued by the possibility of more imaginative ways to bring this field of understanding to life. This led to the idea of graphical and interactive maps to enable myself and others to more acutely visualize the evolution of nations and cultures. As the creator of Worldology.com, I have found that maps have been very useful in simplifying and deepening my understanding of historical events, along with long-standing and on-going dynamics between various nations. However, most published content about important events throughout history are not accompanied by an event-specific map. With this in mind, I envisioned an application that provided an event-specific map for key developments throughout history, along with an expanded geographical view, in order to comprehend the region-wide context. For interactivity, mouseovers were imbedded so the visitor could access more detailed information of key events, along with added graphics for further illumination. Then, you can toggle back and forth between time frames, to gain a feel of the evolution of the geopolitical landscape over time. For example, in the Europe History Interactive Map, you can click back and forth through major time periods, gaining an overview of how tribes, kingdoms, empires and nation-states fluctuated throughout time. During the Middle Ages for instance, you can simultaneously see how the Frankish Empire (Western/Central Europe), Byzantine Empire (Greece) and Rus Principalities (Russia) evolved concurrently with one another. Then, you can mouseover the information buttons to learn more. You can even switch to the "Show Borders" view in order to see modern European borders overlayed upon long-ago political entities. I hope to eventually cover the entire

Interactive Constitution! Broken down into Preamble, Articles, and Amendments, which are each broken down into the original text, and then if you click different pieces of the text it explains what they mean. You can also search the entire constitution for key words, search by topics, or search by court case

This interactive online museum is a great resource for history teachers.

History Channel interactive "place-the-state" game.

This site is, overall, a little boring but it does what it's supposed to do. Sometimes getting students interested in geography is tricky but this game could increase student interest. Students will select a level, then drag and drop the states to their correct location on the map. There could be a little more information about each state (just to increase the amount of learning) but this is generally a good, basic, online learning game.

BrainPOP is an interactive instructional tool that uses animated characters, Tim & Moby to introduce and illustrate content material for social studies, math, science, English, arts, health and technology. The interactive resources include quizzes, movies, timelines, and activity pages. Other resources include lesson plans, classroom tools, curriculum calendars, research and much more. Some of what they offer is free. Unfortunately, there is an annual fee for most of their material. My practicum school uses this program extensively. The students really like using this program and actively engage in the material. At the moment, BrainPOP is featuring a segment on "American Indians" and "Digital Citizenship." If you go to this location, you will find a free movie on the civil war. http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/freemovies/civilwar/

This site explores various aspects of current political life (E.g. criticism of Congress, how Congressional members decide to vote, how the legislative process works, etc) via interactive links for students to explore for themselves

Excellent collection of animated and interactive maps about the history of the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Africa.

BBC History has an archive of games and simulations that make learning about historical periods interesting and interactive

Provides interactive lesson plans using visual media to aid understanding of distinct periods in U.S. history from late 1700s to early 1900s.

As more and more schools and districts are faced with smaller budgets, some schools are phasing out foreign languags or turning to interactive technology programs to save money.

Yea, I totally agree with you on the priority of teaching languages at an early age with quality instructors. It's worth the extra cost.-alan

This map shows the growing population of English Language Learners (students who are not fluent English speakers) in the American school system.

This interactive graph is so interesting! I like these kinds of web tools.

This website is a great reference page for finding resources based on historical periods.

Smithsonian's History Explorer provides a multitute of resources for teachers including lessons, activities, interactive activities, examples of artifacts, and professional development opportunities for educators. One can easily search for desired resources by selecting the grade level, type of resource desired, and the time period. A variety of American History related subjects are displayed and from that list, one can select the desired resource.

This BBC website gives tons of interactive history games in categories of ancient history, archaeology, British history, and world wars.

Interactive map by MIT shows how areas are connected via cell calls. The US map takes a different look.

These interactive state maps are perfect for students working on state projects or reports. Each map features clickable points where kids can learn about cities, landmarks, landforms, rivers, mountains and much more. In addition, individual state pages feature numerous activities, state histories, printables, and videos.