Mashups combine content from different sources to create something entirely new, allowing data to be analyzed in creative ways.
How do you make a mashup?
If you have programming skills, you can develop a mashup using an api, such as from GoogleMaps, Flickr, Amazon, YouTube, VirtualEarth, eBay, YahooMaps, Google, Del.icio.us
OR use existing software tools such as:
- Google Reader – tagging different news feeds to filter in one place
- Yahoo Pipes (pipes.yahoo.com) – combine, filter & display RSS feeds
- iGoogle
- Microsoft Popfly
- Dapper.com
Educational Uses of Mashups
- Use a Mashup to keep track of student blogs, collect research and news that supports what is happening in the classroom
- Introduce students to Florence Nightingale. Students read an article or a book about her, visit the Florence Nightingale Museum online, use Google Maps to trace Nightingale’s work in the Crimean War, show a picture gallery of Nightingale with her work displayed on a map of London while music from the Victorian period plays in the background. All of these elements could be included in one Mashup.
- Combining Googlemaps and WWII data about locations, a professor uses a mashup to show where World War II events took place.
- A professor of geology maps evidence of tectonic plates on a world map.
- Have your students submit mashups as part of their assignments and papers.