About My World GIS
My World GIS™ is a Geographic Information System (GIS) designed specifically for use in middle school through college classrooms. It has been developed by the GEODE Initiative at Northwestern University as part of a research program on the adaptation of scientific visualization and data analysis tools to support inquiry-based learning. My World gives learners access to geographic data about our world. It offers easy-to-use tools to perform investigation and analysis as they explore critical issues about the enviornment, geography, geology, demography, history, and much more. Data visualization is ideally suited for learners because it provides a powerful way to make visible the patterns and trends that lie hidden in complex data.
By providing easy access to rich data sets, My World opens the door for learners to explore real-world issues that impact our world.My World provides a carefully selected subset of the features of a professional GIS environment. These features include multiple geographic projections, table and map views of data, distance-measurement tools, buffering and query operations, and customizable map display. They have been selected to provide the greatest value to students without overwhelming them with complexity. Additional features targeted specifically at educational users have been added, including functions that make it easy for teachers and curriculum developers to distribute data to students and to provide students with background information and instructions online.
My World's features are accessed through a supportive interface that was designed with the needs of students and teachers in mind and has been tested extensively in classrooms. Because it has been developed by educational researchers working closely with teachers and school technology coordinators, My World is also designed to function well in school computing environments where security software may limit students' access to local storage or Internet access may not be reliable. My World can import data from the industry-standard shapefile format, as well as from tab and comma-delimited text files and from GPS devices. It is also able to access data and imagery dynamically over the web.
My World is Designed for ClassroomsMy World's Welcome Window provides quick links to tutorials and help as well as online curriculum materials and data archives. You can author your own tours.
Project Library. My World comes pre-loaded with classroom-ready projectsTeaching Support. Teachers can customize projects to open with activity sheets to guide student thinking.Compatible with School Computing Environments. My World has been designed for use in schools and has been widely tested. It works well on the computers that schools have today. It is compatible with security software, networked environments, and firewalls. My World runs under Windows, MacOS, and Linux with an identical user interface on all platforms. Explore Global DataModes reduce complexity and help students understand the structure of the task.Data Libraries are part of “Construct” mode, so users can easily drag datasets to the layer list without having to dig through the operating system.Layers represent each type of data on the map and can be edited, reordered and hidden.Selections display a new, permanent subset of each table. Users create selections visually or analytically.… or Explore Local Data.Links connect My World maps with photos, web pages, and movies. Click on the feature or the flag to open the link.In Edit Mode students can create their own layers by drawing or importing data. They can create their own links to photos or other multimedia and add their own annotations and labels to their maps to share with others.
Access Data in Many FormatsExpandable Data Library. My World comes with a large library of geographic data, and it is easy to import new datasets. My World supports most standard GIS data formats. And the software provides built-in links to our ever-expanding online library of data sets.Connect to Online Satellite and Aerial Image Servers. My World supports the Web Map Server (WMS) protocol, which allows you to access aerial and satellite photos dynamically over the web from servers including Microsoft's Terraserver, USGS Landsat server, and NASA Blue Marble. Like Google Maps and other popular online mapping services, My World dynamically updates the display of the layer as you zoom and move around, providing you with an image at the optimum resolution.My World Supports Students in Quantitative & Database AnalysisData tables underlie each layer, allowing users to sort, select, and add columns.Analysis Mode provides a supportive interface to allow students to compute math operations on data, query data based on geographic relationships and data values, and do simple statistical analyses. Plots and Graphs enable students to visualize data in line-plots, histograms or bar charts, and scatter plots. Compare MapsChild Windows. You can place two or more maps side by side to compare them by creating separate "Child Windows." Child Windows can be synchronized with the main window so that any time you zoom, pan, or click on a point in one window, the same thing happens in the other windows. Or, you can use an unsynchronized Child Window to show a large area while you zoom in on a portion of it in the main window. Child Windows also make it possible to view and sample several different grids at the same time. Child Windows are particularly useful for working with gridded (raster) data.
Named Views. This feature allows you to save a particular "view" within a mapview and return to it immediately at any time in the future. For example, zoom to Antarctica, turn off a few layers, and choose the variables to display. Then save it as the named view "Antarctica". Then go to Brazil and do the same thing. Immediately switch from the "Antarctica" view to the "Brazil" view using a pull-down menu at the bottom of the layer list. Or, change all the layers to display values for 1980. Save that as "1980". Then change all the layers to display values for 1990. Save that as "1990", and use the view menu to go back and forth.
