For the mapping projects I used Story Map and Google maps to talk about the Young Turks and how they brought the end of the Ottoman Empire. Both of the maps were useful in telling the events that occurred as it forces those to consider where some events took place.
The Google map was helpful in trying to tell where these events took place such as the 1906 Revolution. The Google map allows the input of data into an excel spreadsheet and when exporting the sheet, it fills the information for you unlike Story Map. However, when I was creating my map, I had many issues trying to export the data due to locations and was forced to input the data manually. This is an issue that others likely wouldn’t have due to my incompetence but I found Google Map harder to use.
Google map does a better job at showing the locations of said events and allowing you to move the map around. The map does a better job at putting distance into perspective and showing how far events are from each other. For example, I talked about how Ottoman troops were sent to Germany to train and Google maps helps put into perspective how far these troops had to go. Another example is the Gallipoli, Google maps help show how close the battle was to the Ottoman homeland. Google maps is well suited for giving a bullet-pointed list of information such as events, date, location but struggles with large amounts of information such as paragraphs. Google Maps works better with more locations spread around the world as it shows how connected events could be. However, for my topic, my information was mostly centered around Europe and I couldn’t make the most of Google Maps.
Story maps are the opposite of Google maps as they do well in situations that Google maps struggle with. Story maps are better at giving large amounts of information. However, the map is less interactive as it only shows a location with a map on the side, giving more space for more information. There’s also more customization available on Story Map such as font changes and different kinds of map. Compared to Google Maps, where I struggled to make words bolded. Story Map is better at presenting large amounts of information but struggles with interaction.
Story Maps and Google Maps are almost opposites as Google maps is more interactive and more condensed information while Story Maps is mostly information with less interaction. I think both maps help put events into a better perspective as it shows how connected events can be. They’re a useful tool in showing information and location info. I prefer Story Maps as its more user friendly and more customization.