#hypercities

          Throughout the course, the use of Hypercities was highly advocated by our professor, John Maciuika. Could it be just a glorified Google maps, or a thoroughly thought-out project? When I first was introduced to Hypercities, I did not know what to expect. However, when I saw how the professor had used Hypercities to talk about certain buildings, or areas, I knew that it could have countless possibilities.

          Even though I was not a big fan of it at first, it grew on me. It definitely has positive aspects that can impact the educational environment, and perhaps, even business. The lectures with Hypercities were very fun and adventurous, especially when you could zoom from Baruch College all the way to Battery Park in a matter of seconds. The neat thing about Hypercities is that you can make, and showcase your own collections. You can click any part of your collection to switch to a different object, such as showing your bike path from your apartment in Manhattan to the Baruch campus, or a link to the location of your favorite bar.

          I bet you could even have a lecture based on a series of collections, meaning you could have a “tour” throughout a certain area, going through different maps and time periods to provide a learning experience that has never been thought of years ago. For instance, you could show a map of southern Manhattan in the 18th century, skim through a bunch of articles, and fast forward to our current period and satellite map, showing the entire man-made space of land of Battery Park.

HyperCities: Overlaying the Historical Maps of a City