Smartphone-Based School Atlases?

Abstract

The use of the newest mobile devices, especially by young people and children, is constantly growing in many countries. The youngest generations consider the use of smartphones and tablets as a “natural tool” to help them in their daily activities. The wider use of these devices is determined by the increasing presence of location-based services and Web 2.0–based applications. Most map-based applications developed for smartphones are location-based services intended to help the users orient themselves or seek thematic (e.g., tourist) information in a given environment. This study presents the possibilities of using smartphones in school cartography, specifically for displaying school atlases. After a brief background on the use of smartphones by children and young people in different countries, a short introduction on digital atlases in general is given, followed by our recommendations for the adoption of school atlases for these devices. We describe the two initial aspects of the process of adaptation of these atlases for smartphones: the adaptation of content and of (carto)graphic solutions. Finally, we discuss whether the mobile device–based school atlases can be improved by combining solutions used in digital atlases with new solutions developed for mobile devices, such as improved location-based service technology or 3D technology-based representations.