Social Studies Teachers Rejoice! Digital Maps for Sale

The Exploration Company is proud to help Social Studies teachers in the transition from wall maps to digital maps with the launch of its online store where instructors may now purchase digital maps on their own.  The first map provider to supply this exciting service, The Exploration Company is the country's leader in innovation of modern digital maps with new content and has just launched its fourth generation of interactive maps under a collection titled EarthPoint.  Now, their digital maps are being sold as singles at the same price as a wall map.  Without the cost of shipping or the need to buy a whole new map at full price 3-6 years afterward, schools are saving thousands when purchasing digital.

This post aims to be a quick guide in helping you purchase your first digital map through our store.  The store helps a school that is looking to equip only one or two teachers with an EarthPoint Module.  If you have an interest in equipping more than one or two classrooms with EarthPoint, I'll encourage you to contact us directly for more information so that we can serve you best.

In order to proceed, you will need to have a Paypal account and a Facebook account.  To begin, login to your Facebook account and head your way over to our new 'TheEarthPoint' Fan Page.  This can be found by typing in 'TheEarthPoint' and clicking on the sub-category: "Pages."  Be sure to take a moment to become a fan of our page, as you will have the opportunity to take advantage of special discounts and promotions that may be ongoing.

From here, you may click at the 'Shop Now' tab toward the top of the page.  Here you will see up to 8 featured items.  With the initial launch of this store we have released 12 maps and modules available for single purchase, including the top-selling political, elevation, and landcover maps of both the US and the World.

Let's click on the World Elevation map here.  In order to view it, you will need to "Allow" the Payvment Facebook Application.

After we add it to the cart, a notification will pop up towards the top of your screen showing you your cart.

From here I can shop more, but let's checkout for now.  From this form I will be directed to Paypal to complete my payment.  After your order is processed, your receipt of payment will be from Paypal, and your email notification from The Exploration Company will be processed within the next few days to include your unique serial ID to the maps that you have purchased.


A video version of this guide can be found on our website under the tutorials section.  If you have any other questions on how to purchase your favorite map online, be sure to reach us.  Feel free to explore the 2-Week Free Trial before deciding which map you would like to purchase!

Side-By-Side Tool: The Simplest way to Compare and Contrast

Welcome back!  Looking forward to sharing the Side-By-Side tool, available to you in EarthPoint.  Unless an instructor had two rollers in their class, they were not able to compare two maps to one another.  Now featured as a tool on our exclusive maps, the Side-By-Side tool is available to instructors and their students in helping make connections across the curriculum

Pictured here I've chosen two maps from our All-Purpose and Physical Geography Content Areas: World Infrastructure and Human Footprint, respectively.  Clicking the Side-By-Side button toggles the second navigation panel to assist you in choosing your second map

Diagrams or labels, when drawn on one side are not duplicated to the other side automatically.  However, if clicking to zoom on one map, we'll notice that the other map follows.  The same will occur if navigating by the minimap or hand tool.  If desired, we may click on the "Link" button that is located next to the "Side-by-Side" button on the toolbar will make the two maps independent from one another.

To reduce clutter on the screen and to have more freedom in viewing and panning, we simply just hit the Esc key to toggle both side panels off and on when we need them, showing a beautiful comparison of world roadways and highways to ecological degradation.

Try it out on your own for two weeks!

Keep an eye out in the EarthPoint community for tips from us or other teachers at our website, and feel free to explore many fascinating combinations of maps to use the side-by-side tool with, such as Elections 2004 with Elections 2008 or US History sets such as Great Depression Charts and Graphs.  For those that are daring enough, combine the use of both Side-By-Side with Scratch Tool, having a total of 4 maps displayed on the screen at once!

Wall-Maps: Just Say No to Back Pain

Wall Maps: As much as these maps have helped students fall asleep in class and helped teach a little bit of Geography on the side, it's time to retire these old-timers.

Challenged with risk of wear-and-tear and plagued with limitations to high detail, the hanging dinosaurs of the classroom are ready to hang up their steel spring rollers and call it a millennium.  After wooden pointers took an early buyout to the laser pointer industry, wall-maps have seen a decrease in employment since.

To combat the need to replace an expensive wall map that may break or become outdated, educators have turned to free online maps, but at a sacrifice.  Free maps such as Google Earth are great for exploring the world and finding one's home through a satellite image, but the student may be less likely to retain the US History lesson at the end of the day.

Introducing interactive digital maps from The Exploration Company, called EarthPoint.  We've gotten good at digital maps...really good.  We just launched our 4th generation of digital maps, and they're now completely online.  No more disks, no more installations, no more back pain.

All of your major maps that a Social Studies teacher could want, all at the touch of a finger.  Zoom into a certain country or continent?  Just click.  Bring up a picture of what the rain forest would look like?  Done.  See the election results of the USA since the beginning?  Too easy.  You are always updated, so you won't have to replace them, and you will now have a shot to buy only what you need, instead of paying thousands on a package that your classroom may not use.  As a matter of fact, team up with one of these bad boys and you've got numerous hours of attentive fun for the students.

Stay tuned, our completely online store is set to launch July 1st.  Give the 2-week trial a shot to find out which one you like.  Get ready to pick your map!