We think a lot about how mapping and technology work in the classroom. We’ve always felt that CartoDB could be used to support education in a diverse set of classes and be a go to tool for educators wanting to expose students to technologies that also can lead to research, jobs, and innovation. We also know that educators have to work really hard with typically small budgets for anything more than their own time.
One of the things we have learned in our own work with CartoDB is that limits can make the tool hard to teach. In particular, when you teach someone how to map or manipulate data, restrictions on the number of datasets your students can use is a pain point without many solutions. So, as some of you may have noticed, today we’ve rolled out our own solution to this problem…
Unlimited tables for students and educators
Creativity thrives in universities and we don’t want to limit it, which is why the CartoDB cloud is no longer the limit. Upload datasets at will with unlimited tables.
That’s right, no more deleting past projects to make room for new ones. With no table limits, you can start building your own visualization archive today and track your progress throughout the length of your program and beyond. You never lose your Student account!, students can use there profile pages to show off all their great work.
Oh, and professors take note: you can get in on this, too. With unlimited scalability, integrating the CartoDB platform into your course plans and department curricula has never been easier.
Wait, there’s more! CartoDB is part of an ever-growing community that includes students, educators, researchers, developers, and designers who are building some of the most advanced maps on the web. The following free resources inspire mapmakers at all levels to collaboarte and hone their skills. Check out what everyone’s up to, and feel free to get involved.
StackExchange
- StackExchange is an online network of micro communities each focused on developing hacks around specific topics.
- Pose a question, get a detailed answer, and search for related areas of interest. The best answers recieve the largest number of votes and get pushed to the top, so quality responses are easy to find.
- The Geographic Information Systems Stack Exchange is a question and answer hub for cartographers, geographers, and GIS professionals. Learn more about CartoDB on the GIS StackExchange here.
The Map Academy
- The Map Academy is our in-house bootcamp for aspiring map makers to learn how to create maps on the web and visualize geospatial data.
- Comprehenisve lessons are hosted online and range from teaching basic to advanced skill-sets. Start with an introduction to the CartoDB platform or dive into back-end coding. It’s cool to move at your own pace.
- We’re always adding to our course catalogue, so be sure to visit the Academy on the regular. We’ll blog about the latest additions to keep you in the loop.
Tutorials
- CartoDB tutorials target specific how-tos for navigating our platform. Our support team is constantly culling from user questions to generate targeted answers with real-world examples.
- Videos and step-by-step walkthroughs show you how to do everything from customizing polygons to layering georeferenced data to styling a GPS track.
- Visit our tutorials page to troubleshoot your projects in real-time, and let us know what else you’d like to see here.
Get in touch
Ready to get started? Pass us a note about what you are teaching on CartoDB. If you are a student or educator and want to get one of our free Academic accounts, sign up here today.
If you are an educator and are looking for other great resources for your students, be sure to look at Github’s Student Developer Pack.
Happy mapping!