Maps can be nicely integrated into video slide presentations as well. Simply save a copy of your map(s) in an acceptable format (jpeg, for example) and insert them into your presentation as you would any other graphic. The short presentation at right offers an example of geographic inquiry related to the Great Migration of black Americans out of the southern states in the early twentieth century. The maps were prepared in ArcGIS Map Viewer, saved as graphic images, and inserted into two of the slides. Open the presentation.

History obviously occurs in time as well as place. Making time an element of a geographic presentation is, therefore, an important aspect of applying GIS in the history classroom. This requires including a time field in a GIS database with data stored in an appropriate unit (e.g. - year, decade, century, etc.) making possible the addition of the fourth dimension as suggested in the map linked at left. Notice the slider beneath the map. It can be advanced decade-by-decade or as an animation showing the damming of the Columbia Basin Rivers beginning in 1905 and ending in 2010. By switching map layers from Dams to Average Fish Counts and then changing the time options to show only the current values, five year running averages of sockeye and chinook salmon and steelhead can also be followed through the same time period.