Fixing a Virtual Road

On another blog, I recently wrote about why geographic literacy is still important, even when we have computers to provide a lot of answers to our geographic questions. My article is entitled The Road (?) to Belmopan, and it explains how both Mapquest and Google are making the town of San Ignacio in Belize seem more remote than it actually is.

I thought my colleague in San Ignacio would find this interesting, and she did, but she also found it alarming. People depend so much on electronic maps and directions that an error like this might cause people not to visit her town. For that reason, I have already let Google know about the problem, and I hope it is fixed soon.

The more we know about geography and maps, the better able we are to make appropriate use of electronic and paper maps in order to make better decisions.