A couple of weeks ago I was touring a potential new faculty hire around the SDSU campus. As I turned a corner, suddenly everything was unfamiliar. There were banners displayed labeled “Heritage College” or something like that and I wondered if some re-org had happened when I wasn’t paying attention. Turned another corner and things got clearer. There were video cameras, boom microphones, large white reflectors to control the sunlight, and actors walking across the quad in front of the Campanile Tower. They were filming an episode of Veronica Mars.
I’ve never watched it, but I feel the same kind of civic bragging rights as when Simon & Simon was set here back when I first moved to San Diego. I mean, how many shows are filmed in Waterbury, Connecticut?
So what are the educational technology implications of all this trivia? I just noticed a link to a Wayfaring Map of Veronica Mars Locations which is a great example of the use of Google Maps to clarify a story. The Wayfaring site lets you create your own annotated maps and share them online. Since I’m teaching my class for pre-service English teachers again, I find myself looking for applications of technology to literature. The Wayfaring site would be a great tool to analyze Joyce’s Ulysses, or Homer’s Odyssey. I could even do one about Thurber’s Secret Life of Walter Mitty which took place, more or less, in my home town Waterbury. Yet another daydream.