This paper aimed at developing an Interactive School Atlas prototype for students of elementary school. The methodology was based on the cognitive development theory, in order to make a product that can be understood and used by the students. Thus, it was analyzed the needs of the users mainly based on the National Curriculum and Geography books adopted in some elementary schools. Moreover, it was applied multimedia resources of animation and interactivity, were applied, according to the theory of cartographic communication, to facilitate the reading and understanding of maps. The development of the Atlas prototype was split into two stages: cartographic project and production. The Atlas was implemented by using the Macromedia Flash MX, Visual Basic and the library MapObjects-ESRI. Although the Atlas has not been evaluated yet, one should point out that it was designed according to the theoretical and methodological knowledge of the cognitive development. The generated product needs to be tested in the future so as to evaluate the actual contribution of the animation and interactive in the teaching of Geography.
School Atlas; Multimedia cartography; Interactivity
