I enjoyed reading about Shaping the West project in which the area of study is the growth and influence of the railroads on the Western United States. Some of the study topics include; railroad rates, safety, and how railroads affected the travel/moving of the population. I think it would be interesting to also study the improved technology, for example, improvement in brakes, refrigerated railroad cars, passenger cars, and luxury sleeper cars. You may also learn a great deal about Railroads of the West at the Sacramento Railroad Museum. http://www.csrmf.org/ You may choose to learn more about the Big Four, the building of the transcontinental railroad, or look at some trains. There are also a lot of cool shops and historic buildings in Old Sacramento. Do you like train rides? On weekends there are steam-powered train rides!
I also found the Mobile for Museums site interesting because it provided a list of several museums that use mobile devices to tour their museum. The San Jose Museum of Art was one of the first museums to include the use of iPhone/ipod touch apps in their museum tour. I also experimented with the Art in the City app, in which you may explore by places, tags, and art. It is a great app to use when traveling, or if you want to learn more about your own area.
The last site, Center for History and New Media, is a digital archive that includes a variety of topics. One I took a look at was the September 11th Digital Archive. This site also relates to my public history career introduction, because I interviewed a person who worked for The Shoah Foundation, which is a digital archive of Holocaust survivor interviews. Here is their website http://college.usc.edu/vhi/
I agree completely with you on the Shaping the West project. It has the potential to connect with so many other avenues of history. I love your idea about the advancement in railroad travel. Great post!