Google ‘my maps’

Most people will have some idea of how great Google Maps and Google Earth are on an Activboard… You can zoom around the world with a simple touch or slide of the pen. Whether searching for secret military bases in the deserts of America [here] for a creative writing exercise or for indications of deforestation in the Amazon rainfoest [here]- the board really brings the content to life.

What is new from Google is just how easy it is to create customised maps that let you add you own infomation and images/links at any location on the planet.

Go to http://maps.google.com and try out the ‘My Maps’ options. Once you have signed in (you need a free Google account) you can start adding your own points and information on a map.

Here is a great example – The Earth as Art – using Google maps and Images from Space

When you have finished you can save the link to embed in a Flipchart so you can use it as a teaching resource again and again or share it online. You can even download it as a KML file to open in Google Earth.

Some of the things myself and my wife are planning to use this for in class:

• “Roman Cumbria” – Exploring key sites and using the lines and shape tools of Google maps to overlay old borders or roads leading to places such as in this example tour of Vindolanda
• “Geography visual glossary” – Find examples of key natural features around the world – glaciers, ox-bow lakes, hanging valleys, etc.
• “Invaders” – charting the story of a young Viking’s first raiding mission across the North sea.. using the locations to drive the narrative

There are number of important 21st century skills to develop and explore with students – making sense of map directions on web sites, looking for visual or physical evidence from digital sources and making informed inferences from data. Overall the map element helps make the abstract concrete for students.

From an Activ software skills perspective – you can use the ‘camera tool’ to clip bits from Google maps directly into a flipchart for discussion and notetaking.