Monday, August 15, 2011

Google Maps - make your own!

Way back in June Allanah taught me how to make my own Google Map.  I could really see the potential in this for recording my travels this year, but I always like to think about how I could use a skill or tool in a classroom.  I came up with the following ideas:

  • recording class mascot visits
  • recording details of classes we collaborate with
  • recording locations of travelling geo cache - when we set one!
  • locations of teams - e.g. World Cup Rugby teams
  • plotting your relatives for family tree
I would love ideas you have of other ways to use Google maps.  
I am supposed to be studying today and I have spent a good part of the day working on Google maps, partially avoiding study and partially because I have had so many problems with saving my edits.  So the rest of this post is a "How to Google Map" so you hopefully avoid my pitfalls.

Open Google Maps

Sign into your Google Account

Click on create new map

Choose public or unlisted - I strongly recommend public - because surely we want to share our creations? Then click done.

Now you see the edit button appears.  Click to edit your map.

Use the search bar to enter the address you wish to add to the map

Now you see the icons appear - click the blue flag, then drag it to the location.

A box now appears where you can add a title and text or links to your location.  When complete click OK, then go up to top right and click save!  This is the crucial step!  You must save each change individually - time consuming in the short term but very time saving in the long run - take it from someone who has had to re-enter data many times today!

You can click on collaborate and invite others to collaborate on the map with you - very useful!

Or there is the import option - which I have not used - but would love to hear from you if this is useful.  

Finally - you can click on the link on the top right to share your map, you can even customise the view of your map by clicking on the blue link to preview, then you can embed your map!

I think this is a very useful visual of some of my Twitter Tour 2011 to date.  What an amazing journey I am on!


View Twitter Tour 2011 in a larger map




6 comments:

  1. What a great idea, I have never thought of using Google Maps like this. Thanks for a useful post, I will share it with my teachers. Have a look at Scribble Maps http://scribblemaps.com/ this one allows you to draw, annotate and add photos and movies as well.

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  2. Hey Anne - this is great, and i will refer back to it when i want to use google maps with the kids - there is just one small problem with your twitter tour map....it doesn't have Lawrence on it yet!!!!!

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  3. I have used mapalist.com in conjunction with Google forms to make a world map of different conflicts with my class. The students entered the details of a conflict, including the latitude and longitude, and the speadsheet produced a map that could be embedded into our class blog. Very cool!

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  4. Jacqui, thanks for your feedback. I sure learnt a lot in the process.

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  5. Thanks Gillian, I would love to visit Lawrence. Let's set up a day at #educampdunners. Really looking forward to seeing you then.

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  6. Thanks Carl, what a great idea. I am very new to geocaching and am learning lots about co-ordinates!

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