Mapping

Overview

In this module, you will be learning about a variety of instructional technology tools and strategies that support the teaching of geography and mapping.

Objectives

  • transform a traditional lesson plan that incorporates student-centered analysis of geography through meaningful instructional technology tools and strategies

Wonder

Have you ever wondered how your can develop your students' geography and mapping skills to better understand historical events and themes?

Investigate

Choose some tools/strategies from the list below that you'd like to investigate further.

Learn

Visit the Resources Page to view some video tutorials and read various support materials about your chosen tool/strategy to learn how to integrate technology into your lesson. Don't see what you'd like to learn? Please contact Rob Leo, Coordinator of Instructional Technology Training for support.

Create

Create a real-world example of whichever tool/strategy you have chosen, transform a lesson plan that integrates your selection, and deploy your lesson with your students.

Tools

      1. Google Drive
      2. Google Maps (My Maps)
      3. Google Earth
      4. Google Sites
      5. Google Classroom
      6. Storymap JS
      7. Awesome Screenshot Chrome Extension
      8. Google Drawings
      9. GeoGuessr

Strategies

      1. From Google Drive, have students create a custom My Maps based on a theme/prompt (i.e. Axis vs. Allies in WWII; Alexander’s Conquests; the travels of Ibn Battuta or Marco Polo). Students can search for locations and pin a location to the map. Students can edit title and description and can add an image to pinned locations. Map “share” settings should be set so that “anyone with the link can view.” Maps can be shared with a link or can be collaborative, just like any other Google Drive file.
      2. Have students use Google Earth's Voyager tool to take a virtual tour of an historic location.
      3. Have students create a custom tour in Google Earth by first creating a custom My Map and exporting it as a .kml file. The .kml file can then be imported into Google Earth. Alternatively, use Google Tour Builder to create a custom tour than can be exported to Google Earth.
      4. Task students with telling a geography-based story using StoryMaps JS. Add a slide for each place in the story. Set the location and tell a story with photos and a narrative that describes a series of events. Maps can be shared with a link.
      5. Task students with creating a Google Site that includes an embedded My Map.
      6. Task students with taking a screenshot of an image of a map using the Awesome Screenshot Chrome Extension. Use Awesome Screenshot’s annotation tools to label the map. Download the photo and share it using Google Classroom or insert it in a Google Doc or Google Slides presentation.
      7. Insert an image of a map in Google Drawings and add shapes to indicate historical markers. Insert a link on each marker to a web address that expands on the historical event associated with the location on the map.
      8. Have students test their geography skills by playing GeoGuessr.