Make Educational Maps with AI

By now we are all pretty used to AI chatbots being able to generate a wide range of content from lesson plans to images to even educational songs. However, another creative use for AI chatbots is to create content for informational maps.

Google My Maps is a free tool that allows you to create your own custom maps, where you can add pins for different locations, and then add content to each pin to explain what it represents.

Although you can do this by hand, that can take quite a while. It turns out that Google My Maps allows you to upload a CSV file (comma separated values) with all of the data needed to create a map.

Well the good news is, we can use an AI chatbot to generate that CSV file, complete with all the data needed for our informational map.

See below for a short video tutorial and detailed directions on how to do this, along with several demo examples I created that you can explore. And of course I would love to see examples of what you create. Please feel free to share with me the maps you make.

Get Healthy with Google Fit and My Maps

With the start of a new year, many of us are thinking about New Year's resolutions. And of course, one of the most popular goals each year is to exercise more.

Unfortunately statistics show that less than 10% of people are able to keep their resolutions. So how can we help to increase our motivation and commitment? One option is to make a game out of it by using technology to track our progress. What if we kept track of how many steps we took, and then mapped out that distance each day to see how far we traveled all year?

There are many tools you can use to do this, but in this post we will be taking a look at two free tools from Google. These are Google Fit (to count our steps) and Google My Maps (to track our cumulative progress on a map).

This could be a motivating project for staff, but could also have many applications for our students:

• Social Studies - learning about the locations reached on the map over time.
• Language Arts - writing about the "journey" and places visited.
• Math - distance traveled, averages, charts and graphs, and other statistics topics.
• Health and PE - staying active!

See below for details on how to use these two tools for this project. How far will you go?

360 Degree Learning with Google Tour Creator

Google has a rich history of creating map-related tools that can be used across all subject areas for engaging, immersive learning experiences. Some of these include Tour Builder, Earth, Expeditions, My Maps, and many more (see my slideshow on Google mapping tools).

Recently Google has launched a new tool called Google Tour Creator. This tool allows you and your students to create 360 degree tours, which can then be shared with and viewed by others. It is very much like creating your own Google Expeditions.

Don't have a 360 degree camera? That's ok! Although you can use a 360 degree camera to take pictures for Tour Creator, you can also just use the images from Google's Street View, or you can use a free mobile app such as Cardboard Camera to take the photos.

Tour Creator can be a powerful way for students to demonstrate their understanding, learn from others, and put themselves inside of a virtual experience. Tours could cover:

• Scenes from a novel
• Locations from a historical event
• Biomes from around the world
• Highlights of a city in a different country
• Biographical information from a person's life
• A student-written fictional story
• And much more!

In this post we will explore Google Tour Creator and detailed directions on how you and your students can create your own tours today.

Google Tour Builder for any Subject

Google Tour Builder is one of my favorite lesser-known Google tools. If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you have probably seen me mention it a number of times including posts such as "Hipster Google" and "Create your own Lit Trips". After doing several posts on different aspects of the tool, I figured it was time to give it the full treatment of a video training webinar.

For those not familiar with the tool, Google Tour Builder allows you and your students to create virtual tours on a map, including locations, images, videos, descriptions, hyperlinks, and more. These tours can be used in any subject area such as retelling the events from a novel, tracing the locations of a historical event, visiting different biomes or landforms around the world, and more. Tours can be viewed by others in Tour Builder, or even imported into Google Earth for a full 3D experience.

See below for my 1-hour video training webinar on "Google Tour Builder for any Subject". In addition you will find links to all of the resources mentioned in the video.

Create your own Lit Trips (and more) for Google Earth

Recently I shared a blog post on how to use Google Lit Trips in the new web-based Google Earth. Lit Trips are a great way to put students in a story, helping them see where the events took place, and bring the story to life.

In addition to just using Lit Trips, you (and your students) can also create your own tours for Google Earth. This can be a powerful learning tool, or a way for students to collect and share what they have read. Of course, beyond just Lit Trips, students can create Google Earth tours for any subject including documenting the key locations and details in a historical battle, visiting different biomes, a tour of geometric architecture, and more.

There are lots of tools that can be used to create a Lit Trip or other Google Earth tour. Whatever tool you use, the final product will need to be a .KML or .KMZ file that will then be opened in Google Earth. In my opinion, one of the best tools for creating Lit Trips (or other tours) is Google Tour Builder.

In this blog post we will take a look at how to use Google Tour Builder to create you own Lit Trip. See below for detailed directions on the process. Also, for a 1-hour recorded webinar demonstrating this process see my post "Google Tour Builder for any Subject".

Hipster Google - Google Tools You Probably Never Heard Of

Google is well know for certain tools and services - Search, Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Maps, Chrome, and such. These are all powerful and useful tools that are transforming teaching and learning in schools around the world.

However, in addition to those tools, Google has also created a wide range of services, apps, extensions, features, and other tools that are not as well known. Even though these tools may not be as popular or as widely known, they are still very useful in school settings.

These are the "Hipster Google" tools.

In our culture, one of the defining characteristics of the hipster movement is to appreciate things that are not mainstream, to use services that are not well known, or to embrace something before it becomes popular among the masses. With that thought in mind, I have collected a list of tools from Google that the average person may not know about yet.

Of course with any such list, there will be some tools that you do know, but hopefully you will pick up a few new ideas and resources from the bunch. And of course simply by sharing this blog post I am potentially making these tools more well known.

Below you will find my 1-hour recorded webinar covering each of the tools, as well as the session slideshow, and a write-up for each tool with a description and related links. So, jump on them now while it is still cool to say you used these before they were popular!

Comparing Countries with Google Maps

Maps are a powerful tool to help students understand and explore our world. However, maps are never a perfect representation, which can sometimes lead to misunderstandings. For example this could include confusion on how big land masses really are when compared to each other.

A big reason for this is the popularity of the Mercator projection map. This is the map we are used to seeing, which takes the spherical world and lays it out on a flat map. To do this, the map has to stretch out the landmasses as you move further North or South from the equator. As a result, areas such as Antarctica or Greenland end up looking much larger than they really are.

Recently I came across a neat website called “The True Size Of” which is built on top of Google Maps. The site does a great job of helping users compare the real sizes of states and countries, relative to each other. This can help students get a better idea of how large other countries really are and improve their understanding of the world.

See below for a quick overview of how the site works, along with some examples of the comparisons you can make.

Using Google Maps Bike Directions to Teach Math and Social Studies

National Bike to School Day is celebrated in May each year as part of May being recognized as National Bike Month. Many schools around the country celebrate the day with a focus on bike safety and encouraging students to ride their bikes to school that day.

Technology can be integrated into Bike to School Day by incorporating Google Maps. In addition to driving directions, Google Maps also provides directions and details for different modes of transportation including walking, riding a bus, or riding a bike.

See the rest of the blog post below to learn how to use this feature, as well as other ideas for how this can address curriculum topics in math and social studies.

The Google Maps Mobile App Every Graduating Senior Must Have

It’s that time of year when schools are starting to wrap up. For most students this just means moving up to a new grade level. However for graduating seniors this means moving on. Perhaps to college or a job. Maybe in a different city or into a dorm or into their own apartment.

As exciting as this can be, it can also be a concern for parents regarding the safety of their children. When my daughter moved 150 miles away from home for college, I wanted to know she was safe. And now I have three boys who will eventually graduate and move on as well.

Technology has always helped me to stay connected with my kids no matter where they are. We have taken advantage of texting, phone calls, Google Hangout video chats, Facebook, and more. However, a mobile app based on Google Maps has recently been released that goes one step further to increase the safety, communication, and connection for our students as they move off on their own.

See below for information on this powerful new mobile app that every graduating senior should install and use. I would also encourage schools to share this information with their students and parents before the year ends and the students move on.