Tips for adding images to Custom Google Maps

I received an email this evening from a participant in my half-day workshop, "GeoApps for Learning: Google Maps and Google Earth," which I presented in early March at the Heartland eLearning Conference. He is running into trouble getting his students to add images to their shared, custom Google Map. These are a few tips I sent him. Custom Google maps are created by clicking MY MAPS on maps.google.com after you login to the site.

First, make sure you setup your Google Map for collaboration / shared editing. If you don't have the map set for everyone to edit it, you'll need to add each student by email address (using the same email they use for their free Google Account) so they can have edit rights to the map. Click the COLLABORATE link on the map to change these settings.



The image you want to add within a placemark in Google Maps needs to be saved somewhere online so you can add it by web link. Google Maps doesn't provide image hosting, like Google does for other services like Google Sites and Google Docs. You add the image with it's direct link, starting with "http://" and ending in ".jpg" You'll want to copy that image link FIRST before trying to add it to the map.



Once you (or a student) clicks EDIT on the map, make sure you're in RICH TEXT mode and click INSERT IMAGE.



The image should then appear in your placemark. Click SAVE and DONE when you finish editing. That's it!



This is the collaborative map workshop participants and I created during our time together at Heartland eLearning.


View Heartland 2011 Favorite Places in a larger map

Collaboratively edited Google Maps like this are a great way for students in one class or different classes to cooperatively add links as well as rich media content (images and YouTube videos) to a project.

I love geography, maps, and Google Maps! Creating shared maps like this is a super way to "talk with media."

What's Your Mindset?

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Greetings from near the Mammoth Caves National Park in Kentucky! I'm winding up a much needed vacation with my family, and starting to gear up for the start of school next week. My thoughts are wandering to how I can best serve teachers and students in my new position as Lead Technology Coach at the Center for Urban School Improvement at the University of Chicago.

About this time every year, my alma mater, Beloit College, reminds me that I need to be thinking about students in a more thoughtful way. For the past ten years, the college developed a list of cultural events that possibly shaped the "worldview" of its incoming freshman class. As the list developers Ron Nief and Tom McBride note in their introduction, this is not a list of events that happened the year these kids were born or intended to serve as commentary about the class's pre-collegiate education. It simply is encouragement for Beloit's faculty to think about the perspectives their new students will bring to learning.

As a person interested in educational technology, one item on this year's compilation particularly jumped out at me, "Thanks to MySpace and Facebook, autobiography can happen in real time." I think it's fair to say that there has been a fair amount of skepticism about these social networking sites, and it's interesting how this statement frames their uses. Our kids are writing their own stories and the writing process has been democratized. This is something we cannot ignore.

As this school year begins for me, one of my goals will be to think more about the set of experiences my students are bringing to learning and to consider this information throughout lesson planning and interactions with students and colleagues. The learning process is not only just about objectives, standards, and tests; it's about making learning personal and relevant to our students. So, I hope you will join me in contemplating our mindsets in the K-12 realm. A few questions come to mind: What do you need to know about your students in order to step into their mindsets? How important to the educational process is understanding your students' perspectives ? How do you go about getting to know your students? Post your ideas in the comments section of this post and let's have a conversation!

By the way, you may have noticed my map image in the this post. You can now embed Google Maps into web pages, just like you can with videos from Google Video and You Tube.

Cerf's Up: Maps

Internet Pioneer Vinton Cerf shares his thoughts on the important role that "maps" play in the 21st century.

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Downloads

> Quicktime (15 MB)


Windows Users:
right-click the link above and select "save link as..."

Mac Users:
"control" + click the link above and select "save link as..."

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Show Notes:

As one of the original inventors of the Internet, Vint Cerf is widely recognized as a leading thinker on how 21st century technologies are transforming our daily lives. Learn more about Vint on Wikipedia.

There are so many great resources on maps. Here are just a few to explore:
- links to map collections
- historical maps for students
- the art of making maps
- geospatial technology and careers
- Green Maps: collaborative project for students
- U.S. Census maps
- FREE maps to use in your classroom