Today I had the pleasure of "teaming up" with a Glen Meadow social studies teacher, Greg Jablonski, to introduce a unit on Asian civilizations. A traditional colored-pencil and paper activity was replaced with a collaborative digital mapping effort through Google Drawing. A blank map of China was "shared" out to the class and students were given a list of geographical items to locate and map.
Pairs of students used the features of Google Drive to work together synchronously on a single map, while Google Drawing provided graphical editing tools such as shapes and text boxes.
Students polished their shared maps with self-made symbolic legends. The products of the activity were unique, cloud-stored and collaborative. The students are looking forward to continuing this effort as they explore the same regions in Google Earth and embed screenshots into their maps.
Pairs of students used the features of Google Drive to work together synchronously on a single map, while Google Drawing provided graphical editing tools such as shapes and text boxes.
Students polished their shared maps with self-made symbolic legends. The products of the activity were unique, cloud-stored and collaborative. The students are looking forward to continuing this effort as they explore the same regions in Google Earth and embed screenshots into their maps.