How to Set up Google Collaborative Maps for Online Classes
A. Overview of Google "My Map."
A fast-paced presentation of a "My Map" application is found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFH5b8wKg18&feature=relmfu
The following video gives a three minute tutorial in how to set up your own "My Map."
This will be helpful to view before we get to setting up a collaborative map among students in your class.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TftFnot5uXw B. Setting up a Google Account.
In order to set up or access a Google Collaborative map, you need to set up a Google Account, if you don't already have one.
Go to www.Google.com. In the upper right corner, click on "Sign In."
The next page will give you the option to sign in, but will also ask, "Don't have a Google Account?" If you don't have an account already, click on "Create an account now" and follow the directions.
Mark down your password and the e-mail address you are using for your Google account. It can be the same e-mail address listed for you at the ICCOC online course, but doesn't have to be the same, necessarily.
C. Experiencing a Collaborative Map.
To get to the map, go to www.tinyurl.com/ICCOC2011
In the upper right corner, click on "Sign In" and sign in to your Google Account. When you do this, a map will pop open labeled "ICCOC April 2001." (Later on, you'll find out how to set up a 'tinyURL' for a map that you yourself create.)
1. Edit mode:
Find the "Edit" button in the top right of the white section--the white section being to the left of the map itself. Click on "Edit" and a menu of icons will show up at the top of the map itself. DO NOT EDIT THE MAP TITLE OR DESCRIPTION that shows up in the white section to the left of the map. You'll be using the icons found in the top of the map itself: (1) a hand, (2) a blue "push pin" or "balloon," and (3) a line tool that looks like a line graph.
2. Zooming: To zoom in, look for the little golden man; click on the plus (+) sign to zoom in. Or use the scroll bar (between the + and - signs) if that opens for you. Zoom out so you can find the general location of the place you want to mark. Zoom in to find the exact location. For example, don't just put a marker on Hawaii; it may end up in the ocean! Zoom in on a street in Honolulu, and then make your mark.
3. Warning on finding an exact location:
One of the problems with "My Maps" is that you can't use the "Get Directions" function while editing a "My Map." If you have the street address for a location you want to mark on "My Map," you'll need to use a separate window and open a second Google map.
This will help you zoom in on a location which you can then mark in the "My Map" you are editing.
4. Marking:
Once you've zoomed in on a particular location, click on the blue marker icon (it looks like a push pin, or a little balloon). Then click on the location you want to mark. This will place a marker on your chosen location; it will also open a dialogue box for your
location.
5. Describing:
In the dialogue box, there is a space for "Title" and a space for "Description." For the title of your location, put your own name--not the name of the spot on the map. For the description, tell us why this place on the map is significant to you. If you don't want people to know your exact address or hometown, find another location of interest to mark. The more unique, the better!
6. Jazzing it up--Markers, Links, and Photos:
If you want to use a different icon for your place marker, click on the push-pin icon in the top right corner of this dialogue box--this is the only place where you can change the place mark icon.
In the dialogue box, you can also shift to HTML mode, or Rich Text. In Rich Text mode, you can not only format the text of your description, you can also (1) add hotlinks to other websites, as (2) add web photos.
Note that photos you add require a web address that is publicly accessible. You can't insert pictures off your hard drive, or link to a private FaceBook album. If you find a picture at a website, right click on the picture and open the picture itself under a new tab. Then you can copy the URL for the picture itself—not the URL for the website where you found the picture.
7. Saving:
When you're done with the dialogue box, click "OK" in the lower right corner of the dialogue box.
Go back to the left, white side of the window and click on "Save" and then "Done." The
"Done" button will turn into an "Edit" button so you can go back and edit your work if you need to do so. Your name and location description will appear in the white section to the left of the map.
8. Deleting:
Should you want to delete a place marker, you click on the location (either the
description on the left side or the marker on the map itself. Under the dialogue editing
box, click on "delete" in the lower left corner.
D. Setting up your own Collaborative Map.
A "collaborative map" isn't any different from a "My Map." What makes it Collaborative is allowing others to edit the map.
1. Creating the Map.
When you're signed into your Google account, go to Google Maps. On the left side, click on "My Maps." Then click on "Create new map." You are given a menu for the map Title and Description, as well as the options of making the map "public" or "unlisted." Since you will be making the URL available only to your students, you can mark it as
"unlisted."
2. Collaborating.
There are two ways that you can invite students to collaborate on the map. The first is to invite from the "My Map" menu; the second one is to give people the URL for the map itself.
3. Managing Collaborators
When you are in the edit mode for a "My Map," the menu on the left side has a link simply marked "Collaborate." When you click on this, a pop-up window gives you several options.
Under "Manage Collaborators," you can decide whether the people you invite to
collaborate can invite others. Unless you want people besides your own students to edit the map, don't click on this. There is also an option to "allow anyone to edit."
Honestly, I haven't yet figured out what it means to "allow anyone to edit;" it seems that any one who is allowed as a "collaborator" is also able to edit anything on the map, except for the "Manage Collaborators" window itself. Just to be safe, though, I click on
"allow anyone to edit this map." If you discover what difference this makes, let me know!
4. Inviting Collaborators from the map itself
In the Collaboration pop-up window, you can send invitations to individual e-mail addresses, and attach a personal note as well. It is possible to invite your whole class this way, but that means creating a list of e-mails (separated by commas) from the class roster. This is time-consuming and cumbersome. It's much easier to post the URL for the map itself.
5. Inviting Collaborators using a TinyURL
Rather than sending an e-mail invitation to all your students, you can give all of them the URL (web address) for the map itself. If you've set up your map as "unlisted," it's unlikely that people will stumble across your map if it has an obscure name, but specific to your course. For example, the map used for this seminar is "ICCOC April 2011" -- not likely for web surfers to find inadvertently.
Since the web address for your map will be rather lengthy, you can give them a much shorter one, a "TinyURL"
To set up a TinyURL, just go to www.tinyURL.com. You will need to insert two pieces of information:
(1) Get the full URL link for your map. Just above your map and to the right, click on
"Link." It will give you two codes. The first one is "Paste link in email or IM." Highlight this code, copy (CTRL-C) and copy it so you can paste it into the TinyURL menu.
(2) Designate an abbreviated name for your map. Click on "Make TinyURL." It's that simple. Once you have the abbreviated, tiny URL, you can post that on your class website. Students will be able to access the map without individual invitations.
E. Embedding (inserting) your map into your course website.
If you teach online, you don't need to "invite" students to access a map that is already embedded in the course.
If you click on "Link" that's above and to the right of your map, you will see a second code that says, "Paste HTML to embed in website." If you highlight and copy this, you can copy it over to a designated page within your course website.
Note that Google Maps provides you with the option to “Customize and preview embedded map” before you copy the the HTML / URL into your course website.
FOR THE e-COLLEGE PLATFORM: When adding embedded code to a course page, go to the course page you've selected and open it in "Author" mode. Type in whatever explanatory comments or instructions and add a string of XXXXXX's where you want to insert the Collaborative Map.
To insert the Collaborative Map embed code, go to the lower right corner of the page you are editing. Instead of being in the default "Design" mode, you need to click on
"HTML" mode. Embed codes can only be added when you are in HTML mode.
While in HTML mode, look for the string of XXXXXX's. You will replace the X's with the embed code you've copied from the "Paste HTML to embed" that you got from the Collaborative Map itself.
F. Practical Applications
I have used Collaborative Maps in my courses during the first week so students can introduce any bits of trivia or interest about themselves: a favorite vacation spot, the college where they're enrolled, etc.
Collaborative maps could also be tied to course content. Authors, inventors, leaders, associated with a discipline could be identified with a map with their birthplace, etc. In Survey of World Religions, and I could have students locate Buddhist temples outside of Asia. In Introduction to Ethics, I could have them identify locations associated with ethical issues. E.g., Guantánamo Bay or Hiroshima, Japan.
Have fun with your students in creating a tailor-made Collaborative Map!
Ken Carlson
