I really like this tool and I like that you just set us loose on it. I have had this idea about some differentiated activities that can be used as final projects in social studies and this would fit in well there. I was going to offer ideas like making a travel brochure for a specific location served by a time and space travel company, making a journal/diary, writing a newspaper covering news from a time and place, or making a short subject documentary. This would be a good project option for that project. Unfortunately, technology is severely limited at my current placement. Most of my students have access to the internet, but not all of them do.
The art and craft of teaching
Too bad your placed in a low tech environment. But you can hone your skills so that you can present yourself to employers as a “tech-ninja.”
Like your quip “I am from the corner of the gym without spirit.” Would like to hear more about the jobs you held. During break?
I think that this will balance well with low tech placement. It will force me to make the most of the tech access I have and also make sure that I use it with purpose.
Every lesson design is a series of tradeoffs. Trying to balance, time, resources, student attributes. Tech access is just another part of the mix.
Sam,
I loved reading the little “Where I’m From” lines at each of your locations, I thought it was a great way to use the program and give it a little structure. Google My Maps is pretty free form which made my map a little disorganized, but you found a great way to make your project both powerful and concise.
Your ideas for potential projects are really interesting too. I’ve been thinking about potential academic uses a little more after reading your ideas and considering the ones I posted about further. The possibility that is most intriguing to me would work as a final project or an ongoing one where students would post a location for each region or topic we studied and then the class could have an ongoing log of our learning.
I like it!
Good observation about the two programs. That’s why I offered a choice in the assignment. MyMaps is geolocated and embeds info at points on a map. Haiku Deck offered a more “artistic” approach blending words and image. Each told the story from a different perspective.
I did not know you were also from a small town, Sam. I bet your students could do a project like this with even a paper map and make tabs with information just like it has on here. That would go more on the artistic side though. It would be interesting to see if kids picked a world map or a map of Oregon or Portland and then to see where their life has traveled. Sometimes I forget how much some kids have had to move and it would be good background knowledge.