Introduction

If you wanted to find a place where could we look? Atlases, Online maps, OS Maps, Globes, Sat Navs, see how many of these the children know about and have seen. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using paper and digital maps? What you can fit in your pocket is an obvious discussion point here, but also is connectivity and need for power!

In this lesson the focus of our searching and evaluating moves to maps. There are now many different digital mapping applications that make our lives easier than ever to find places and investigate all corners of the Earth that we otherwise couldn’t reach. 

Explain that we are going to be focussing on online maps; learning how to use them quickly and effectively and consider which version is best to use at different times. 

 

What different online maps do you already know of?  Google Maps, Apple Maps, Google Earth, Bing, AA, Streetmap.

Ask them to open Google Chrome and find and open Google Maps. Being a web based app Google Maps is something that will not always stay the same, but most of the things described should remain as key features in the future, even if their position on the screen moves. 

 

Explore the features of Google Maps, not the map itself but what you can do with it. 

See if they can find:

• Controls to move around the map
• Map view
• Satellite view - What different control options are available in Satellite view?
• Traffic information - What can you find out?
• Bike routes 
• Terrain (only in map view) - What does this mean? Why could it be useful? 
• Photographs of locations - Check out the photo tours!

 

In Map view

• You can’t rotate the map
• Navigation controls and access to location images bottom right
• Switch to the Globe view in the bottom right
• Traffic, Bicycling and Terrain are options available from the Menu button in the top left on the search box.

 

 

Satellite View

• Navigation controls and access to location images bottom right
• Able to rotate the map in satellite view
• Able to tilt the map in satellite view (2D or 3D)
• Traffic and Bicycling options available in menu, no Terrain option as it’s imagery.
• Switch to Map view is bottom left

 

 

Next open Bing maps and compare the features that are available in that. What is different? What is the same? Which do you prefer?

• OS Maps are available

 

Streetview

Open Google Maps and find your local high street. Go into Street View by dragging the little orange man from the tools in the bottom right onto a street that is highlighted blue on the map.

 

 

Show them how to navigate by clicking and dragging the screen to rotate and clicking on where you want to go on screen to move or using the keyboard arrow keys. 

Take a look around on screen. What can you see? What can’t you see? - Some branding, faces and number plates will be obscured with blurring. Why do you think this is? Discuss the E-safety elements of satellite imagery and street view,

Ask the children to open Google maps and search for the school, or their own street. They could search by street name or postcode if they know it. Ask them to go into Street View and have a good look around, practice navigating in Street View. What can they tell by the pictures in Street View? 

• Has anything changed since the photos were taken?
• What time of year were they taken?
• Is anything blurred out in the photos?

 

So how is Street View made? Ask the children to go to the following link goo.gl/SNsENc (note - it’s case sensitive) This will open a presentation with a number of links for them to access in this lesson. 

Ask them to go to slide 2 and click on the link to ‘Behind the scenes in Street View’ 

Ask them to explore the page and find the answers to the following questions (also on their presentation slide) 

• How do they take the photos?

• How many different methods do they use? (not just a car!)

• Name five countries that haven’t been covered by Street View - Why do you think they haven’t been done yet?

 

 

Next, the children should go to slide 3 in the presentation they opened (goo.gl/SNsENc). Give them some time to explore some of the interesting places that have been captured with Street View Treks (where the camera has been carried by a person or on a trolley, rather than on the car) by clicking on the links on the slide. 

They can find out even more about Street View Treks at the bottom of Slide 3 and Slide 4 in the presentation should you want to explore more places with your class. 

 

 

The technology to get inside buildings in now available to all. You should even find some places local to you that you can get inside with Google Street View.

Head back to Google Maps and zoom in pretty close to an area. When you drag out the Street View figure look out for orange dots. You can see inside anywhere labelled with an orange dot, just get up close and drop the figure onto a dot.

 

 

Check out the Sage Gateshead's beautiful concert hall:

 

Or better still, the view from the roof of the Sage!

 

Google Earth Projects

Google Earth is the sister project to Google Maps and offering many of the same features, but also some different options, including the ability to make fantastic virtual tours with the 'Projects' feature.

 

 

If you're signed into a Google account these can be saved online to your account, or into Google Drive, alternatively, if your school does not have Google accounts they can be saved locally to you computer.

This video give a great introduction how to create a Project and how to add features to it.

 

 

Demonstrate to the students how to make a short tour, adding four or five locations. These can be themed to anything you like. They could be locations linked to a topic you are studying, a tour of your local area, famous places or anything else you can think of.

Use the navigation controls in the bottom right

 

Here's a few examples, click the link below and then the Present button when they have loaded:

• A tour of the North East
• Famous football stadiums
• Wonders of the world

 

 

Ask the students to have a go at making their own short Project tour linked to one of the themes above, an idea of their own or something of your choice.

Saving and sharing

With Google accounts

If your students are logged into Google accounts their projects are auto-saved to Google Drive. They can share their projects with you just like sharing a file in Google Drive. Click on the share button at the top of the Project pane and then add email addresses as normal before you click Done. 

 

 

Without Google accounts

If you do not have a Google account click on the three dots at the top of the Project pane and then choose Export as KML file.

 

 

You can then save this file to your computer. Ask the children to save to your shared area and you will be able to open their projects on your computer connected to the big screen by clicking New Project and then Import KML file from Computer and browsing for the file.

 

 

Choose a few to open on your big screen and ask the children to take the class through their tour.

 

Plenary

This is a good opportunity to discuss online safety and why we should be careful about how we share these tours. Would it be a good idea to create a tour all about where you live and places you visit and then share that on a public website? Why?

Review all the different mapping tools we have talked about today and how useful they are. Technology today lets us explore and see up close places that we may never be able to visit in real life and fit maps for the whole planet inside our pocket on a phone.

In the next lesson we will be looking at other uses of online maps and further testing their searching skills.