For optimal viewing, view my digital story in Google Maps
View Adventures in Europe in a larger map
Originally, I was going to select Bubbleshare to tell my digital story. After all, I have used it for that purpose many times before. However, after viewing Alan Levine’s (2007) “50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story”, I was inspired to try something new and ultimately use a tool that will be very applicable to teaching social studies. I have used Google Maps hundreds of times for the purpose of finding directions but I never thought of it as anything other than a locator tool. After seeing the options it provided for virtual storytelling, I was convinced that it was the right tool to tell my story and the right tool to introduce to my social studies students.
The story I chose to tell was about my own experience traveling. Google Maps was the right tool for several reasons. In the context of social studies and of traveling, I don’t believe that a story necessarily has to be sequential in order to understand it. Google Maps affords both a sequential or non-sequential viewing experience that can be determined by the viewer and facilitated by the ordered plots along the left side of the map (a sequential experience) or the scattered location plots on the map itself (a non-sequential experience). In reference to my story, my trip obviously took place in a certain order but to understand my thoughts on a city or to view my images one does not need to view each part in order.
I wanted to express that my travels were not linear events but rather interconnected events that were many individual experiences that also formed a collective whole. Google Maps was the tool that could best represent this due to several features.
1) The ability to colour code locations. Note that blue markers were my first trip and green markers were my second trip with London as the sole yellow marker because it was a part of both trips.
2) The ability to “symbol code” locations. The thumbtacks represented overnight stays whereas the raindrop markers represented daytrips.
3) The ability to draw routes. Google Maps allowed for me to draw my route of travel and also colour code them.
4) The ability to allow for sequential and non-sequential viewership.
5) The ability for me to situate locations on or near a map so that viewers can physically see the locations and the distances between them.
Depending on the topic, students can use Google Maps to tell a story about where they have been or use Google Maps to support a historical or cultural understanding from class. Since Google Maps is a “zoom in, zoom out” interface, students can tell their own story utilizing photos, text and map points for a trip as broad as around the world to a trip as small as Vancouver to Kelowna. This tool would be useful in my ancient civilizations unit for the same purpose, student could plot the route of a historical figure or entire culture or tell a story about a country that demonstrated knowledge of same. The simple, unrestricted set up of Google Maps allows for different styles of writing to set the tone for the story whether it is first hand experience, taking the first person perspective of a historical figure or third person factual view. Additionally, Google Maps affords the creator the opportunity to colour code map points, create routes and embed the map within another site.
A story telling approach in the social studies classroom using social media allows for students to create outside of the static Web 1.0 in the dynamic Web 2.0. In reflection, I can already see how a story telling approach in Google Maps would enhance a project that I have already done with students. Previously, I had students complete a “Lonely Planet” assignment where they used Powerpoint to create a slideshow meeting specific criteria about a country that they wanted to visit using their newly acquired information literacy skills. However, even after spending many weeks on this, most students could not situate their country on a map! Had I used Google Maps to have students write a fictional story about traveling in a country of their choosing that demonstrated knowledge about the country, students would be physically creating on top of the map.
Furthermore, Google Maps could be utilized as a much more dynamic way of having students report on summer vacation, field trips or camps. Lamb (2007) too mentions that “integrating maps with other tools” can enhance a school’s field trip.
As Google Maps provides the options for making a map public, students can view each others maps and, in the case of reporting on a field trip, compare how the experience was the same or different as their own. Lamb (2007) states that “when remixing happens in a social context on the open web, people learn from each other’s process” and that is exactly what Google Maps affords.
Outside of Google Maps, story telling is an effective tool to use in the context of the social studies classroom. In referencing Bloom’s Taxonomy, teaching social studies has formerly favored the internalizing of knowledge and then regurgitating that knowledge in the form of essays and homework question responses. However, the emergence of social media allows for a story telling approach to be taken in actually applying knowledge in a meaningful way. I certainly could have written an essay about my travels but it was more engaging, meaningful and interesting to tell my story instead through Google Maps. Alan Levine’s (2007) “50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story”, confirms that there is not just one storytelling tool, rather, there are different tools to meet the needs of each subject and story. While the map feature of Google Maps made it particularly applicable to the social studies context, there are also other tools that will, above all, engage students in creating meaningful reflections of their learning.
Reference List:
Lamb, B. (2007). Dr. Mashup; or, Why Educators Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Remix. EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 42, no. 4 (July/August 2007): 12–25. Accessed online March 9 2009 http://www.educause.edu/ER/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume42/DrMashuporWhyEducatorsShouldLe/161747