The project was then converted with the Wikitude app ( ), an augmented reality (AR) program, that used the student-created Google Map content. Students researched, photographed, and digitally-labeled gravestones in the Liverpool Cemetery and then completed a custom Google Map complete with historical profiles for over 30 gravesites. Seventh Grade Social Studies Teacher Micah Shippee worked with over 100 students at Liverpool Middle School on the Liverpool Cemetery Mapping project. I love hearing how teachers are using Geo Tools with their students to make learning real and authentic.

I am also really excited to see the full launch of Google Earth Studio - a browser-based animation tool for Google Earth’s 3D and satellite imagery. Use the site The True Size to move actual outlines of states or countries onto other locations to determine the true size of those regions. The most popular of these is the Mercator projection. Cartographers use something called a “projection” to morph the globe into 2D map. It is hard to represent our spherical world on flat piece of paper. Here is a VR tour of the Apollo Press Student Publishing Center I made using 360 photos uploaded to Google Maps. The other tool that I think has the same potential is Google VR Tour Creator. Generations In Movement made with Google Tour Builder by Carol Baltazar & Brian Everett’s Spanish classes. The best part is that you can open the tour in Google Earth and the students loved interacting with their tours on a flat panel interactive display. This tool is great for place-based storytelling that combines placing points on a map with text and images.

I love Google Tour Builder and was thrilled when two Spanish teachers from my school decided to use it for a cool project.

I will presenting at the #NCCE19 conference in the Tech Savvy Exploratorium this week so I brushed off my Geo Tools presentation, added some new classroom examples, and discovered some new ideas too. Since that time I was able to attend the Google Geo Institute (twice!) and learn about all kinds of Geo Tools and now I even enjoy contributing 360 photos as a local guide. We created fantasy postcards (made in PowerPoint & saved as images) and embedded them on shared Google Map and encouraged others to contribute. I started with a collaborative Google My Maps project with 7th & 8th graders ten years ago. Maybe I should have been a geography teacher or better yet – a tour guide like Rick Steves – but I love maps, traveling, and seeing the world. One of my favorite presentations to do is my “Around the Word with Google Geo Adventures” workshop.

360 cities google earth