Week 5 - Engagement Activity 5-7 tool 4 Google Map

Activity 5-8 tool 4 Google Map

Both Google Earth and Docs are great tools for me to prepare and plan for my classes, but the tool I would like to explore with students during a class session is Google Map.

Google map is similar to Earth in their functions. They can both show satellite imaging as well as street layout, however Google map does not require any software to be downloaded. It is an online based tool, and Google is updating their map information constantly. I can demonstrate the concept of transportation speed versus distances for math classes using the options for “walk, car or bus” for distance calculations under Google maps. It allows user to input multiple addresses and instantly calculate the traveling distance and the time spent between those locations. User can choose the options of car, bus or walk, even cycling if people prefer a more active lifestyle.

After relocating from New Zealand to Rockhampton, I use Google map on a daily basis. It is great tool to show me where to go and find things in this new city. Its various user friendly functions are easy to demonstrate to students. It helps them to see how applied mathematics behind the tool does wonderful things for people’s life. I would encourage them to find out what else we can use this tool for, besides comparing distance, time differences between using different transportations, decision making when choosing routes and so on. 

However Google map does have some shortcoming. There are commercial purposes information embedded in the images which could cause legal concerns; and unsuitable behavior may be captured in the street view which can be upsetting. So I need to spend time to go through the material before classes, make sure there won’t be any legal or safety issues in my demonstration. It is a time consuming process, luckily there is function in Google Maps called “my places”,  it allows me to save locations and list them under my own map folders, and help me to organize the locations from Google map that I will use for the classes.

I can come up with a task asking student to use Google Map and Prezi as a combination to do a project such as planning a travel around Australia. The students can find out all the details on Google Map, then use Prezi as a final presentation tool (as the example shown below), I really can’t wait to give this a go.