How To Create An Interactive Collaborative Google My Map
How To Create An Interactive Collaborative Google My Map
Google My Map
Interactive, collaborative maps are a great way to identify and share key locations, routes to
school or features of a local area around a school, workplace or in your local community.
One of the easiest, but most powerful tools that exists to create interactive maps is the
‘Google My Map’ tool.
Once you’ve created a Google My Map, you can share it with other people and Google
gives you lots of options on how much editing they can do based on the sharing settings
that you give them.
4. Click the “Maps Tab” then click, “Create Map” down the bottom. The new map will
open in a new tab.
5. You can then search for a location on your map (e.g. ‘Warnbro Primary School’ it will
zoom into that location)
6. Name the map and the first ‘Untitled layer’ that has been auto created (eg
‘Wayfinding signs’).
7. Create new layers such as ‘Route 1’ by clicking on the ‘Add layer’ button on the top
left.
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8. Then you can start adding placemarks, or even draw lines to it by using the tools up
the top of the map.
9. E.g. – To add a placemark, click the little placemark tool and then click the map to
place it where you want it (it can be moved around later). You can add a line that can
be colour coded by clicking the funny little icon to the right of the placemark tool.
TIP: You can access more options like “Set default view” by clicking the three little
dots next to the Map name.
10. Name each placemark or route, then add a description. (e.g. Cnr View and Olive St).
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TIP: Inside the Description box Press Alt & Enter to return to the next line to enter the
way the wayfinding sign will face (eg North Facing)
11. You can always go back and edit the information, change the colour, add a photo
etc or edit the placement by clicking the little pencil “Edit” icon.
12. You can then toggle the satellite view to
zoom right in and fine tune the
placement of placemarks and lines by
clicking “Base Map”.
13. To allow others to collaborate or share
the map as a link, click the ‘Share’
button to let others view it, or edit this
map. Google My Maps are set up by
default as ‘Private’.
There are three options:
a. Link sharing On – Public on the
web for anyone to view.
b. Link sharing On – Anyone with
the link can access
c. Link sharing Off – share with
specific people.
TIP: We generally use option C – Link
sharing off when creating school based
maps as they contain sensitive
information.
3 – A new tab will open up, Click the ‘Hamburger menu’ in the top left of the screen.
6 – A list of all your Maps will appear, choose the map you want to calculate walking
and riding times for.
7 – Right click on a placemark and choose ‘Directions from here’
8 – Either click on your destination on the map, or type in your destination in the field
in the blue box on the left and select the best match.
9 – Your route is shown, Now select the ‘Walk’ or ‘Bike’ options up the top instead of
the default ‘Car’ option and you can see the walking time in minutes.
TIP: You can even ‘Drag’ any corners of the route to take it down a different street if Google
didn’t give you the correct route to school.