Because of a glorious snow day and limited instruction time, I wanted to demonstrate here how to create a Google My Map. We will still be learning StoryMap in class.

First, you will need a Google account, and click here to get started.

You will then create a new map. It’s that bright red button.

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You will be greeted by a blank map that should look familiar to you if you use Google Maps–

To add new items to your map, you click on the search bar at the top and type in what location you’re looking for. In this case, I used Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Once you find the location you’re interested in, select it via the drop down box.

You’ll see seething like this. Click “Add to Map” in order to add a location to your map.

Once you’ve added a location to your map, the box will change to look more like this. From here, you have a few options. The little pen icon allows you to add commentary to the item, as shown below. Always click “save” to make sure that your changes are applied. It will take you back to the box you see above.

From there, you can also add an image. The great part is that this is attached to Google, which means it has built in Google image support! Rad!

Now my entry looks like this. I have an image of the game, the info of what happened at the location, and the date.

From there, you just keep adding locations relevant to your topic. As you can see below, I’ve also added a title, which is done just by clicking on the “Untitled Map” section, and I have also changed the style of the map by clicking “Base Map.” This is personal preference. I would ALWAYS recommend naming your map, but you do not have to change the look of the map.

So once it is completed, how do we share it? Easy!

Click that preview button. It’ll take you to a “public view” of your map that looks like this:

If you’re ready to post it, you can click “share” on this page. I promise it is there, but it is covered by the sharing box in this screenshot. You will want that “embed on my site” link. It will ask you to make your map open to the public in permissions, and luckily for us, it just pops up a box that allows you to do so.

Copy that embed code. Then you can go to your WordPress blog and start a new post/page, etc.

MAKE SURE YOU ARE IN THE HTML BOX. If you try in the Visual box, this WILL NOT WORK. Paste that embed code in there. Once you publish, your My Map is live!

Ta da! It seems like a lot of steps, but it’s actually very easy. This is good for showing real life locations in a simple manner.