Virtual field trips created by you or your students.
Are you looking for a creative way for your students to show what they are learning in your classroom?
Google Tour Builder may be the solution that allows your students to do just that. With Tour Builder you or
your students will be able to plot out locations on Google Earth and then provide descriptions of that location
including video and images. These are extremely easy to put together. Simply login with your Google account
and start looking for places to drop pins. Tour Builder allows you to create a digital story of locations that can
then be presented in the order you specify.
Example Ideas of how a classroom teacher may use Tour Builder
- Social Studies - Create a tour of all the major battle sites of World War II.
- Language Arts - Mapping Fogg's Trip in “Around the World in Eighty Days”
- Science - A timeline of the significant scientific discoveries of the 20th century mapped geographically
- Mathematics - Virtual tour of various architecture that possess unique geometric characteristics.
- Foreign Language - Explore the culturally significant locations of countries in which Spanish is the native language.
- Physical Education - Create a tour of the last ten Summer Olympic venues.
- Art - Map out the birthplaces of the ten most influential artists in history
I am sure you can come up with different ways your students can tell digital stories with this tool.
Here is a short video that provides a teacher's perspective of Tour Builder.
How do I access Tour Builder
- Go to https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/
- Signin with your Google Account
- Click “Create a Tour”
- Give the tour a name and put your name in as the author, click “Create Tour”
- Add your content
The first slide is the introduction slide. To add new slides which are new locations, simply click the “Add
Location” button. You can use the “Search for a location” search box to help you get to a location to drop a pin.
If you need help creating a tour, just put in a help desk ticket and choose “Tech Integration” as the category.
For more helpful information and the archive of previous Check This Out! Digests, go to http://www.greenlocalschools.org/technology.aspx 