In today’s post, I share with you this handy free course from Google Applied Digital Skills on creating clickable maps in Google Slides. This course is a fantastic resource for both teachers and students, guiding them through the process of creating an interactive presentation using Google Slides. It’s designed to not only enhance digital skills like presentation formatting and slide design but also to foster research and reporting abilities.
Creating clickable interactive maps is an educational activity that helps students practice and develop their geographical literacy skills, enhance their intercultural competencies, and boost their understanding of history. Needless to mention the various technical and digital skills they get to practice and acquire along they way, that is, fruits of collateral or incidental learning. All of these activities allow students to explore, discover, and connect with information in a more meaningful way.
So, whether you’re looking to bring a new dimension to your geography lessons, create a historical map for a social studies project, or simply integrate more digital creativity into your classroom, this course is an invaluable tool.
Creating Clickable Maps in Google Slides
The “Create a Clickable Map in Google Slides” course offered by Google Applied Digital Skills is an innovative and engaging way for teachers and students to learn about interactive presentation creation using Google Slides. This 45 to 90-minute course is designed to enhance a range of digital skills, including digital publishing, internet search, presentation formatting, and slide design.
Course Overview
- Introduction to Clickable Maps: The course begins with an introduction to the concept of interactive maps in presentations, setting the stage for the creative process.
- Starting Your Presentation: Participants learn to create a new presentation, choose a theme, and add titles and subtitles.
- Adding and Editing Map Images: This step involves adding a new slide, inserting an image of a map, and resizing it to fit the slide.
- Creating Interactive Elements: Learners outline parts of the map image with polyline shapes and make these shapes transparent, which is crucial for the interactivity of the map.
- Linking Slides for Interactivity: This critical phase teaches how to link different parts of the map to corresponding slides, creating the ‘clickable’ aspect of the map.
- Adding Content to Each Location: Participants add facts and images to each location slide, enhancing the informational value of the map.
- Course Wrap-Up and Quiz: The course concludes with a summary and a quiz to reinforce the concepts learned.
- Extensions: Additional activities are provided for further exploration and skill development.
Practical Instructions
The course is hands-on, guiding participants through each step of creating a clickable map in Google Slides. This includes:
- Choosing a location for the map.
- Creating and renaming a new presentation in Google Slides.
- Customizing the presentation with a theme, background color, title, and subtitle.
- Adding images of the map and resizing them.
- Drawing shapes over the map and setting them as transparent.
- Linking these shapes to new slides for each location.
- Adding informative content and images to each location slide.
- Adjusting text color and size for clarity and visual appeal.
Educational Implications
For educators, this course offers a dynamic way to integrate technology into various subjects, especially geography, history, or social studies. It encourages students to engage in research, enhancing their understanding of different locations while simultaneously developing their digital skills.
From a pedagogical perspective, this course aligns well with contemporary educational goals. It fosters digital literacy, creativity, and critical thinking. Moreover, it provides a platform for students to practice organizing and presenting information in a clear, interactive, and engaging manner.
Final Thoughts
The “Create a Clickable Map in Google Slides” offers an innovative approach to learning that combines technical skills with creative expression and research. For students, it’s an opportunity to engage with technology in a meaningful and enjoyable way, enhancing their learning experience. For educators, it’s a resource that offers a fresh perspective on teaching digital skills, moving beyond traditional methods to embrace more interactive and student-centered learning approaches.
Whether you’re looking to introduce new digital skills, foster creativity, or simply bring a fun and interactive element to your classroom, this course is a valuable resource. It exemplifies the potential of educational technology to make learning more relevant, engaging, and effective, preparing students for a future where such skills are increasingly important.
