Google My Maps: Adding Meaningful Technology in the Classroom

overview of one student's family history

We all know how important it is to incorporate technology into the classroom.  The problem, for me anyway, is how can I make the technology meaningful and an internal part of the lesson. So often I hear teachers proclaim that they run a 21st century classroom but they seem to focus on the same aspects of technology. I do not mean this as a criticism of the teacher, but I say it to highlight the problem we have in coming up with new ways to implement technology in the class.
Yes, there is a time an a place for Powerpoint or Prezi presentations. Yes, teaching students to blog can be a useful tool to help them display their learning and their reactions to the world. Yes, we should be doing more. I know many teachers are much better at this than I, but this is a personal struggle for me in my class.

This brings me to the topic at hand; this is how I have used Google My Maps to successfully incorporate technology into my class in a meaningful way. As you may know, I currently teach at an international school in Indonesia, and we are using a thematic curriculum, the IPC. This unit we are focusing on Migration and the moving of people for various reasons. The curriculum called for students to create a personal "family tree" to document their own personal familial migration. I thought this would be a great way to incorporate tech in a meaningful way.

Students were able to create an interactive map, with a different color line for each member of their family. By doing the students can add to their map
over time and add new colors, new lines, and new places without starting over.  I find that my students enjoy using tech because it adds a visual and interactive aspect to the learning, which this lesson does in spades. Google My Maps allows a great degree of customization including making notes at each destination or changing the icon.

My kids really enjoyed creating and        
displaying their family histories in this way.

Take a look at some of the screen shots of my students maps. They all had the freedom to create their map as they they saw fit. The only constraints given were that all students were required to show were there family had been and where they went. The objective was to show the increased mobility of people as the world become ever more globalized. Meaning your great grandparents may have moved once in their life, but you parents have live on three different contents for work and school.I feel like this was a meaningful way to attain this objective. My students were engaged, learned about their history, and learned how to use My Maps.