New Google Earth Experiment: Tourbuilder

New Google Earth Experiment:  Tourbuilder

This week’s tidbit is another simple share. Check out the new tourbuilder by Google by clicking on the link above. There is a sample tour located here. Notice in the sample that each pushpin location includes a picture and information about that stop on the journey.

I see tons of ways that this could be used in education. Students could explore significant battles in history and share pictures with information about the battle locations. Students could share places they visited over the summer with stories relating to those visits. Students could explore their state by studying different locations and sharing the importance of those locations as they relate to the state’s history.

Check out the gallery of tours already created. What ideas come to mind as you see the Google tourbuilder technology tool?

April Tip #2: Google Sheet AddOn: Save as Doc

Google Sheet AddOn: Save as Doc

This week’s tidbit is another AddOn for Google Sheets. We recently did a survey using Google forms. As we were looking over the survey results in the Google sheet it was hard to read all of the input scrolling through the sheet. The perfect answer to read through the results was the AddOn for Google sheets called Save as Doc. To add this AddOn

• Open your Sheet of Form Results (This would also work on a regular Google sheet not connected to a form as well)
• Click on AddOns - Get Addons
• Search for Save as Doc and add it to your Google sheet.
• Click on AddOns - Save as Doc - Start
• An information box appears on the right hand side of your screen
• In the top box, type in the name you want for your created Google document
• Click the box to include your headings
• Leave the default selection stating that the first row of the sheet contains your headings or select the alternate choice of first row of selection contains your headings
• Next, pick your heading style (Note: All headings appear in the Google doc using this heading style with individual answers under the heading)
• Check the box to add a page break after each row (This puts each line of information in the Google sheet on its own page
• Then click the box that says Select All Data
• Once you click that box, text should appear below that says “All data has been selected!”
• Click Save as Doc
• The Google doc will generate
• Click at the bottom to Open your Document

Here is a sample Google sheet as well as the sample result from the Save as Doc AddOn. This worked on survey results, but it’s also a great way to print out student answers to a Google form as well.

First April Tip: Mapping Data Points

Maps

Maps are so cool. They are visual representations of where things are located. A cool new add on for Google Sheets allows you to create maps of spreadsheet data. First, you need this document. When you click on the document, it will force you to make a copy. Now that you have a copy, start adding some sample information. To start, I would just add 2 lines of information. You can re-build your map multiple times, so it’s ok if you don’t have all of the information there yet. You can change the headings and/or the information listed. I’ve just included those as samples.

Now, add the mapping add-on. Click on ADD-ONS, Get ADD-ONS. Search for Mapping Sheets and click to add it. Once it’s added, go back to your sheet and click on ADD-ONS, Mapping Sheets, Start Mapping. The menu will appear on the right hand side of the screen. I leave the Title and Filter as the Name of the School. Change the location to be the location from the drop down menu to the right. Click BUILD at the bottom. Click VIEW to see your map. Add the link to a web page to show your mapped data. If you go back and add more information, you will have to click the build button again. Your link will NOT change though, but update with the new built information.

We used this add-on to map the data for the location of our schools with an administrator name and phone number.  We then added a link to our web page. Here’s what our link looks like. What do you think? Share your ideas for how this tool could be useful in the comments section.