Great PBL Site: StoryMap

As a History teacher, I was always looking to incorporate more maps into my curriculum. Google Maps & Earth have come a long way throughout the years, but I always wanted students to create visual products that were relevant to them and the concepts we were covering in class, were engaging throughout the creation phase, were easy to use, and looked sharp when complete. I've looked for and utilized products that did a fraction of these requirements. Never really satisfied....until now! Enter StoryMap!

StoryMap, built out of the Northwestern Knightlab, is an easy to use Project Based Learning tool that can be utilized in a slew of different disciplines to develop geography skills in students and allow them to create something they could be proud of and have fun doing it!! It's easy to use, you use your Google Account to sign up for it, it's free, and did I mention it's easy to use??

Everything starts with a map of the world and a search bar. The search feature uses Google Maps and typing the name of a city, country, physical boundary will pin that spot. From there, it acts like Slides or PowerPoint in that you add slides for the order of "flow" and the student can add text, include links, and media to each slide. The media supported are web url & uploaded pictures, gifs, Youtube videos, content from Vine, Twitter, Instagram, and a few others.

Click the pic below to see what one looks like. The following example comes right from the StoryMap website.

Click the pic to see one of the greatest BAs on that show!!!

This opens up opportunities for students to compare and contrast life in the same location at various time periods, built around a concept you are teaching in class, using media native to them. For instance:

• The Visual Arts teacher may want students to research influential Middle Age artists and document their their journey through their life and career - documenting their physical movement, influential works, and a modern day connection (Tweets! Grams! Vids! Vines!) to the area and artist 
• The Physical Education Teacher may want to track the developments of various weight training and exercise programs (CrossFit, Yoga, The Scandinavian Squat...I made that last one up, but it sounds cool) and show media of individuals using it throughout the journey
• The History Teacher may....well....I'm sure if you're a History Teacher you've already left this post and are checking it out on your own
• The ELA Teacher can plot the various aspects of a character's journey through a novel tracking the arch as well as media that is related to their physical and fictional journey

And as with any great story created, it needs to be told!! Presentation skills are essential to be taught and practiced across the curriculum and this product is made for student presentations in mind! It looks slick on a big screen and you can have students create an informal or formal presentation based on their creative product!

Some drawbacks:

• Network issues and access! Building one at home is much easier than at school and they will have access to the media more readily at home
• Work Around: Have them plot each "slide" at school after the research phase, add the titles and text at school, and have them build the media aspects of the project at home
• When presenting, the students will need to present off of your laptop or Chromebook - they'll get stuck as the network here will iBoss them to death having Tweets, Instagram and Vine media on their projects

The possibilities and uses for this product are immense! Give it a shot and if you're interested in working with it but need some help, I'd be happy to sit down with you to show you the nuts and bolts or even conduct a mini-lesson and teach your students how to use it.

Below is an example I created last night with some minor edits today. I've included the link to view it in your browser and also how it looks and functions when embedded on a website.

Link to view it in your browser (Looks better there anyway and you can swipe on your screen if your Chromebook has that ability): Where I've Lived