Batchgeo Part 1: Google Docs

Summary

            Google maps are not just for finding directions! Batchgeo  allows users to create a web based Google map that indicates essential information about a location once the location information is plugged into a spreadsheet and copy and pasted onto the website. The application works by identifying addresses, intersections, cities, states, and postal codes. A Google map is served with tags that identify places around the world. Viewers can zoom in and out and click on the tags for additional information just as if using Google Maps.

To view my blog post about Google Docs, click here.

What I Did

When creating a Batchgeo map, first and foremost, it is necessary to create a spreadsheet. This can be done either using Microsoft Excel or Google Docs Spreadsheet. For this assignment, my colleagues and I are collaborating to synchronously (in real time) create a Google Doc Spreadsheet within which we are sharing our home addresses (including house numbers, street names, towns, states, and zip codes) and our email addresses. As we each input our data, Google Docs will automatically save the document, storing all necessary information for later retrieval. Once all data are input into the spreadsheet, we will be able to independently engage in Part 2—accessing Batchgeo, creating a personalized map, sharing it publicly online, creating a hyperlink to the map’s Batchgeo URL, and embedding our maps in our blogs.

For privacy reasons, I will not be including a link to the class spreadsheet.

What I Learned

            I have used Google Maps for two main purposes, 1) to get directions and 2) to identify places of interest in a location I am planning to visit. Once I zoom into a city or town, symbols for theaters, restaurants, schools, etc. appear. If I am trying to identify a place to meet a friend for dinner in a location I’m not familiar with, for instance, I will scroll my mouse overtop of the restaurant symbols to access information about the street address and I may even be able to see pictures, reviews, and restaurants’ URLs. I had no idea that an individual or company could create a customized map with similar options. Since I am already familiar with using such features on Google Maps, using a map created with Batchgeo should be easy.

How I Would Use It

In the elementary classroom, Google Docs may be used for such things as sign-up sheets (computer use during indoor recess, group projects, etc.). Additionally, teaching productivity may be enhanced in elementary schools using Google Docs when applications are used to collaboratively create and share lesson plans, notes about student performance for team teachers, presentations for shared unit plans and lessons, administrative sign-up sheets (bus duty, kitchen duty, etc.), parent sign-up sheets (parent volunteers, supply list, etc.)

 

Standards Reflection

The use of Google Docs as a teaching professional best corresponds with the ISTE-NETS-T standard three and its components. I believe that Google Docs can most thoroughly be used to enhance a teacher’s professional abilities. Working with colleagues and parents in the school community through Google Docs allows for the sharing of resources and knowledge, a demonstration of collaboration and the ability to communicate ideas. Any teacher who is able to make use of Google Docs and does so proficiently, proves themselves to be engaged in professional advancement in the field of digital technology and able to contribute productivity to a large community and so, successfully meets aspects of standard three.

When teachers share Google Docs with their students, for the purposes of collecting, organizing, or synthesizing information, they are working within virtual environment to construct collective knowledge on a subject, corresponding with standard two, “a.” This is unique to the traditional school learning experience in which students are expected to absorb the information they are given for synthesis into their own understanding of the world, taking critical thinking and team collaboration to a whole new level.