All activities will be demonstrated; participants are encouraged to use the instructions on this page to follow along on their own devices whenever possible.

Choose a partner - you will interview your partner to create a My Maps

1.Open a new tab and go to Google Drive (you may have to sign into your account).  http://drive.google.com/ 

2. Once you are in Google Drive, create a folder by clicking on the +New button on the upper left side. Name your folder. You will put all your work in this folder (the files you download, the My Maps you create, any additional materials associated with your project).

3. In your Google Drive folder create a new My Maps by clicking +New>More>My Maps. Give your map a name.

4. Ask your partner a series of questions that are place based (where do you work, where were you born, where does your family live, where did you go to school). For each question, drop a pin, a line or a polygon. Write information in the map icon balloon, add photos, add videos.

5. Share the map with your partner. Switch roles.

Create a Google My Maps Mobile using a laptop computer

For this activity we will create a map from data files using two different file types: spreadsheet CSV files and KML map files (note: KML files can be exported from Esri ArcGIS, or you can convert Esri SHP files to KML using Google Earth Pro).

1. Open a new tab in your browser (leave this website open) and go to Google Drive (you may have to sign into your account).  http://drive.google.com/ 

2. Once you are in Google Drive, create a folder by clicking on the +New button on the upper left side. Name your folder. You will put all your work in this folder (the files you download, the My Maps you create, any additional materials associated with your project).

3. Go back to the tab with these instructions and scroll down to the section titled Files For Activity #4. Click on the icon for the spreadsheet called AK Communities. Download it to your laptop, then upload it to your Google Drive folder. Make sure you open it as a Google Sheet (not as an Excel file). Take a look at the spreadsheet; you can edit it any way you wish. Now we will add the sheet to a layer in a Google My Maps.

4. In your Google Drive folder create a new My Maps by clicking +New>More>My Maps. Give your map a name.

5. Import the spreadsheet from your Google Drive folder. Use the latitude and longitude columns to place your markers. 

6. Change the base map by clicking on the Base map dropdown at the bottom of the panel on the left side. Zoom in or use the search bar to locate communities. Click on the icons to open the information pop-ups.

7. Go to the Files For Activity #4 section on this website and download the over files. Upload them to your Google Drive folder.

8. Now create a new layer and import one of the KML files from your Google Drive folder to your My Maps. Remember to create a new layer for each file import. 

9. Click on the Preview icon, this will open a new window and you will see what your map will look like to the public. Click on and off the two layers that you created.