Story Maps and Tour Builder

What are story maps? Fun ways to organize and present information in a geographic context! I think storytelling with maps can be an effective way to facilitate, scaffold, and assess student learning while using 21st-century technology. Here are a few examples:

1. The Mount Cardigan Story Map. This map tells a simple story: hiking Mount Cardigan, but with embedded photos, videos, web links, audio, and panoramas.
2. Costa Rica (2014). This is a similar type of story, but this time using Tour Builder.
3. Along 40 Degrees North. Travel across the US and experience how and why the landscape changes.
4. Light Rail in Denver. Travel along the new West Rail Line.

You can story map using Esri's Story Maps and Google's Tour Builder. They both do the same thing (sort of...) but differently. Story Maps sits on top of Esri's ArcGIS Online and therefore provides more options and analytic functions - although most people will be satisfied with the online Map Tour template. Tour Builder is still in beta (and has been for over a year - not sure what that means) and uses the Google Earth browser plug-in for 3-D tours.

Best of all you can create these maps without any special technology right now from your desk or classroom, but it is more fun with a smartphone and some fieldwork with students (using, for example, the Snap2Map app). Here's all you need to know!

Alternatives to Esri and Google are explained in these Seven Ways to Create a Storymap. Or, just try Visits or Heganoo or StoryMap JS.