Create and Share Collections in Bing Maps

Google Maps is one of my favorite tools for geography lessons and for some elementary school math lessons. In fact, next month I'm hosting a webinar all about using Google Maps in your classroom. That said, there are some alternatives to Google Maps that I do use from time-to-time. Bing Maps is one of those alternatives. 

Bing Maps has a collections feature that you can use to create thematic collections of places. In this brief video I demonstrate how I created a small collection of National Parks in Bing Maps and how I enabled sharing of that collection. 

Applications for Education

Creating and sharing a thematic collection of places in Bing Maps could be helpful in preparing an introductory geography lesson. It can also be an activity that you have students do to create a collection of places related to a theme that you assign to them. 

Custom Tables in Google Docs

Earlier this year Google added new table templates into Google Documents. Those templates include tables for project management and checklists. While those templates are good, there are still times when you might be better off creating your own custom tables in Google Documents. Today, there are more table customization options in Google Docs than ever before. 

In this brief video I demonstrate how to create custom tables in Google Docs. The video includes a demonstration of setting default column and row sizes, setting custom color schemes, and setting custom cell padding in your tables in Google Docs. 

Applications for Education
One of the ways that I've used tables in Google Docs is to provide students with some structure when they are writing notes in the same document. Some students need a little guidance so that they don't write over each other in a shared notes document. By giving students a table that is color-coded for their names, they know exactly where they should be writing their notes in the document.