Textbooks to Chromebooks 12- Tour Builder

I learned about Tour Builder at the 2016 CUE Conference in Palm Springs.  I am fascinated by the possibilities that this opens up for student learning.  It seems to be a mixture of My Maps and storytelling capabilities.  Imagine for a moment rather than having students read a chapter in their American history textbook about the Oregon Trail what if they could recreate the journey by dropping pins along the trail.  Not only can they drop the pin but they can set the zoom to street level to get a feel of the geography of the area.  Then on each slide where they have dropped a pin they could search for multiple historical images about that area.  A student could also find multiple historical videos on YouTube about that part of the trip and insert  them on that slide as well.  Finally, the student could enter text discussing each part of the trip.  Perhaps these entries could even be in journal form to replicate one that an actual pioneer may have written.

Another possibility that jumps out to me is how Tour Builder can be integrated with literature.  For instance, in Walk Two Moons, the students could follow Salamanca Tree Hiddle's trip with her grandparents to Lewiston, Idaho, to visit her mother's grave.  This would help students follow the main events in the story while allowing them to capture important character revelations at each stop.

In addition,  rather than having students color in maps or fill out blank maps with countries, why not turn their Tour Builder into a World Scavenger Hunt.  You could give clues about an event that took place in the historical era you are studying.  The students then could practice their research skills to see how quickly they can find the answer based on that clue.  Have the students drop a pin and then add images, video, or text depending on what you want to accomplish.  In the end, you can have students share their Tour Builder with you, and now you have a formative assessment about their research skills, the knowledge of the era you are talking about, and their ability to locate places around the world.

Click here for a quick scavenger hunt that was done in class to introduce Tour Builder.  Click here for a tutorial on how to use Tour Builder.