Getting started with digital community mapping is easy and fun.

In this video, we're going to walk through

the process of turning your pen and paper map into

a digital map using Google My Maps which you can find by going to Google.com/mymaps.

Click create a new map to get started.

The first thing you should do is add a title and description to your map.

You can always change these later as your project becomes more defined.

Next, add two additional layers so that you have three layers total.

You will need to click in a particular layer in order to make edits.

You will know that you've clicked in the layer

when you see the blue line on the left side.

If you accidentally add items to the wrong layer,

don't worry, you can move items between the layers as we go forward.

We will title the first layer, people.

Next, I'll click in the next layer and title it,

animals, and then repeat for environment.

Then I'm going to change my base layer map.

I find the satellite imagery easier to see for adding features.

But you can use whatever base layer you want and you can change it at any time.

Now I'm going to find my community.

You can either zoom in or use a search bar to enter an address as a starting point.

I'm going to start by adding points to the map.

First in the people layer,

I'm going to add this point for using the search function to find the local fire station.

You'll see that it pops up all the fire stations in a given area.

I find the one that I want to add and then click add to map to

make it a permanent addition to my community map and then close out my search results.

Next, I'm going to edit this point so I'll click on the point.

Take note that with this search function it will auto populate the location information.

You can remove this if you don't want to have this information stored in your point.

Click the pencil icon to make edits to the point.

You can change the name or add a description.

Always click save to save your updates to the marker.

And, now, when I click on the fire station point all of my updates are there.

You can also add a point by dropping it in the map rather than searching for it.

Staying in the people layer,

I'm going to choose add marker which you'll

see changes the mouse to a plus sign rather than a hand.

Then you can just click on where you want to add the marker.

This is a great way to add points if you are intentionally

trying to keep their location general rather than specific.

For example, with the Neighborhood Watch Project

the general area of the bear sightings was important.

But they didn't want to actually place the markers in people's backyards.

Next, I'm going to add some lines to my map.

First, I'll outline the major road through town.

Click on the add a line button and then you can add a line by clicking on the map.

You can use the plus sign in the lower right corner to zoom in for greater accuracy.

You can also adjust your line later.

When you've reached the end of your line,

click on the last dot to mark it as the end and an info box will appear.

Similar to the marker info box,

you can add a title description.

Adding a polygon is similar to adding a line.

I'm going to zoom in on the area I want to outline,

which for this map, is the beach.

I'm going to click the add a line button again,

then you can see I'm outlining the beach area in the same way that I drew the road.

But rather than ending in a line,

I will continue drawing a shape and join it back at the starting point,

and then I'm going to label this polygon.

After I drew a polygon,

I realized that I forgot to click into the environment layer.

So I'm going to move it there now.

Next, let's talk about how you can adjust the look of your points, lines, and polygons.

To change the look of these,

in the information box,

hover over the feature you want to change and you will see a pink bucket appear.

Click on this to open an edit function that

lets you change the color or look of your icon.

This is helpful if you want to distinguish your community characteristics and resources.

Just click out of the box to see if it changed.

Next, I'll adjust the line,

you can change the color of the line as well as the width

of the line depending on how prominent you want to make it.

I wanted to choose a bright color and make it fairly prominent so I can see it easily.

You can similarly adjust the look of the polygon by changing the color,

transparency, and border outline.

I'm going to change it to a more beachy color and adjust

the transparency to slightly opaque with a distinct border.

With all of these features,

you can create a distinctive looking community map

that you can then share with friends, colleagues, and partners.

Click on the share button to explore your option.

You can have students collaborate on building the map.

Simply enter collaborator's email addresses

here and then choose whether they can view or could also edit the map.

You can add a message and then send the invitation.

This is also where you set the privacy settings for your map,

click change to decide if you want your map viewable to anyone on the web,

this is the public setting,

only people with the link, or just people you invite.

Make sure to click preview to see what your map will look

like to anyone who is looking at it in view only mode.

Now you have an interactive digital community map

that you can use and update throughout your campaign.

If you want to learn more about my maps features including adding photos and videos,

custom icon, uploading data tables,

please watch the expanded digital community mapping video.

Next up, you will learn to create a digital map with ESRI ArcGIS online.

Mapping with Google My Maps

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