One of the overlooked and or misunderstood features of Google My Maps is the option to import spreadsheet data. Provided that your spreadsheet contains at least one column that has location information in it, you can have the data in the spreadsheet displayed as placemarks on a map. In the video embedded below I provide a demonstration of how this can be done.

Applications for Education

In the example in the video I asked people to complete a Google Form in which they shared the locations of happy events in their lives. The information collected through the Form was saved in a Google Spreadsheet that then was imported into a map. This was done to demonstrate that you could have students collaborate on the creation of data sets by having them enter data into a Google Form then map the data. You could use this method to have students create a data set about historical events, weather data recordings, or personal narratives as I did in the example in the video.