Pre-school Engagement Activities - Session 1

Dear Y2014 Sec 1 Students

In December 2013, the ICT Department will be rolling out a series of web-based activities to prepare you for the ICT-enabled activities that you will go through in the new academic year.
Note: As you will be using web-based applications only, you can carry out these activities using any computers that are connected to the internet. It is not necessary to do these activities with a macbook. 

You will be required to do blogging on the 1st day of school (2 January 2014).

Starting from 7 December, the activities will be posted up in the Students blog. If you miss anyone of them, simply refer to the left panel and filter the blog posts that come with the label "Pre-School Engagement Programme". The related posts will be displayed.

Look out for new activities on the following days:

• #0: 5 December 2013 (Thursday) Overview
• #1: 7 December 2013 (Saturday) Google Maps
• #2: 10 December 2013 (Tuesday) Blogging
• #3: 14 December 2013 (Friday) Padlet and Linoit
• #4: 17 December 2013 (Tuesday) Glogster
• #5: 19 December 2013 (Wednesday) Popplet and Mindmeister

We will start with Google Maps Today!

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Maps

Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit,^[1] and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API.^[2] It offers street maps and a route planner for traveling by foot, car, bike (beta), or with public transportation. 

It also includes a locator for urban businesses in numerous countries around the world. Google Maps satellite images are not updated in real time, however, Google adds data to their Primary Database on a regular basis^[3] and most of the images are no more than 3 years old.^[4]

Session 1 - Fun with Google Maps

ACTIVITY 1

The new Google Maps interface should be enabled for your SST account. If the interface you have in Google Maps is somewhat different from the ones you see below, you might have to refer to last year's activity on Google Maps.

1. Log in to the School Email Account. Click at the App Launcher icon, then click on "More" and choose "Maps"

2. Place the cursor in the search box. You will see a "Make custom maps" card. Click on "Create" to create a new custom map. 

3. In the new map engine interface, click on the title "Untitled map" to change the title to "Places I like to go in Singapore". 

4. Search for SST in the search box. Click on the green place marker of SST and click "Add to map".

5. Search at least 5 other places and add them to your newly created map.

6. Click on the green "Share" button on the top right-hand corner. Copy the link to share.
Next, change the access setting from "Private" to "Public on the web" - "Can View".
Click "Save", and then "Done" to save the setting.

7. To retrieve your map, paste the copied link on the address bar of your browser.  In the new Google Maps interface, place the cursor in the search box and click "My custom maps" to access your map(s).

ACTIVITY 2

1. In your map, search for the nearest MRT station to your home. Click on the "Directions" icon.

4. Now, we are going to get directions to travel from the SST to the  MRT station. 
Enter "School of Science and Technology, Singapore" in the empty field. Upon choosing the correct suggested destination,  the suggested route will appear. You can choose to display the route by car, MRT or foot.