Skip to main content
Map activities anchor knowledge to real places. You set a base map, choose the default view and zoom level, place pins anywhere on the globe, and students explore the content at their own pace — opening pin cards to read descriptions, view images, and build the spatial understanding that a textbook passage simply cannot provide.

​
Try it live

Explore a finished map exactly as a student would — open pin cards, try Student Mode, drop a pin. Nothing you do is saved. Every example is a real activity in read-only mode, no account needed.

The Silk Road — geographic map

Twelve pins along the trade routes on a real-world basemap.

Vesuvius, AD 79 — area map

A measured 30 km grid around the volcano, with distance rings.

All live examples

One example for every activity type, with more on the way.

​
What You Can Do with Maps

Interactive Pins

Place any number of pins anywhere on the map. Each one opens a card with rich content — students click to explore, not just read.

Rich Pin Cards

Each pin card supports formatted text, embedded images, and detailed descriptions. Give every location as much context as it deserves.

Pan and Zoom

Students pan and zoom freely across the map, shifting perspective from street-level detail to a continental overview.

Any Geography

Set the default view to any location on Earth — a single city, a country, a continent, or the whole globe. There are no geographic constraints.

Works Across Subjects

History, geography, science, literature, current events — any subject with a sense of place benefits from the map format.

Published to Your Classroom

Maps go straight to your classroom feed. Students access them from their dashboard — no separate link, no external platform.

​
Creating a Map Activity

1

Open New Activity

From your teacher dashboard, click New Activity and select Map.
2

Set the default view

Search for a location or drag the map to the area your activity covers. As you type, the search suggests places near where the map is centred — use the arrow keys and Enter to pick one, or press Search to look up exactly what you typed. Set the default zoom level so students open the activity with the right geographic context already in view.
3

Choose a basemap (optional)

Under Basemap in Map Settings, pick Standard, Muted, Hybrid, or Satellite. Students see the basemap you choose, and it works with Area grids too. Hybrid and Satellite look the same in dark themes, because imagery has no dark version.
4

Add pins

Click anywhere on the map to drop a pin. Reposition it by dragging, or delete it and start again — pins are fully editable at any time.
5

Fill in each pin card

For every pin, add a title, a description (formatted text is supported), and one or more images. The more context you provide, the richer the student experience.
6

Save the map

The classroom is chosen from a dropdown when you create the activity — there is no separate publish step. The map is available to that classroom straight away, and pins you add or edit are live as you save them.
Use the list-view alternative in the activity settings to offer a keyboard- and accessibility-friendly version of the same content. Students who find map navigation difficult can read all pin cards in a structured list without missing any information.

​
What Students Experience

When a student opens a Map Activity, they land on the default view you configured. From there they can:
  • Pan and zoom freely to any part of the map.
  • Click any pin to open the full pin card with your title, description, and images.
  • Navigate between pins using the list-view mode for a more linear, accessible experience.
Students move at their own pace. There is no timer and no set order — the activity is designed for independent exploration.
Keyboard navigation between pins works on standard geographic maps: Tab reaches each pin, Enter opens it, the arrow keys pan the map and + / − zoom it, and a directional pad in the bottom-left corner does the same with a mouse or touch. On maps that use a custom image or SVG background, the pins can’t currently be reached by keyboard — for those, the list view is the accessible route, and it carries exactly the same pin content. If you build an image-based map, mention list view to your students.
Real-world maps, the static map previews on Experience pages, and location search are provided by Apple Maps. If your school filters web traffic, ask IT to allow cdn.apple-mapkit.com and *.apple-mapkit.com — the full list is on the IT network requirements page that institution admins can open from the staff dashboard. If those hosts are blocked, the map shows a “could not be loaded on this network” notice with the coordinates, and the list view still works, so nothing is lost.

​
Let students add their own pins

By default students read the pins you place. On a shared map you can also let them add their own pins — great for collaborative research, an “add a place from the reading” task, or a class-built map that grows over a unit. Students enrolled in the linked classroom just open the map and click Student Mode — they can start placing pins right away, no password needed. Their pins sit alongside yours, and your pins stay yours to manage.
1

Link the map to your classroom

Student contributions run on classroom enrollment, so the map needs to belong to a classroom with your students in it. See Enroll Students.
2

Students click Student Mode

A signed-in, enrolled student opens the map and clicks Student Mode, then adds pins using the same title, description, and image fields you use.
3

(Optional) invite people from outside your class

To let students who aren’t enrolled contribute, open the activity’s settings and set a Student Mode password under Access Settings, then share it with them. They enter it once to unlock editing.
The Student Mode password is only for contributors outside your classroom. Your enrolled students never need it. If you don’t set a password, only your enrolled students — and you — can add pins; everyone else sees a read-only map.
You can change or remove the Student Mode password at any time from Access Settings — the panel shows a badge when a password is set. For security it can’t be shown back to you, so if you forget it, just set a new one.
This is different from Per-Student and Group issuance below. Student Mode is one shared map that many students add to together; issuance gives each student (or group) their own separate copy. Pick shared when you want a single collaborative map, and issuance when you want everyone to build their own.

​
Give each student their own map

By default a map is one artifact your whole class shares. On Plus and Premium you can issue it per student — every student builds their own map, with your pins showing as a locked starting layer — or by group, where students placed into groups (A–Z) co-edit one map together. A Students panel on the activity page tracks who has started work. See Per-Student & Groups for the full walkthrough.

​
Subject Ideas

Not sure where to start? Here are some tried-and-tested uses across the curriculum:

History

Trace military campaigns, map the expansion of empires, mark the sites of key battles, or chart migration routes across centuries.

Geography

Identify physical features such as mountain ranges, river systems, and tectonic boundaries, or explore human geography topics like population density and urban growth.

Science

Plot ecosystems and biomes, map fieldwork data collection sites, track the spread of a species, or visualize climate zones across the globe.

Literature

Pin the settings of a novel, chart a character’s journey, or map the real-world locations that inspired an author’s writing.

Modern Studies

Track the spread of a policy across different countries, map international organizations and their member states, or visualize global data from current events.

Any subject with place

If your content happens somewhere in the world — at any scale — a Map Activity gives it a location students can explore and remember.