I downloaded Google Earth to my computer and I spent a lot of time zooming in and out of different places, but I was not able to successfully create a .KMZ file. There's a time-sucking, almost hypnotizing quality to using this software. No matter what task I gave myself (first to locate land art and ancient geolyths, then to locate the best pizzerias in NYC), I inevitably began "wandering." For the project, I decided to annotate a map of current exhibitions in the city that I intend to see. This could be a very useful tool for students on field trips. In my Intro to Art class, for example, we often go on field trips to the Chelsea and Lower East Side galleries. I ask them to compare works they see in different galleries, and I generally provide a list of suggested galleries to visit. Although, they may not be able to access Google Earth on their smart phones, an annotated Google Maps could be a very useful tool to keep all of the recommended galleries in one place. This would be equally helpful to traverse the maze that is the Lower East Side as well as the seemingly-endless grid of Chelsea. Since my Intro to Art students keep blogs where they post their course activities, I could also imagine having them annotating and posting links to their own Google Maps to show where exactly they visited on that particular trip.
UPDATE:
I finally figured out how to annotate a Google Map. I had to go to "classic view" to find the options. Below is an example of an annotated map for a field trip to the Chelsea galleries. I was able to include information about exhibiting artists as well as images from each exhibition. One feature that I really appreciate is that I was able to separate galleries into two separate layers, "Most Recommended Exhibitions" and "Also Worth Seeing." I color-coded the exhibitions based on these categories so that students can easily access my recommendations on the go from their smartphones.
Link to annotated Google Map:
https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z_ZdcqkY3oJs.kiUDNpwGYmAY
Screenshot of annotated map:
That would be a neat application for your students to annotate and show where they had visited.
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