Anything Google is sure to spark interest in the classroom. When the students are using google earth & maps, they don't even think of it as learning because it is interactive, fun, meaningful to them and allows you to explore.
I did not realise that Google offered an educational site targeted towards teachers to give ideas and information for use in the classroom. This is a fantastic tool, it even has lesson plans and tuturials if you are unsure.
Exploring this tool has made me think outside the square. Google Earth offers a lot more than just locating a town and showing a live visual representation, in a classroom you could explore:
- effects of natural disasters
- geography
- animal kingdom
- earthquakes
- climate change & global warming
- maps
- own town/house
- how google offers this service
- astronomy
- growth of cities
- other areas of the world
- maths and scale
- flight simulation
- 3D buildings
- Oceans
Google maps is very similar to earth but you do not have to download specific software to use this application, so it maybe more user friendly in a school.
As a learning manager I would even let the students lead this topic and decide what they want to investigate using earth or maps as a main tool, they may come up with something exciting and different that you would not have thought of but possible due to using such technology.
Go, look up your house and see what you find!
B
Above I have gone into what Google Earth is and how it can be used in the context of a classroom. I am now inviting comments to expand on how Google Earth can be incorporated into classroom learning and used as a way to work smarter. This is a chance to build a list of activities and ideas for us as future learning managers to be able to use. I encourage you to think outside the square, let's see how far we can take this to really engage our learners and utilse this tool and the technology we have on offer!
ReplyDeleteHello Breanna,
ReplyDeleteYou have a good list of ideas on how to use this tool. I agree that it is an exciting one to use in the classroom. I myself enjoying using it, looking at the places I wish to visit.
In the classroom, you could do an activity based on where the students came from. So they would find on Google Maps their town they grew up in, and provide a description of it, including images. This would be great for inclusion.
Also you could use it for stimulus in a writing task. Students need to choose a place anywhere in the world, and write a story based on "If I lived..." or something similar.
What do you think of these ideas?
Teagan
Thanks for your comment Teagan, I like the way a blog allows for us to bounce ideas off each other. The suggestions you mentioned would be a great way of making a writing task more meaningful and engaging for students. It would be interesting to write the story first, what you think it would be like for the stimulus of a topic on a particular culture or country and then with the help of Google Earth actually see it first hand.
ReplyDeleteThanks again Teagan, have you seen this tool being used in any of your prac visits?
B
In prac today I witnessed an activity utilising Google Earth as a tool to get students to think at a higher level. The students are learning about differences. After reading the book called Mirror by Jeannie Baker the students used Google Earth to investigate and explore the different countries mentioned in the book. A venn diagram was then used for students to record the differences and similarities they found with the different countries.
ReplyDeleteWhat other ways have you witnessed or invisage Google Earth can be used to get students to engage in higher order thinking?
Hi Breanna.
ReplyDeleteI am currently planning a unit where students write a narrative story collaboratively (a chapter done by each team member). Their story must have the main character cross several African countries, using descriptive language to explain the things they encounter in each country. Google Earth would allow students to sense the environment the characters would exist in, and the terrain they must cross. They could fill in a Y chart after each investigation using Google Earth, where they outline what a person might feel, see and hear in each place. Ie. Is it hot? mountainous? wet? dry? isolated? developed or populated? This would engage their higher order thinking, whilst developing their understandings of scale and geography. It is clear that Google Maps can be used to enhance learning across KLAs and can be applied to any age group.
Good luck with your investigations!
Aly
Thanks Aly, that is a great idea and use of Google Earth.
ReplyDeleteAnother way this elearning tool can be used in a creative way and to get students thinking at a higher level, is to allow students to choose a destination (you could make a criteria around their choice so you have some control) and then they have to create an itinerary and budget as if they were going to visit it.
You would get an insight into how they think from what they have viewed and taken from what Google Earth offers.
If I were to do this I would find it really fun and a nice way to be able to use your imagination and any prior knowledge of what I think I would do while visiting my chosen destination. Then it would be so interesting to compare it to reality and see if these things are even possible. You could then incorporate the complex reasoning process, annalysing perspectives and compare what everybody came up with to what an average visitor normally does and what their budget is comprised of.
This allows you to combine many KLA's such as SOSE and Maths.
Once you get started, the possibilities really are endless....
Time to write a lep for my next prac day, I think I will be including Google Earth!!
Thanks for your imput.
B