E.Learning and Google Earth

As a person that loves maps, I find “Google Earth” really fascinating. It is a great resource to use in the classroom. Students can see images of Earth from many different viewpoints. They can literally see different countries, landscapes, roads, longitudes and latitudes (Google Sites, 2010.)

As an educational website, Google Earth has various useful resources that teachers can use in their own classrooms. So whether your students are learning about transportation, demographics or economics, Google Earth has something for every learning topic. Sample topics covered in Google Earth include; Biology and Ecology, Environmental and Earth Sciences, Global Awareness, History, Social Studies and Humanities, Art History and Architecture, English and Literature and Math (Google Sites, 2010.)

For example (see image below), for an Environmental and Earth Science learning topic on Volcanoes, a useful resource would be to use Google Earth through the Smithonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program. Google Earth displays layers containing images, links, and descriptions, with information about thousands of volcanoes around the globe (Google Sites, 2010. Smithsonian Institution, 2010.)

A drawback to the use of Google Earth is purely a "time" factor. Like many of the digital tools in this blog, Learning Managers need to keep up to date with how they work and how to use them in actual learning. Google earth needs to be taught as an application as well as having the students use parallel to the learning content, otherwise the students end up simply "playing" with maps. This is clearly echoed in the ideas of Prensky (2001, 2005. pp. 64) when he states that "today’s kids are challenging us, their educators."

References:

Google Sites. (2010). Google Earth: Google Earth for my Subject. Accessed August 22, 2010 from http://sitescontent.google.com/google-earth-for-educators/Home/Google-Earth-for-My-Class/google-earth-for-my-subject

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Accessed July 22, 2010 fromhttp://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Prensky, M. (2005). Engage me or enrage me: What today’s learners demand. Accessed July 22, 2010 fromhttp://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0553.pdf

Smithsonian Institution. (2010). Google Earth Placemarks. Accessed August 22, 2010 from http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/globallists.cfm?listpage=googleearth