A user-created map overlay of the Fertile Crescent as discussed in Jared Diamond's book Guns, Germs, and Steel (Google Earth Community, 2010). Visualizations help students picture historical events that have a spatial element.

Technology in geography education: Virtual globes in the high school geography classroom

What are virtual globes?

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The focus of my study is on the use of virtual globes in the high school geography classroom with a primary focus on using Google Earth to enhance student learning. It seems that a number of educators have dabbled with the use of virtual globes in the classroom (Rakshit & Ogneva-Himmelberger, 2008), but no comprehensive scheme of work has been created in which this technology plays a central role in the teaching and learning of geography. The purpose of this project is therefore to research the ways in which virtual globes can be used as tools for teaching and learning in the high school geography classroom and to develop a framework for using Google Earth in both individual lessons and across an entire unit or even semester of work.

Keywords: Geography, Geographical Education

Christopher J. Calvert

in partial fulfillment of the M.A.S.G.E.submitted to Drs. Billie Enz &

Ronald DornArizona State UniversityMarch

2010

Abstract

Why the web? Support for the Web 2.0 approachThe Web 2.0 phenomenon is becoming more conspicuous in the

world of education every day. It is commonly defined as using “the web as a platform” (O’Reilly, 2005). In laymen’s terms it describes the changing nature of the World Wide Web (or simply ‘the internet’) from a tool to display information into one for creating information. While Web 1.0 was concerned with the electronic delivery of information using the internet as a medium, Web 2.0 is concerned with the use of the ‘connectedness’ aspect of the internet to invoke participation amongst internet users. The strongest

proponents of embracing the Web 2.0 approach have argued that it is revolutionizing education. The common arguments amongst these hard-core Web 2.0 ‘junkies’ are that the new approaches now available exponentially raise the possibilities in education and, on top of that, tune into the way in which modern day ‘Generation Y’ students learn. These proponents would argue that this new way of teaching is not only better in terms of actual pedagogical practice, but it is also more appropriate for today’s technology addicted kids.

The educational blog (above) and the wiki (below) are both examples of a new approach to education which is collaborative and student-centered.

The extent to which the ‘new Web’ is revolutionizing education has yet to be seen. Are we on the brink of something new in education or is this just another fad? Are teachers able to cope or are ‘tech-savvy’ students outpacing them? How sustainable is this new pedagogy? There are many questions left unanswered. Geography, it seems, has much to gain from the Web 2.0 approach to education. Collaborating with others is key to the subject’s success and it can also be argued that the subject needs innovation as much as any other. A solution may be on the horizon with the use of virtual globes in schools. As Nature magazine puts it, “many outstanding minds, including Einstein, Faraday, Kekulé and Heisenberg, have attributed their key insights to the ability to think spatially (Nature, 2006).” The present work advocates an approach to teaching geography using one particular virtual globe, Google Earth.

A virtual globe is best defined as a 3D software model or representation of the Earth or another world (Vuillernot & Rumpler, 2008). It has many advantages over a physical globe with the most obvious being the ability to zoom in and out at different scales. The virtual globe is a Geographical Information System (GIS) which gives the user the ability to virtually ‘fly’ from one

location to another viewing imagery of the planet and associated spatial data. Virtual globes are a recently developed technology (all virtual globes are less than a decade old) and there are more than a dozen in existence today including NASA Word Wind, Skyline Globe, Microsoft Virtual Earth, and Google Earth (pictured above).

Using Google Earth to teach high school geographyThe use of Google Earth in the

geography classroom has value because I believe experiential learning is the best type of learning, because of the ease with which one can differentiate learning using this technology, and because I believe students engage more and have a deeper understanding of our world through its use. The examples shown here are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what can be done to enhance student learning. I use Google Earth to teach the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program Geography course (IBDP Geography).

“Experiential learning is learning by ‘doing’

Engage more through visualizations

Differentiate the learning experience

Satellite imagery of the city of Dubai as viewed in Google Earth. The image on the left is from February 2005 and the image on the right is from August 2009 (Google Earth, 2010). The ‘wow’ factor is evident when students experiment with virtual globes. It’s impossible to physically travel to all the places that one studies about, but Google Earth allows for the next best thing – a virtual experience.

The flight path of a commercial airliner mapped in Google Earth. Flight altitude is shown via the 3D arc while flight speed can be seen by the color of the line (purple is the fastest speed). The sky is the limit for students of all ability levels.

Dr. Dorn, Dr. Enz, other M.A.S.G.E. faculty members and Arizona State University

Acknowledgments

References

Conclusions and RecommendationsI’m convinced that the use of virtual globes in the high school geography

classroom is an effective pedagogical technique in line with 21st century learning strategies. The subject of geography is blessed with a technology that is engaging, relevant, and collaborative by nature. The virtual globe is the perfect Web 2.0 tool for young geographers and I hope that this project has at the very least provided some ideas for how it can be used in the classroom. It is my wish that geography teachers will be inspired to attempt using this technology in the classroom in some way, shape, or form. Butler, D. (2006). The Web-Wide World. Nature, 439(16), 776-778.O'Reilly, T. (2005, September 30). What Is Web 2.0?. O'Reilly Media. Retrieved March 2, 2010,from http://oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html?page=1Rakshit, R., & Ogneva-Himmelberger, Y. (2008). Application of Virtual Globes in Education. Geography Compass, 2(6), 1995-2010.Vuillernot, R., & Rumpler, B. (2008). Mapping visualization on-demand onto a virtual globe: an appealing complement to browswer-based navigation. 19th ACM Conference on Hypertext and hypermedia, p. 249-250

“Let’s hope that the upcoming generation of three-dimensional gamers and Google Earthers will yield even more spatially adept prodigies ready to confront global challenges (Nature ,2006).”

www.flatclassroomproject2008.wikispaces.com