D’Arcy Norman’s Google Earth’s Geology screen cast is an impressive edtechnique. As a proof of concept, he took the free Google Maps and mashed it together with images of world through the geological ages, information about volcanoes, fault lines, plate tectonics, and other geological survey information.
With Google maps layers, he could quickly toggle between the different ages, contrasting with an outline of present-day landmasses. In about 5 minutes he vividly illustrated a sequence of 6 difficult geological concepts. The learner has access to exactly the same tools as D’Arcy used!
The story he weaves is uninterrupted by practicalities - drawing, getting different resources together etc. This tech is taking a lot of the manual labour out of teaching. He can get to the point quickly and much more vividly.
It seems to me this stuff is not ‘education’ rather it’s learning through play. Learners can really engage with this tool at their own pace and as deeply as they want to. With this tool, they can ask a lot more pertinent hypothetical questions and then test them immediately.
Check out more Google Earth Geology at San Diego State Uni’s website:
http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/localgeology/getour.html.
Cool stuff.
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It’s totally about learning through play. I love that the same tools are available to teachers, students, professors, researchers, professionals, etc… It’s opening up so many opportunities by letting EVERYONE play along. Very cool stuff. And the things they’re doing with layers and maps. Wow.
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