intel webinar
Using Google Earth and Google Maps with Blogs/Wikis
Mark Collinson
Mullumbimby Public School
NSW DET
What did students do? This is a small activity which formed part of a broader multicultural day. Other activities on the day included researching and making traditional costumes, mask making, cooking traditional foods, locating and retelling traditional stories, and learning traditional dance. Guest speakers were invited to cook, tell stories, play music, and dance. In the library, children were invited to put a pin on the map to show where there “ancestors” originated. The following activity is an extension of that. One that can be shared with a wider audience(e.g. relatives in ancestral home) than those people that walked through the library and saw the wall display.
How does this activity enhance student learning? By enhancing the “wall map” activity, and being able to share it with a global audience, the children were much more enthusiastic about the activity. The “immersive” nature of Google Earth and the ability to zoom in and fly from place to place makes it fun.
Why Use Google Earth in the Classroom?
from: http://www.alicechristie.org/gearth/index.html
What syllabus outcomes does the activity address?
From the NSW HSIE change and continuity strand…
The activity meets the aims of HSIE by enhancing the student’s sense of personal, community, national and global identity;
It meets the objectives of HSIE syllabus by:
By studying change and continuity, students should develop historical knowledge and understandings about their heritages and the past, and how these have influenced the present and may influence the future.
The activity fulfils the HSIE foundation Statement Outcome: Students explain how different cultures and traditions contribute to Australian and community identity. They examine a variety of local and othercommunities, investigating similarities and differences including ways of living, languages and belief systems.
Outcomes and Indicators CCS2.2 Explains changes in the community andfamily life andevaluates the effects of these on differentindividuals, groupsand environments. Indicators:
CUS2.3 Explains how shared customs, practices,symbols, languagesand traditions incommunitiescontribute toAustralian andcommunity identities.
Indicators • identifies diverse customs, practices and symbols sharedby their local community and all communities withinAustralia • listens to and retells traditional, religious and ethicalstories that relate to some groups in the Australiancommunity.
Here is an example of what we did. The students were asked to find their country of origin. Speak to grandpa or grandma. Record a story of why they came to Australia, or what life was like in hometown or even how life is different here. Then for this session. 1/ Find place on Google Earth. 2/Putplace mark on Google Earth and name it. 3/ Give a quick story 1-2 mins about the place or why ancestors left to come to Australia 4/ (Extension) Email friend or relative the link to the map we publish, and invite comment http://mullumwriters.blogspot.com/2009/02/where-are-we-from_18.html
. How is it Done?
A simple (one hopes) 3 stage process. (Oh yeah, you will also need a google account.)
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1a) Open Google Earth. Right click on my places and add a folder. Name it (for example) origins.
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b) Find your place of origin and click the add place mark. Drag the place mark to your point of interest and name it. Repeat and add more points of origin
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c) Make sure all placemarks are in your “origins” folder. If they are not in there, just drag them in. |
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d) Right click the “origins” folder and Save Place As a kmz file (keyhole markup language…it harkens back to the days of the cold war….read about it on Wikipedia). |
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2 a)Open Google maps (maps.google.com) and login to your Google account. Click my maps. | |
b) Create new map, name itorigins, make sure it is a public map, and then save. |
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c) With the new “origins” map selected, click Edit,
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d) Then click import, | |
e) Choose the KML file that you saved in Google Earth, and then choose “upload from file”. |
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f) Your Place marks are now on the map. |
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g) All that is left to do is to get the code and paste it into your blog or wiki. Click “link” and copy the html code ready to paste.
That’s it for the maps part.
Next to embed into your wiki/blog. |
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3. a) Open your blog, go to new post, and use your blogs specific, “insert html” feature. All blog platforms are slightly different, so you may have to look for the feature.
This e.g. is WordPress (of which Edublogs is a variant).
Paste it in., and update or save your page. |
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b) That’s it!View your blog/wiki.
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Review
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As a follow up activity, I would get those children who put a place mark on the map, to email the blog link to a relative or friend and invite them to view and comment.
Further resources
http://www.google.com/educators/p_earth.htmlGoogleearth site for educators
http://www.juicygeography.co.uk/googlecoursework.html 10 ways you can use Google earth with your students
Questions?
Feel free to email me
