Blog 4: Google Earth Lesson Plan

Social Studies

Elementary School Geography Lesson Plan Using Google Earth
In this unit, grouped student will explore the geography of the United States. Students will create travel journals (or logs/blogs) supported with Google Earth location to discuss the five US places visited, including comparing and contrasting the physical characteristics of each region.

Learning Objectives: The student will be able to:

* Identify and discuss the major geographic regions of the United States;

* Identify key features and vocabulary for each major geographic region of the United States;

* Present and compare group findings to determine if the class has similar definitions for each
      region.

Lesson Plan:

1.      Have the students brainstorm ideas of places around the United States they’ve visited or   would like to visit.  

2.   Display a Map of North America in front of the class and ask the students to group the locations according to geographic region.

3.      The teacher will use Google Earth to introduce the five major geographic regions that students should be expected to identify as part of their project.

4.      Encourage students to brainstorm questions about the five regions.

5.      Split the children into five groups. Name each of the five groups one of the regions. Tell them to record all the information presented to the class on that particular region.

6.      Have the students choose five places they would like to travel to, one in each region.  Have them locate the region on Google Earth and tell about the characteristics of each region.

7.      Have students use the Measure Tool to measure the distances between their regions. 

8.      Have each group present their projects to the class.

9.      At the end of the unit, groups will create resource sheets about that region for the class for future reference.

I think that this lesson would could take a week to complete with fourth graders in order to allow them ample time to create their journal, identify regions and present.  This depends on how many computers and their availability to students. 
Students will learn about specific regions in the United States using Google Earth. By allowing children to use Google Earth instead of a book will allow them to explore the regions in a realistic and hands on approach.  As when using all technology children should be supervised and precautions should be taken to keep children on task and away from inappropriate sites they may find on the Internet.

This lesson was adapted and simplified from Discovery Education Unitedstreaming
http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/services.google.com/en/us/educators/learning_materials/Earth_Lesson_ElementarySchool.pdf

Blog #3 Photography

Students can use photography to enhance, demonstrate or explain their knowledge in a variety of subject areas. Students can use photography to explore real world applications in subjects such as math and science. Photography can enhance projects such as blogs and the school newspaper.  Advocacy for subjects such as diversity, culture or community can be visualized with the use of photographs.  Photography can be used as prompts to write papers or poems.  Students may also use photography to demonstrate their understanding or interpretations of subjects.  Photography has potential to be a wonderful introduction for students to explore technology, since most everyone has a camera or one may be provided in class.

I am pretty comfortable with taking photos, downloading and organizing photos.  I can modify and enhance pictures fairly easily with the programs I already use.  As for exporting and uploading photos, it is relatively new to me, however, I think I understand it fairly well. 

Response Blog #3

Maggie's ED 421: Blog #1: Technology as a tool in the classroom can be both exciting and intimidating to teachers, new and old. It is certainly intriguing for student...

I’d like to respond to Maggie’s Blog who researched PhotoPeach.  I think that her idea of being able to use this technology to enable students to easily create quizzes to help teach their peers or their parents brilliant. I strongly agree that a student who can teach what they know will not only enhance others knowledge, but their own as well.  I also liked how she mentioned quizzing the parents because it would be an excellent way to keep them involved in the school.  I think that this program would be useful for teachers as well as students if there were an affordable way to obtain it.  However, if I personally loved the program it might be worth the purchase.  

It is important to encourage the use of technology in the classroom and it would be awesome to let children be able to use the program themselves. If the presentations and quizzes are as useful as they seem to be, then I agree maybe one teacher account could be used for the whole class.  I wonder if there is a free version available if you allow advertisements. 

Blog #2

        The website I chose from BigHugeLabs to look at was bubbl.us.  Bubbl.us is a simple program that teachers and students can use to create brain maps and organize information.  The site is useful as it easily categorizes, clarifies and connects ideas visually. This program provides students the ability to invite their teachers to view their work, share ideas with their friends, and work simultaneously on group projects.  Images from bubbl.us can easily be printed, emailed, embedded or saved.  This program would be ideal for students who need to brainstorm, write papers, organize their thoughts, make visual connections, or collaborate with their peers. 

Blog #1

Blog #1:  In what ways do you think that technology can enhance students' learning?
Might the effects be great, or just minor?
Are there any dark sides?

Technology can enhance students' learning by helping teachers assist students with different learning styles.  Technology may enhance students' learning by providing visual aids as well as allowing children to explore their studies through games and or other research.  Technology is important to use in the classroom so that children can become familiar with it and later learn how to use it.  Because technology is so important in todays world, students should become familiar with it.  By using technology we can allow our students to explore subjects in depth outside of their immediate surroundings.  By using technology teachers can have access to lesson plans and new ideas that may benefit the students.

I believe that the effects of using technology in the classroom will be great.  There is so much we can offer our students if we as teachers know how to use the technology available to us.  I believe the more we know, the more we can share with our students.  I believe by using technology we can bring the world to the classroom and allow children the opportunity to explore things that would otherwise be challenging to explore.

Yes, there is always a dark side to technology if it is misused.  It might distract the students.  Some sights may be inappropriate.  If relied on to heavily without an alternative or backup, the sole reliance on technology may cause problems if the technology not working correctly.  However, I believe that there are more benefits for the students by incorporating technology in the classroom.