EduCon 2.5

A look at how Google Earth can foster empathy and broaden students' world view Edit

This presentation will make the case that everyone should be using Google Earth as a sort of digital journal. You can easily make place marks that record (and reflect upon) the people and places we learn about in the world.

I started making Google Earth place marks four years ago. When I read a news article or have an interesting conversation with a person from a place I'm not familiar with, I make a place mark.

I now have more than 1,200 place marks. This practice has made me more empathetic and more globally aware.

For example, I had an "aha" moment when I looked up where Paul Ryan was from in Wisconsin (Janesville) and learned that his home town is located less than 60 miles from the Sikh temple shooting just outside Milwaukee in August 2012.

Imagine having middle school students make place marks for 10 stories a week. Multiple that by 30+ weeks per year for three years, and students would enter high school with a journal of more than 1,000 place marks. More importantly, the practice of reading the news on a daily basis would provide them with a global context that will serve them extremely well in high school and beyond. For more details, see http://wiltoday.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/typical-morning-at-tlc/

Presenter Profiles

Steve Goldberg

Triangle Learning Community

Comments

Steve Goldberg

Here's a short video that gives you a sense of how place marks on Google Earth can help us better relate to a place, such as the world's largest swimming pool... and really, who doesn't want to see that? ;-)

Fri 25 Jan 2013 07:36:55 AM EST

Log in to post a comment.