Google Earth Project Reflection

Prompt:

• Talk about the instructional goals of your virtual field trip and comment on how your project provides students the opportunity to develop their respectful and ethical minds.

Click here to get to the Virtual Field Trip:
http://mrschutt.wikispaces.com/Virtua+Field+Trips

This virtual field trip is entitled, “Caring for OUR Fresh Water”. It is designed to demonstrate to third graders the various uses of fresh water, the importance of fresh water, and why we should nurture and care for fresh water. Along these lines, the trip exposes students to a variety of topics impacting the Five Themes of Geography.

First, students are constantly reminded of their location, the absolute and relative position of a place on Earth’s surface. They navigate the various Google Earth Placemarks as they venture from location to location.

Second, the students learn about place as they navigate around the United States. They further explore our country and build knowledge of the physical and human characteristics that define and distinguish a place.

Along this process the students also begin to recognize how an area displays unity in terms of physical and human characteristics; a third theme of geography called regions. One example of this is the continuation of learning about landforms; a previously taught concept.

Students also learn about movement, how people, ideas and materials move between and among locations, as they view the ways water is used in transportation.

Finally, students are exposed to the ways in which humans modify and adapt to natural settings; known at human-environment interaction.

It is the goal of this project to specifically sharpen students’ abilities to recognize the impact that humans have on their environment. Through this theme of geography, this virtual field trip aims to further develop students’ Respectful and Ethical Minds as proposed by Howard Gardner.

There are three specific targets that educators refer to when teaching respect. They are respect to ourselves, respect to others, and respect to the environment. Obviously, this trip explicitly focuses on respecting fresh water within our environment. In addition, the trip helps students realize the diverse uses of fresh water within the United States. By capitalizing the word “our” in the title, students feel a sense of ownership.

The trip also allows for educators to develop students Ethical Minds by expressing more specific ways that humans adapt to survive within each environment. This allows students to better understand others’ point of view through their needs for survival. Demonstrating others’ point of view accomplishes the same ethical mission that Howard Gardner proposes,

“As disciplined learners it is our job to understand the world. But if we are to be ethical human beings, it is equally our job to use that understanding to improve the quality of life and living…” (142).

Overall, this virtual field trip enables students to learn at their own pace through the use of educational technologies in order to better develop their Respectful and Ethical Minds.

Educational Blog

Identify at least one educational blog or podcast that connects to your current or future pedagogical efforts and explain why you selected it in the context of your own work and ongoing professional growth.

When I'm searching for Podcasts that are educationally based, I like to go to The Education Podcast Network (http://www.epnweb.org/index.php). This site hosts podcasts created by teachers and students alike. The main reason I chose this site is because it allows me to find information about almost anything I need, when I need it. For example, in searching for a podcast for this blog, I searched for Education and Technology. One of the first feeds that I found was Teach42, a blog with podcasts from Discovery Education's Steve Dembo. Ever since seeing Steve at PETE&C, I've been interested in what he has to share. I can really connect to his energy and thirst for new technologies and their application to education. I often get lost watching videos, reading blogs, and playing with new technologies (which is why this posting has taken well over an hour to write!). Within my own career, I hope to find a position where I have more of a direct impact of helping educators use technology within their classrooms. By following Steve's blog I can easily observe ways to apply technology within the classroom.

As I was writing this, I learned about Shout'em. In Steve's words, Shout 'em is a " create-your-own-Twitter platform that works just as easily as Ning does". These are awesome applications. If you'd like to learn more, check out http://www.teach42.com/category/social-networking/