Moving at the Speed of Creativity

I’m sitting in a session at the TTT conference listening to Glenn Wiebe discuss Google Tools including Google Docs, and now Google Earth. These are a few of my notes…

We are exploring, looking, and playing… Glenn is letting me record and share his session later as a podcast, so these are not complete notes! We first did a “Crack the Code” activity. In groups we were given a worksheet with latitude and longitude coordinates, and the number of letters for the city or town which corresponded to that location. We were then to write down the first letter of that city, and repeat for the rest of the coordinates. Our scenario was: “The thieves who broke into the Royal Geographic Society left behind this code. (as a bonus clue, we’ve added the number of letters in each city’s name.) First letters from each place-name read. Spell out the town and come with speed.”

Google Earth empowers learners to extend their spatial thinking beyond two dimensions- typically teachers and students think of maps as 2D documents we put on the wall and copy onto worksheets- with the layers you can turn on and off, and the navigational possibilities of Google Earth, learners are invited to explore and experience geography in three dimensions in powerful ways.

National Geographic Xpeditions has great geography activities. These are not necessarily tied directly to Google Earth, but Google Earth can be used as the map tool / interface to explore and complete these activities

Alexander (my 10 year old) has been exploring Google Sky within Google Earth during this workshop- once you are in Google Sky, to go back to Google Earth you can select the VIEW menu and SWITCH TO EARTH

Google Earth Gallery includes tons of tours which other people have created and you can utilize individually or with students

Google Earth Hacks has great links to Google Earth too

Social Studies Central has great Economics, Geography & Government Resources

I THINK IT WOULD BE GREAT TO OFFER A WEEK LONG TEACHER ACADEMY ON JUST GOOGLE EARTH: DOING ACTIVITIES AND LESSONS IN GOOGLE EARTH WITH EACH OTHER, HAVING FUN, etc.

Do a Google Search for “google earth” “lesson plans” “lewis and clark”Do an advanced Google search for file types: kml or kmz

BibMe is a free bibliography maker

This podcast is a recording of a presentation by Steve Wycoff on June 12, 2008, titled “Natural Learning - What Schools Don’t Do” at the Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning conference in Wichita, Kansas. TTT is sponsored by ESSDACK, the Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas in Hutchinson. The official program description for this session was: How we learn naturally is far different than how we are taught in schools. If we are going to succeed in actually leaving no child behind, we’ll need to understand better how individuals learn and more importantly how schools will need to look to accommodate the learning needs we all have. We’ll also demonstrate what curriculum might look like in a learning environment designed for the way we learn naturally. We’ll also connect this new learning environment to the needs we are experiencing in society related to workforce readiness. Be prepared to have your thinking stretched

 

 Podcast257: Natural Learning - What Schools Don’t Do by Steve Wycoff [62:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2267)

Show Notes:

1. Blog of Steve Wycoff
2. Podcast142: Rethinking Teaching: How Online Learning Can and Should Completely Alter Your View of Education (Roger C. Schank)
3. Changing Schools: A conversation with Roger Schank
4. Roger Shank (WikiPedia article)
5. Socratic Arts (Roger Shank website)
6. Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas (ESSDACK)
7. Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning Conference
8. My text notes from Steve’s presentation
9. Charles Eliot Norton (WikiPedia entry)

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Technorati Tags: school, education, reform, schoolreform, school2, leadership, learning, natural, ESSDACK, ttt08, ttt2008, essdack, kansas, literacy

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