Daily Archives: 4/15/2005

Google Maps in the social studies classroom

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One of the best parts of my job is the opportunity to get into our district’s schools and see what’s going on in the classrooms. I see something really cool nearly every time. Earlier this week I was in a 4th grade class at Glen Lake Elementary watching a teacher do a social studies lesson about the Southwest and its climate using her laptop, an LCD projector, and some of the online resources that our new social studies curriculum provides.

She let me jump in and show her students the new satellite mapping feature of the Google Maps site. I opened a couple browser tabs and loaded a view of the Twin Cities metro area on one and the Phoenix area on the other. After switching to the satellite view and doing some zooming in and out, the differences in landforms were obvious and I think it really made sense for the students. They also really got a kick out of zooming in on a satellite view of their school and finding their homes in the surrounding neighborhoods.

That quick lesson was just the latest example of how “always on” access to technology can change the way teachers and students operate. No one would march their students down to the computer lab for a 10-minute Google Maps experience. Having the technology in the classroom, ready to use at a moment’s notice, makes it possible to blur the line between learning about technology and learning with technology. I get excited when I consider the kinds of questions that these students can ask and answer on their own with the Google Maps site alone.

UThink at the U.

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Besides my day job as a tech integration guy, I’m a Ph.D. student in Learning Technologies at the U. of Minnesota. Imagine my surprise when I received a notice via email of a lunchtime presentation about the U.’s UThink project, a free blogging site for faculty, staff, and students. I’d never even heard of it.

Apparently others have heard about it because, as of its 1st birthday on April 12, UThink has 1,231 indvidual blogs, 2,200 blog authors, 17,654 entries, and 12,486 comments. Shane Nackerud has more information in his post at the UThink site. I think this paragraph is especially interesting:

Overall I am thrilled with the success of the project so far, especially considering that we really haven’t advertised its existence. It has been fun just watching UThink become what it is supposed to become. I must admit that I am surprised that graduate students are the dominant bloggers on the system given the sheer number of undergraduates at the University. It seems that undergraduates are sticking with tools like Xanga or Livejournal for their personal blogging needs probably because of issues like the lack of anonymity on UThink, or because they simply don’t know about UThink. A side effect of graduate student dominance on the system though is that UThink is much more “academic” than I would have expected. Blogs on the system have more of an academic tone than I thought they would have. This, of course, is wonderful and it provides UThink a solid niche in the ever expanding blogging market.

I get a little green when I think about how much freedom the U. has because they’re not working with the under-18 crowd. Some quick browsing at the UThink Blog Directory turns up quite a few topics that would never be acceptable for high school students blogging on an official school server. That said, I would love the chance to give it a try with our students anyway. You never know until you try.