Two great days’ training
Thank you to all the participants at the past two days’ training at the Royal Geographical Society. It’s been great getting the courses underway for the 2008/9 academic year.
I promised participants that I would post their work on the blog, but unfortunately some of the advanced work was lost with Google Earth being closed down before I could get to it.
Participant Google Earth files, RGS-IBG Course 21/10/2008
Participant Google Earth files, RGS-IBG Advanced Course 22/10/08
Please do comment with any more thoughts on how to apply the course content in the classroom or on expedition.
I was lucky to be able to do both days of training and I have to say it was fantastic.
It has opened up lots of different areas for us where google earth can enhance the work our charities are doing and the training structure is such you do feel you can easily share you knowledge with others.
We will be using Google earth within presentations for funding and for increasing the information links between our projects. Thank you very much to all involved in organising and teaching the course.
Two days of training have equipped me with new skills, know-how, and the confidence to incorporate google earth into school teaching. It will be very useful to be able to draw on google earth in various ways as a teaching resource and also, now that GIS is explicitly included throughout secondary school geography from KS3 to A2, as a GIS tool too.
I would thoroughly recommend Digital Explorer’s google earth training. Thank you to all involved in facilitating the October 2008 course.
As a Chartered Geographer I tentatively attended the second day of training at the RGS, wondering if I would be out of my depth! Having played around with Google Earth navigating the streets of New York and London and flying to different locations where I have been on holiday I was wondering if I would be able to keep up with the technologies of GPS systems, GE Graph and digital cameras in Google Earth.
I was quickly comforted to know that some others’ learning was in the same place as mine and that Jamie who is a fantastic teacher- clear, firm fair and patient- was able to consolidate our knowledge and move us on quickly.
During the day I learned a lot.. an INSET that was both informative and practical hands on allowing us to wander in Hyde Park and test our skills before presenting back to the group.
WOW.. what a lot I learned…embedding graphs, photos and video as well as thinking about the applications that it could be used for. I left enthused and and ready to take on the Google Maps agenda. At home I played with the tools and skills that we learned before going equipped with a digital camera and GPS to Juniper Hall the next day to study tiver sites with the Year 12 AS Level Geographer from school. Collecting discharge data along the River Collingbourne we then went back to put data into EXCEL before dropping it into Google Earth Graphs… WOW again the River’s course showed visually the changes in velocity, width, depth, etc….and the Sixth Form fully understood the work.
All that I had learned we practised the next day— although I have to say the Sixth Form more skilfully than me.
The course, which I highly recommend, has really got me thinking about how the students at school can use Google Earth in their learning and how we can incorporate it effectively into our Schemes of Work.. school grounds, coastlines, fantastic places, crime hotspots,….
Thanks Jamie and the RGS for a wonderful day out last Wednesday. I will contact you soon about the Brighton and Hove Geography Network!
What great feedback. Good work!