Collaborative Research: Virtual 4-D Field Education in Google Earth

James Madison University, Harrisonburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

This project is leveraging the capabilities of the Google Earth Application Program Interface to create new learning experiences for formal and informal geoscience students of all ages. A network of geoscience instructors is creating GigaPan outcrops and virtual specimens and linking them to source locations on the Google Earth terrain. Virtual field trips with embedded outcrops and specimens are accessible via the project server and web site. Tasks are assigned to groups of students who are then free to explore the terrain in a virtual field vehicle or individually on foot. Students are thus acting as free-agent learners and participating in social networks in order to explore the terrain. They interact and collaborate with each other through texting on tasks that address geoscience learning goals outlined in national standards and college syllabi. Assessment instruments are embedded in the virtual field trips via computer logging. Automated feedback is provided to students when they wander off course or spend too much time on task. Logs are stored on the project's terabyte server for analysis of latitude-longitude-time tracks and comparison of novice versus expert approaches to tasks. Through the use of ground overlays of paleogeography, students are able to experience the Google Earth terrain during any geological period and they can follow the evolution of systems and changes of specimens in deep geologic time. These technologies allow students to go beyond the limitations of real field trips and compare the lithosphere of the Earth with that of the Moon and Mars.