Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are fundamental tools for learning geography. The importance of teaching students GIS skills as a basic requirement has been reflected in its recent inclusion in the new programme of study for geography at KS3 and in the GCSE GE curriculum. GIS is identified as a ‘Key Process’ that all young people from 11-14 years must experience and it provides a ‘Curriculum Opportunity’ that should be offered to enhance their engagement with key geographical concepts and content.

We believe that Google Earth offers teachers and students an exciting and engaging learning experience, without the need to spend hours studying manuals or on-line help systems. Countless teachers and students have wasted time on unfocused searching, on printing reams of ‘interesting’ pages (which go unread), which is often where ICT use can get in the way of learning. This does not have to be the case.

Mapping for Change has developed a one day training course that provides teachers with the tools and skills to develop their own lesson plans using Google Earth. If teachers have clear expectations, and if they set clear guidelines for students, internet-based resources such as Google Earth can become powerful learning aids. The use of such tools and resources can clearly improve students’ motivation and make learning geography fun.

Some of the advantages to using Google Earth include:

• It is well known to both teachers and pupils - most people have had a play with this software.
• It has increasingly high resolution satellite imagery of all the continents.
• It has the capability to show 3D landscapes and to ‘fly’ across the land between pre-determined locations.
• The latest version now has historical satellite images and underwater data.
• You can attach placemarks at a specific location and add text, photos, sound and video files.
• There are a large amount of additional data layers available in the form of kml (kmz) files, and you can import your own fieldwork data from GPS units.

The MfC training programme involves hands-on practical tutorials that link to the students’ experiences. We can show you how to:

• Extract, import and develop relevant teaching material that can be incorporated into both classroom and homework exercises;
• Control and limit what is accessed during your lessons,
• Link this work to other areas of the curriculum
• Tailor this work to the specific needs of your school and your current syllabus.

When introducing web-based activities into the classroom teachers are faced with the issue of controlling what students access and have access to. This is no different with tools such as Google Earth which hosts a wealth of material, some of which you may not wish your students to access. We can help you do this whilst using a powerful resource to enhance the students’ learning experience.

We can provide in-house training which saves you time and money. It also allows for teachers covering other curricula such as history to benefit from attending the training. There are clear advantages to utilising GIS as a tool for historical investigation.

If any of these matters are of interest or you would like to find out more, we would be happy to discuss this work with you without any obligation.