ED046-04
The Google Earth GeoEd Video Library (GEGVL): Building a Place-based Geoscience Educational Video Library using Google Earth
Tuesday, 15 December 2020: 05:46
Virtual
Ning Wang, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States, Robert J Stern, University of Texas at Dallas, Geosciences, Richardson, TX, United States, Jeffrey G Ryan, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States, Andreas Moeller, University of Kansas, Geology, Lawrence, KS, United States, Christopher Spencer, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada and Robert B Dunbar, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
Abstract:
To better motivate students’ interest in geoscience, and to make high-quality Earth Science videos more accessible to teachers and students, we have built a place-based platform for Geoscience education (GeoEd) videos based on Google Earth and Google Maps. Earth science topics are complex and typically hierarchical in terms of events, spatial scale, time, and knowledge, and often related to a specific location or region. The Google Earth GeoEd Video Library (GEGVL) provides an index of high-quality, place-based geoscience videos that are geospatially organized in Google Earth as a first-level visual index. The global map emphasizes where the content of these geoscience videos focus allowing students and teachers to “roam” the Earth to increase their knowledge about key Earth processes and events. Our approach links student knowledge of key processes with places that interest them and uses a platform that requires no learning curve; it also provide a new way for geoscience instructors in search and distribution of credible videos for instructional purposes.
We are beginning to populate GEGVL with GeoEd videos and animations. Sample videos defining fundamental geoscience definitions as well as summations of complex regional geological processes or principles are linked to the place-based videos. The included videos are all reviewed or created by geoscientists to ensure the accuracy of the science. In order to expand the accessibility of the resources to the public and beginning students, we also have generated a Google Maps-based GeoEd Video Library version with the same contents. The Google Maps version can be accessed via webpage but lacks some features, such as 3D topography demonstration and flexible means for organizing videos. However, both versions are place-based and interactive, an approach that has been found to increase user-engagement. To get user feedback about the library and the Google Maps vs. Google Earth versions, we surveyed 23 lower division undergraduate students via Google Forms. Responses to the GeoEd Video Library from surveyed students were overall positive, with discussion of version preference and concerns/suggestions. The link for the sample GeoEd Video Library (KMZ file): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XE9L3_m6_M2yQ51-bgNWk_uLiGKeSc6W/view?usp=sharing
