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Geo-everything

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Geo-everything Technologies and Classroom Application

Technologies

Geo-everything technologies allow users to link data, photos, and many other items to a particular geographical location utilizing geographic coordinates. Some of these technologies are handheld devices while others come in the form of software or internet programs. Examples of software and internet programs include:

GEOnet Name Server- Allows the user to search for a geographic location by any name it has held
Google maps and flickr map- Allows the user to link pictures, videos, and other information to a specific coordinate. The item then appears on the map for others to see.
Geocaching- an interactive use of geo-everything technologies that operate on similar rules to hide-and-go seek.
MapQuest- provides directions, business locations, and gas prices on a map for users.
Imagizer 3D- A software that allows layering of different maps such as topographical and physical maps to create three-dimensional maps with information overlay.

Classroom Application

Direct application:

Geo-everthing is a great resource for the classroom. This emerging technology will help students to better visualize where events took place during lessons and projects. With this technology, teachers and students can not only flag specific locations, but they can add pictures, video clips, and other information as well. Geo-everything can be used in all content areas, as well as all grade levels. In older grades, students can create projects using geo-everything technology. Students will learn so much as they research and then link that information to a map! This is a great resource for teachers and students. Below is a list of ideas for using geo-everything in your classroom. The possibilities are endless!

Social Studies
- Create maps of war battles- Students will be interested to see how close some of the battles were to their homes.
  - Click to view a map of Civil War battles.
- Create a map of where famous people lived in your state.- Maybe one lived near you!
- Follow the Oregon Trail by creating a map of towns, forts, and landmarks that were along the way.
- On a map of the United States, flag major topographic features.- You could even do this for your state, town, or county!
- Identify topographic features of other countries.
- Flag the seven continents and four oceans.
- While learning about the discovery of the New World, create a map of where the explorers began their journey and where they ended up.- This would be especially useful when showing students where Columbus thought he landed compared to where he actually landed!
- Create a map of national parks.
- Create a map of major rivers of the world.
- Create a map of major mountain ranges of the world.
- Have students make a map of places they would like to visit.- They could then research this specific place and write a paper about it.
Math-
- Create a map of where famous mathematicians lived.
- Have students calculate miles per hour when finding the distance between two places.- For example, Bill wants to go to Kansas City, which is 120 miles from Bill's house. If he drives at 60 miles per hour, how long did it take for Bill to get there? Students could flag Kansas City and Bill's house and then they would be able to visualize how far he had to travel.
- Have students calculate distance between two points.
Science-
- Map the migration paths of hummingbirds and monarch butterflies.
- Flag locations that contain different biomes (rainforests, deserts, mountains).
- Flag locations where volcanoes, earthquakes, and hurricanes occur.
- Map fault lines of earthquakes. Are we anywhere near a major fault line?
- What about weather? Flag areas that are seasonably cold and areas that are seasonably warm.
- Create a map that shows major cities along the Prime Meridian and the Equator.
Language Arts-
- What author is the class currently studying in literature circles? Map the locations where the author was born, raised, lived, traveled to, and wrote about.
- Are you reading a book to the class about China, India, Australia, Antarctic, Europe, the Middle East. . . Show the class where the location is compared to where they are. Map it and see how many miles away it is.
- Is the class currently studying "Journeys" in literature focus units? Have each group create a map showing the locations of the journeys they read about in their books.

Application in coordination with other emerging technologies:

Utilizing handhelds to set up a plant life identification activity on school grounds
Creation of a local cultural map to be shared with other schools through social computing
Use of imagizer software, augmented reality, enhanced visualization, and holographs to create an interactive learning display with all information embedded in the program. This idea is shown in the video below: