Back to School, Back to the World: Google Earth for Global Learners A Teacher's Guide to Virtual Exploration

 

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Post Summer Slump & the Promise of Google Earth

Since its inception in 1998, Google Earth has always been a spectacle of curiosity. With a new teaching year quickly coming up on teachers, maybe its time to revisit Google Earth to see what the most updated version can do for the secondary classroom.

Adventure Awaits: Subject-Specific Explorations with Google Earth

With the advent of the 1 to 1 classroom and in some classrooms the introduction of VR to the classroom tool belt its time to check out Google earth and its Virtual Adventures or Digital Field Trips. 

• Geography/Social Studies:

Virtual Expeditions: How to use Google Earth for virtual field trips to ancient civilizations (e.g., Rome, Machu Picchu), historical battlefields, or current event hot zones.

"Time Travel" with Timelapse: Showcase the Timelapse feature to observe environmental changes (e.g., urban growth, glacier melt) or historical shifts over decades.

• Science:

Ecosystem Exploration: Dive into diverse biomes and geological formations.

Environmental Impact: Visualize human impact on the environment from a global perspective.

• English/Literature:

Literary Journeys: Tracking character journeys in novels (e.g., Around the World in 80 Days, The Odyssey) or visualizing the settings of famous stories.

Setting the Scene: How Street View can immerse students in the atmosphere of a story's location.

• Mathematics:

Real-World Measurements: Using the ruler tool to calculate distances and areas, connecting geometry to real places.

Coordinate Games: Fun ways to practice latitude and longitude.

• Arts/Architecture:

Global Galleries: Touring famous architectural wonders or exploring art installations around the world.

Your Tool Kit for Success: Getting Started This Fall

Student-Led Projects:

Encourage students to build their own "stories" or "tours" using placemarks, custom paths, and embedded media (photos, videos, text).

Examples: "My Family's Heritage Journey," "A Tour of World Landmarks," "Mapping Our Local Ecosystem."

Collaborative Learning: Discuss how students can work together on shared Google Earth projects.

• Start Small: Don't feel overwhelmed; begin with one virtual field trip or a simple coordinate activity.

• Utilize Voyager: Point out Google Earth's Voyager feature for pre-made lessons and inspiration.

• Explore Google Earth Education Resources: Mention the availability of lesson plans and tutorials.

Share Your Success: Take the challenge! Try one out in the beginning of school! 

The Unofficial PD: Why Teachers Can't Get Enough of Pinterest

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 Beginning teachers are flocking to Pinterest for classroom ideas...but why Pinterest? Pinterest is  a visual search engine that allows for users to quickly browse hundreds of pins at a glance.  Many times new teachers know what they want but struggle locating the resources in their district resources. 

Pinterest as a PLN (Professional Learning Network)

Above the realm of  Pinterest being a visual search engine, Pinterest is able to provide for the beginning teacher a hold harmless networking group that the teacher can freely ask question to and received advice from other veteran teachers. 

Downloader Beware

In a recent study by Sihua Hu (click her for article) the researchers found that early career teachers (ECT) are curating articles and lesson plans at very high rates.  However, the quality and rigor of the lesson plans had a tendency to be lower level cognitive engagements. "74% of the tasks curated in lesson plans, according to Blooms Taxonomy. fell into the Remember and Understand Categories." 

Leadership: The Four Digital Learning Personas in the Workplace

 

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So you have bought into the collaborative learning and produsage idea, a plan has been made and your team is in the beginning stages of their journey into the world of social media (Web 2.0) learning. As a leader, you will need to know what this experience could look like on an individual level. 

Four Digital Learning Personas in the Workplace

Sarah Prestridge in her 2019 article (click here for article) provides a general categorical  framework in which your new digital learning employees could fall into.  Keep in mind that these are generalizations of the characteristics that engaged users exhibit so that you as a leader can leverage their strengths and maximize the digital learning opportunities. If an employee falls outside the generalizations, they may need to be gently nudged or mentored into the right direction. 

• Info-consumer: Many employees consume corporate training materials (e.g., e-learning modules, policy documents, recorded webinars) passively. Understanding this group allows trainers to focus on clear, concise, and easily digestible content.

• Info-networker: Employees often use internal social platforms (like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or enterprise social networks) or professional platforms (like LinkedIn) to share industry news, ask questions, or discuss best practices with colleagues. Corporate training can leverage this by facilitating discussion forums, peer-to-peer learning groups, or mentorship programs.

• Self-seeking contributor: Some employees are proactive in sharing their expertise, contributing to internal wikis, creating how-to guides, or presenting on specific topics. Recognizing and encouraging these "internal experts" can foster a culture of knowledge sharing and self-generated content.

• Vocationalist: These are the highly engaged employees who actively seek out, contribute to, and champion continuous learning within the organization. They might lead training sessions, mentor new hires, or curate external resources. Identifying and empowering them can create powerful internal learning champions.

Pinterest: Post Campaign Thoughts

 

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Post Campaign Thoughts

After running a two week campaign to gauge user interactivity, a few things popped out at me that I was not expecting. 

As with any campaign, the content creator or business has to go where the potential clients are. According to Printiful.com in their 2025 article (click here for article) "As of April 2024, 69.4% of Pinterest users are women, while only 22.6% are men. The platform’s focus on visual content, DIY, fashion, beauty, and home decor continues to attract a predominantly female audience" With such a high rate of female users I decided to set two campaigns against each other; "Cocktails vs Mountain Getaways"

Strengths of Pinterest

According to Pinterest they are a visual search engine that provides the following strengths to content creators and businesses: 

• Drive Traffic: Pins linked to your website or blog can bring a significant amount of traffic.

• Increase Brand Awareness: Visually appealing Pins can introduce your brand to new audiences.

• Generate Leads/Sales: If you sell products, Product Pins and shoppable features can lead directly to purchases.

• Inspire Action: Since users are on Pinterest to do things, your content can directly influence their decisions.

• Evergreen Content: Unlike chronological social feeds, Pins have a long lifespan. They can be discovered weeks, months, or even years after they are published, making your content work for you over time.

The most surprising of the 5 Pinterest strengths was the "Evergreen" effect.  From the data analysis I saw that with in the 2 weeks that I ran the campaigns, there was very little drop off in engagements over the course for the 2 weeks.  This is a marked difference between Pinterest and the other social media platforms in which there is a large drop off in engagements over the same amount of time. 

Beyond Anecdotes: Part 3: Produser

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How does ADKAR, CER, NKA and PLC's all fit together?  In previous blogs we discussed these four topics in separation from each other. However, when thoughtfully and deliberately intertwined together, the organization can allow its employees to be "Produsers" of information which in turn will empower your organization to adapt to an ever changing business climate. 

What is a "Produser"?

Dr. Axel Bruns in his 2011 article (click here for article) identifies a growing trend of individuals who not only are using social media for entertainment proposes but who are also collecting, curating and often times brokering information for others to participate in. According to the article, Dr Bruns describes todays social media users as,  "no longer sufficient to describe participants in these collaborative endeavors simply as ‘users’; instead, they act in a hybrid role of user as well as producer, or for short, as produsers"

Why would employees WANT to be produsers for work?

Very soon, all of the employees you hire are going to be of the generation who have been produsers on social media through most of their formative years.  While it may be a foreign idea to some, most of your employees are already well versed in the culture.  The best ROI for training, is the training you don't have to spend any money on.  

With the ADKAR "bottom-up" and NKA exercises, you employees are going to be empowered to tackle the issues that are occurring in your organization right now.  No more waiting around for the HPT team to do 6 months of data analysis and then the ID team spends another 6 months designing "top-down" interventions.  As the PLC team tackles organizational dilemmas in real time with authentic conversation and data based resources the team will experience intrinsic and extrinsic motivators such as: autonomy, purpose, recognition, belonging and collaboration. 

Why would an organization WANT its employees to be produsers? 

There are 3 key reasons why an organization would want for their employees to consume and produce information for the company:

• Future-Proofing- In an article in Medium.com (click here for article) is is recognized that, "Employers face significant disruption from market forces and technology (like AI). They know they must invest in upskilling and reskilling to remain competitive and avoid future talent shortages" 
• Increased Productivity &Innovation- EF Corporate Learning, in a 2025 study, released a paper (click here for article) indicating that, "Well-trained employees are more competent, productive, and adaptable. Companies with strong learning cultures see higher productivity and creativity, leading to innovation"
• Reduction of "Tribal Knowledge" risk: By democratizing expert thinking and making it visible and shareable, PLC's using NKA reduces the risk associated with critical knowledge residing in only a few heads.

Beyond Anecdotes: Part 2

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In the previous "Beyond Anecdotes" blog we started laying the foundational reasoning and framework for a corporate level "Bottom-Up" change plan that includes a very powerful synergy between CER. NKA (Networked Knowledge Activities) ADKAR and PLC (Professional Learning Communities). 

Why should an organization want to participate a bottom-up social media style change model?  What's the ROI on such a project? 

When organizations implement a "top-down" HPT process, they often identify instructional strategies as solutions for current problems. The Instructional Design Team then receives these recommendations and creates targeted instructional modules. This design process is inherently time-consuming and a one-way communication, even in optimal scenarios.

It is the nature of today's business environment for the organization to evolve.  Planned Top-down changes will always have a prevalent role in evolving organizations. 

Driving Bottom-up Change with ADKAR and PLC's.

Even the most logically brilliant decisions, backed by impeccable evidence, can falter if the human element of change is ignored. This is where Jeffery Hiatt's ADKAR model for bottom-up change management and the concept of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) become indispensable.

ADKAR stands for: 

• Awareness: Of the need for change.
• Desire: To participate in and support the change.
• Knowledge: On how to change.
• Ability: To implement required skills and behaviors.
• Reinforcement: To sustain the change.

Professional Learning Communities

While generally PLC's are reserved for academia, the concept is rich in data and success stories. In an non-academia organization PLC's are groups of cross department employees who meet regularly to share knowledge, best practices, and work collaboratively to improve organizational performance and individual capabilities. According to Lee Raine in his 2013 book Networked: The new social media operating system the definition of a PLC in a business setting is exactly the definition of a community in the world of social media: a community is "Networked individuals who can fashion their own complex identities depending on their passions, beliefs, lifestyles, professional associations, work interests, hobbies or any number of other personal characteristics"

In a world of social media communities, your employees already know how to be a contributing member of an online community on some level.  In the next segment of "Beyond Anecdotes", with the incorporation of the ADDIE model,  we will map out how to leverage your employees social media strengths to make your organization stronger and more resilient for when the "neat plans meet messy realities", 

Beyond Anecdotes: Catalyzing Corporate Change with Structured Thinking, Networked Intelligence, and Collaborative Learning

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Andy Green in his article titled "Bottom-Up Change Management- How to Overcome the Kerplunk effect" (click here for article) makes a very insightful observation, "Top-down management, if used correctly can establish a clear vision for future direction. It can however, suffer from a path dependency, making it hard to adapt when neat plans meet messy reality. A hybrid approach of top-down and bottom-up can provide you with a more adaptable range of responses and build greater capacity for resilience." 

What if we could empower our organization to make more rigorous decisions, embrace the power of collective intelligence, and foster continuous learning as a cornerstone for change so that when "neat plans meat messy reality" our teams are equipped and ready to meet the challenge? 

This post and subsequent posts will lay the ground work for a powerful synergy: Integrating Claim-Evidence- Reasoning (CER) framework with Vanessa Dennen's cutting edge research on Networked Knowledge Activities, Jeffery Hiatt's ADKAR bottom-up change model, and the collaborative power of Professional Learning Communities (PLC). These ideas and integrations will be expanded upon in future posts. 

CER: The Cornerstone of Strategic Clarity

CER allows organizations the framework to construct compelling arguments and make robust decisions

• Claim: Your assertion, a proposed solution, a strategic direction, or a new initiative. It answers the crucial question: "What do we believe or propose?"
• Evidence: The objective data, verifiable facts, observations, research findings, or proven examples that unequivocally support your claim. This is where rigor replaces rhetoric.
• Reasoning: The logical explanation that bridges your evidence to your claim. It articulates how and why the evidence leads you to your conclusion, providing the critical link between data and actionable insight.

Amplifying CER with Networked Knowledge Activities

The research by Vanessa Dennen et al. (2020) (click here for article) offers insights originally designed for analysis of social media platforms, but these principles apply directly to fostering knowledge flows in organizations. 

• Seeking & Sharing: Proactively searching for information. 
• Curating: Organizing disparate pieces of information into coherent, actionable understanding.
• Brokering: Rigorously evaluating the quality, relevance, and credibility of information. And disseminating insights across internal and external networks.
• Creating and Negotiating : Engaging in dialogue to challenge assumptions, explore different perspectives, and co-create new knowledge.

Be on the look out for another foundational post when we discuss the addition of ADKAR and PLC's to this bottom-up change approach