Magnificent Google Earth Experience

Coming here in the United States as an ILEP Fellow offers me a lot of magnificent experiences such as meeting people and later establishing strong bonds with them, observing and teaching in an American classroom, and learning brand new things from my university classes (Educational Assessment, ILEP Seminar, International Education and Digital Classroom). As a teacher, who is a digital neophyte, I appreciate my technology class because I learned so many things from my classmates and professors Dr. Chris Peters, Dr. Ryan Visser and Ms. Ana Baldwin. What amazes me so far is the value of educational websites and applications to improve the teaching-learning processes. I would like to single out the functionality of Google Earth because I thought that it only presents the places of the world and their capital cities. However, as I engrossed myself in exploration activities, I discovered the wonders it can do to make my classroom activities more interactive and engaging for the students. As a stranger to this "newfound digital world", I am motivated to make myself more comfortable with technology and embrace its principles with the ardent hope of making myself a digital native before coming back to my country.

To cite a very concrete example, I am attaching here the maps of the Research Site where my students conducted their scientific research on Rehabilitation Continues: Copper Uptake and Survival of Leguminous Plants in Suyoc Mine Waste Dumpsite of Manila Mining Corporation, Placer, Surigao del Norte, Philippines. Image 1 is the map made the students for almost two weeks using the MAP INFO Professional v.8.5 software under license to Mines and Geo-Sciences Bureau while Image 2 is the site map that I did using Google Earth in less than five (5) minutes.