EFFECTIVENESS OF GOOGLE EARTH IN THE STUDY OF GEOLOGIC LANDFORMS

The demand for technology-based teaching methods has increased, and computers can be an effective way to help educate geosciences students. More interactive exercises in introductory geology classes are needed to help students visualize geologic landforms as they learn about them. Google Earth (GE) is free technology that provides satellite images of the Earth (including landforms) to the public. Can GE enhance an introductory geology student's understanding of landforms?

To answer this question, a tutorial based on fluvial, glacial, aeolian, and coastal landforms was designed using images available through GE. A similar tutorial was created using images from an introductory geology textbook. These tutorials were given to approximately 80 students in two introductory geology sections (with different instructors). The students within each class were divided in half and the tutorials were given in different learning environments: one half used their course textbook and the other half used GE software. Students in one section had been previously introduced to GE and some of the landforms by their instructor; students in the other section had no exposure to either GE or landforms. A short quiz was given to all the students afterwards to assess learning outcomes. Student t-tests were used to test differences between quiz results for each tutorial group (textbook vs. GE). Statistically, students given the GE tutorial did better on the quiz in both class sections. Moreover, students who had been exposed to GE and landforms prior to the experiment performed better than those students without prior exposure.

A week after the experiment a survey was done to examine the student attitudes toward computer-based learning. Survey results show that most students feel comfortable with computer technology and using GE to study landforms.