Wednesday, July 2, 2008

New Web Based Tutorial

Day 3 of the my blog birthday week, today's release is a set of web based tutorial materials teaching map design within Google Earth.

I have re-used a lot of the design principles from this blog in my University teaching about Google Earth and today I am releasing my teaching materials for people to use. The course is a web based and teaches users how to build a map based project in Google Earth (so, for example, there's nothing about the Google Earth search column). As you would expect from me it focuses less on the HowTo and more on the design principles of making a map:


Further Details:
  • Consulting: If you would like a customized version for your particular user group (e.g. a paper version) I am available to do so and can also deliver the teaching in a face to face format or tutor via an online course. My email is in my profile.
  • Creative Commons license: Which allows you to go ahead and just use it (in certain circumstances) without having to ask me.
Some pedagogical points:
  • Focused Content: The tutorial differs from Google's own tutorials and help files because I pick out the key facts and skills users need to learn; extra material can be accessed through 'further reading' links. Google's materials tend to be much more comprehensive (which is good in a way) but this forces users to make decisions about what they will absorb and what they will skip.
  • Video Tutorials: It incoporates the video tutorials I discussed yesterday - these will allow people to get the skills of how to create a basic map, in the later sections they learn how to use these tools to create a well designed map.
  • Not Paper Based: A lot of people still prefer paper based formats, I understand the reasons for this but have made my tutorial an online resource because it uses lots of hyperlinks, video and high quality color images and these are difficult/impossible in paper based materials.
  • Activities: The course provides lots of activities - it follows the constructivist theory of learning, if you want to use it as a teaching resource you must encourage your students to 'do' rather than just 'read'.

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