Integration of Google Apps and Maps in Interactive Learning

Integration of Google Apps and Maps in Interactive Learning Lee Ann F. Gillen Instructional Designer & Project Manager North Carolina State University: DELTA John J. Classen Associate Professor of Biological & Agricultural Engineering North Carolina State University David Howard Associate Director, Instructional Design, and Course Production North Carolina State University: DELTA Introduction The education literature is replete with research on the importance of interactive learning for student engagement. It is also important that students are able to utilize what they are learning in the classroom and take it into a real world situation, even if the real world is a simulated one. The Google Apps Education Edition, which has recently been adopted at North Carolina State University gives the students the opportunity to do just that. In addition, Google Maps were also used as part of the interactive exercises. This paper discusses through a series of three case studies from two courses, how Google Apps and Maps tools as well as the Google Visualization API s were used to support interactive learning activities for students. Both of these courses wanted to place the course content into a wider view of the world outside the narrow boundaries of the classroom, whether face-to-face or virtual. Overview of Google Apps Education Edition, Google Visualization API s, and Google Maps The Google Apps Education Edition allowed users to work simultaneously on the same documents, with everything stored on the cloud. The tools used in these projects were the Google Sites and Google Docs apps. Google Sites allowed students to easily create Web pages, input content, and add images. Google Docs, which included a spreadsheet and a form tool allowed the user to construct seven possible question types: Text, Paragraph Text, Multiple Choice, Check Boxes, Choose from List, Scale, or Grid. These apps were used for surveys, choices, peer reviews, and data entry purposes. Two Google Visualization API s, Geo Map and Table were used in conjunction with a form to create an interactive map for displaying data visually. Google Maps, in addition to providing location information and directions, allowed a user to create their own maps, called My Map. These user designed maps contained place markers, and pop-up windows containing text, links, and images, which were then shared. Case Study 1: CS 224 Conducting Surveys using Google Forms Problem. Seeds, Biotechnology, and Societies is a course designed to investigate the impact of seed modifications and the biotechnology of agriculture on developed and developing societies. Before the introduction of Google apps, the instructor wrote a paper survey of 10 12 questions and handed it out to her class. The students conducted the surveys during a class period, asking people on campus to fill out the survey. Around fifty responses were received. When the students returned to class, the instructor inputted the responses into an Excel spreadsheet and made charts to display the results. The problem with this approach was that it was labor intensive for the instructor, and the students were essentially spectators (data collectors) in the survey process. Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 1

Solution. After the instructor received an NC State DELTA IDEA grant to create a distance education version of her course, we examined ways to continue these two surveys, but looked for ways to do this both in an online environment, and even more importantly, with greater student engagement. Using Google apps, the students in both the f2f and the online sections of the course, worked together to develop the questions and the survey forms collaboratively. The students then conducted the surveys both virtually (by sending the surveys URL out to their friends), and in-world by using laptops on campus, either their own or borrowed from the library. Because we were using the Google Form / Spreadsheet app, the results were input into a spreadsheet automatically. Then the instructor made charts and wall size posters of the results to display on campus and share with her distance education students as well. Implementation. Within NC State s LMS Moodle, the students were given written instructions on editing Google forms, and some good survey type questions were modeled. A template survey was constructed and shared with editing privileges for them. The students would edit each other s questions, and the instructor had the final say on the questions ultimately developed. The students were given a week to develop each survey and both the face-to-face and online students worked together. The survey was still limited to 10 12 questions, so the students had to integrate their class readings and discussions, to come up with the kinds of questions that they thought would further their understanding of the greater world s view on the topic. In conducting the survey, students took laptops or checked them out on campus and to the library. They also sent the surveys link to their friends and families. The survey became totally portable and could go anywhere in the world. The students were also vested in getting as many and diverse respondents as possible. On the first survey on Biotechnology, there were 681 respondents, and on the Global Hunger survey, there were 660 respondents. You can also choose from around 100 different themes to make your survey look professional. See Figure 1. The Google app survey tool also has the ability to create charts that are a summary of the results. The results are shown as total numbers / parts of numbers and percentages of choices responded, so you can very quickly have usable data. You can export the spreadsheet to another spreadsheet application, such as Excel for further manipulation of the data and to make additional charts of the results. Case Study 2: System Design Evaluation Using Google Maps and Forms Figure 1 Problem: In BAE 578, Agricultural Waste Management, a team system design project in this biological agricultural engineering course was supposed to bring all of the previous course topics studied to bear on a single realistic situation: how to collect and handle the waste products from a livestock production facility. The problem with this approach was that many students had no on-farm experience, so their options were limited because their understanding of what was possible was not well developed. In the distance education environment, we couldn t bring them to a real farm even if we could find a cooperator to host us. Past solutions had been to present idealized, somewhat sterile descriptions of livestock production sites with a set of assumptions to match. But the instructor wanted a more realistic approach. Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 2

Solution. As part of an NC State DELTA IDEA grant, we were able to explore an application of Google Maps for this problem. We selected several real farms by simply looking at Google Maps satellite images of eastern North Carolina. In Fig. 1, you can identify animal farms in eastern North Carolina by the long buildings seen in this satellite view from Google Maps. The shorter buildings with red or brown ponds are swine farms with their lagoons; the longer buildings house poultry. Students then had to develop a realistic solution for their team s farm and then compare their solutions to information provided on the land application permit available at the regulatory agency, Division of Water Quality (DWQ). Implementation: The Instructor worked with DWQ to find the size, type and coordinates of each farm he identified on the Google map. He created a Google Map (My Map) for each team with the basic information in the edit box for the main farm place marker. Each team then had to provide additional information for the edit box, and develop a plan that addressed the needs of their farm based on number of animals, soil type, possible crops, waste handling, and other parameters. They had to outline the land application fields using the shape editor tool found in Google Maps. They also had to enter into the edit box for each field, its soil type, crop grown, expected yield and nitrogen removed (from the waste). Students were also encouraged to insert images in these boxes. Since these were private farms, the instructor emphasized that the students could not enter the farm to take photos without permission of the owners. Therefore, the images used were photos of typical crops that could be grown on that type of farm, with the identified soil type, and nitrogen amounts. See Figure 2. The students were provided with detailed written instructions for the activity. A video created by the Instructor showed how to use and edit a Google map. The students were also given a short tutorial on using the Web Soil Survey tool, which they needed for this activity. Since this was a team project, we developed another Google form so each team member could evaluate their own and their team members participation and communication in this project according to a rubric that the students were provided. As with other forms, the results were accessed in a Google spreadsheet. That spreadsheet could be used like any other spreadsheet to perform calculations. The instructor normalized the results and used the team evaluation scores as part of the students project grade. Case Study 3: Production Practices using a WebQuest, Google Sites, Google Forms, and Google API Visualization tools Problem: In BAE 578, as mentioned earlier, many students only had an urban or suburban background, and even students from a farm background often did not understand manure production operations for different species than what they raised. In addition, those students with a farm background, often had trouble visualizing how different operations were across the USA even for the species with which they were already familiar. Figure 2 Solution and Implementation: We provided for students an experiential learning opportunity by having them, through the mechanism of a WebQuest, take on the role of an intern in an office that wrote management plans for farms all over the country. Students needed to realize through this learning activity that regulations for animal production practices Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 3

varied not only by state but also within species. The WebQuest allowed them to discover information for themselves and guided them in that process on the state that they had chosen, using a Google spreadsheet. Using Google Sites, the instructor designed the actual Home page, called Animal Production Practices, for the project and modeled for the students the breadth and depth of information desired on the student created Web pages by creating the North Carolina page, thus precluding any students from using that state for themselves! Every pair of students utilized the same Google sites location to compile their information on their chosen state page, which contained the basic information and links for the state s regulations, technical help for permit writers, and where to find local information on nutrient uptake. The students then created a separate set of pages for each species, which was important for their chosen state. Figure 3 shows the swine page for Indiana. Images were encouraged to be used, to help the students visualize what the different practices looked like from state to state. The experiential learning continued by asking the students to role play, in writing, the viewpoint of two stakeholders associated with their farm, the producer, and a consumer who lived nearby. These opinions were also shared via the Google site with other students. Figure 3 Finally, we wanted the information collected to be summarized and shared with others, to increase further understanding of different manure management practices in other parts of the United States. This was accomplished by the use of an interactive map, which was populated via a Google form, and a Web page made of two of Google s visualization API s. We used another Google Form to input a summary of the information collected into a spreadsheet, which could then be used to create an interactive animal production practices map and table, using two Google visualization APIs. See Figure 4. There are 33 Google visualization API s available, which are based on JavaScript, and whose code is provided for the end user on the individual web pages for each API described. The various API s available can be seen at: <http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/docu mentation/gallery.html> There was some manipulation needed of the information in the spreadsheet in order for Figure 4 it to be displayed correctly in the interactive map, first, because of an inconsistency in how various URL s were provided by the students. Some displayed them as http://, others just www, etc., so the clean spreadsheet had to compensate for those variations. In addition, the data needed the correct html tags in order to be used on the html Web page that was developed to house the interactive map. Therefore, a series of concatenation commands were used on the clean spreadsheet. There was also some manipulation of the java script necessary as well, since two API s, the Geomap and Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 4

the Table were actually used for the interactive map. The interactive map produced from these various API s and the Google forms app, highlighted the states for which data was available. Selecting a state brought up a table with the summary information provided. It is hoped that this map will continue to evolve in its information as future classes participate in this experiential activity and continue to populate the map s additional states. These three case studies enabled us to showcase some of the uses of various Google apps and Google maps in activities that engaged students more fully in their content, and helped them develop some crucial critical thinking skills by the use of hands-on engagement with the content being taught. About the Presenters Lee Ann F. Gillen is an Instructional Designer and Project Manager at North Carolina State University. She works with the DELTA group there, which consults with faculty on the best pedagogy for distance education courses, as well as creating innovative learning technologies for teaching. Address: North Carolina State University Distance Education & Learning Technology Applications DELTA Venture Center II, Suite 500 Box 7113 Email: leeann_gillen@ncsu.edu URL: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~lagillen/ Phone: 919-513-5015 John L. Classen is an Associate Professor at North Carolina State University in the Biological and Agricultural Engineering department. He teaches courses in agriculture waste management engineering. Address: Biological and Agricultural Engineering D S Weaver Labs 179, Box 7625 NCSU Campus Email: john_classen@ncsu.edu Phone: 919-515-7760 David Howard is Associate Director, Instructional Design, and Course Production at North Carolina State University. He provided JavaScript expertise on this project. Address: North Carolina State University Distance Education & Learning Technology Applications DELTA Venture Center II, Suite 500 Box 7113 Email: david_howard@ncsu.edu Phone: 919-513-7020 Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 5