As teachers, we are always looking for ways to include all our diverse students into learning experiences. I cannot imagine my own children going to school not knowing the primary language of that culture; sitting there fighting to understand a concept through the media of strange sound symbols. (London #$%%&*!* is %#$%$#R^% down %#$%$#R^% down %#$%$#R^% down). My wife and I, like all teachers, work hard to bring a similar learning experience to all our deserving students. On occasion I’ll get a ping from a company telling us an order of a novel, written in a different language, will be delivered in the next day.
All that stated, Google Earth for Web is one resource you can use to include more of your students. Warning…this is a hack. Meaning that this works as of today, but who knows how long in the future.
Google Earth for the Web has been translated into many languages. In addition, some of Google’s Voyager stories have been translated into several languages. In general, Google identifies language settings on the user’s machine to feed that Google Earth language version. However, there is a url hack to open other language versions of Google Earth. Again, this works as of the day of this post, but not sure about the future. Anyways, the below urls will take you to that language version of Google Earth. The table also identifies which language version has some, not all, translated Voyager content. Even if Voyager content is not translated, exploring within Earth will have many translated points of interests (POIs). Below the table are a couple of videos showing how you might use this in the classroom.
Video using Voyager stories across languages
Video using Google Earth to explore across languages
In today’s context it is bit of a challenge writing a post about the authoritative bias of maps. After all, how can maps be both accurate and tendentious. Kuby, Harner, and Gober’s book Human Geography in Action (Amazon Link: http://a.co/2C1hF9s) attributes this authoritative bias to five critical decisions cartographer must make in creating and conveying visual information: maps projections, simplification, map scale, aggregation, and type of map.[1] Below are a couple of ways Google’s Geo tools can be used to demonstrate these choices.
1. Maps Projection
As discussed in a previous post (link), Google Maps, Google’s Maps API, and Google’s My Maps uses a Mercator projection. Projections are chosen for a purpose; in this case probably navigation. The easiest way to demonstrate the impact of this choice simply draw the ring around Greenland in My Maps, or geteach.com, and drag the polygon to the equator.
Student Activity
In class, I give students time to draw and drag polygons on their own. They’re often curious about the size of Russia and enjoy moving the African continent northward toward the pole to see how dramatically it expands. Being from Texas, I like to challenge students to trace Alaska and drag it south over the continental U.S.—a humbling comparison that usually sparks great discussion.
Kuby et al. like to use subway maps to demonstrate the idea of simplification and its benefit to the user. Below are London’s transit tubes on Google Maps and the other is London’s transit tube map. Explore and follow routes through London by zooming in/out and dragging the two maps below.
Student Activity
Have students explore two maps of the London Underground: one stylized and one geographically accurate. The second map features a slider to compare both versions. I ask students to imagine they’re navigating the city in real life.
Which map would be more useful? Which is more accurate? And why is the distorted version still widely used? This leads to great discussion about simplification and purpose in map design.
(Sorry, Google’s API only shows tube transit lines from this zoom level and closer)
Students can practice using geteach.com’s tools to explore how map simplification affects interpretation. After interacting with the map, they jot down their thoughts on how simplifying the design can make certain spatial patterns easier to identify.
Students could also practice using Google Earth’s tools to explore how map simplification affects interpretation. After interacting with the map, they jot down their thoughts on how simplifying the design can make certain spatial patterns easier to identify.
3. Map Scale
Map scale—or zoom level—directly affects the amount of detail shown. A large-scale map displays a smaller area with greater detail, while a small-scale map shows a larger area with less detail.
An easy way to remember this: Large Scale = Large Detail Small Scale = Small Detail
Students use geteach.com to compare a single location at two different map scales. They observe what details become visible at a large scale—such as streets, land use, or elevation—and note what patterns or context are better understood at a small scale, like regional position or spatial relationships. They then reflect on why a geographer might choose one scale over the other depending on the purpose.
Students can also use Google Earth to explore a location at two different map scales. They observe what details become visible at a large scale—such as streets, land use, or elevation—and note what patterns or context are better understood at a small scale, like regional position or spatial relationships. They then reflect on why a geographer might choose one scale over the other depending on the purpose.
4. Levels of Aggregation
Aggregation refers to the size and boundaries of the geographic units used to organize and display data on a map—such as countries, regions, or local districts. This concept is closely tied to scale of analysis, which refers to the spatial extent at which data is grouped and interpreted. Common scales of analysis include global, regional, and local, each offering different insights depending on the level of generalization.
Student Activity (Levels of Aggregation geteach.com)
Using geteach.com, students explore the 2016 Brexit referendum results across multiple scales of analysis. They begin at the national level, where the map shows the United Kingdom as a whole, and then examine data at the sub-national region, including the four nations of Great Britain: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. From there, students can further to examine results by UK regions (e.g., Eastern, North West, London), and finally, at the local level.
Students can also use Google Earth (Link to Google Earth File), students explore the 2016 Brexit referendum results across multiple scales of analysis. They begin at the national level, where the map shows the United Kingdom as a whole, and then examine data at the sub-national region, including the four nations of Great Britain: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. From there, students can further to examine results by UK regions (e.g., Eastern, North West, London), and finally, at the local level.
5. Types of Map
Be it reference or thematic maps, cartographers still must make decisions on what to show, omit, or emphases.
Reference maps are designed to show general information about places—such as political boundaries, physical features, roads, and place names—without focusing on specific data themes. Google Maps is a widely used example of a reference map. However, what many users don’t realize is that Google Maps adjusts its political boundaries and place names based on the viewer’s regional context.
Students use the geteach.com/regions comparison tool to explore how Google Maps displays international boundaries differently depending on regional perspectives. They compare areas like:
The Crimea Peninsula from the perspective of the U.S. vs. Russia
Northern region of South Asia from the perspectives of India, Pakistan, and other countries
Additional disputed territories (e.g., South China Sea or Taiwan) as time allows
Students then write down their observations:
How do borders and place names change based on the selected region?
What does this tell us about the concept of authoritative bias in maps?
Why is it important to consider perspective when using reference maps?
While reference maps focus on location and general geographic features, thematic maps are designed to highlight a specific topic or spatial pattern—such as population density, election results, or economic activity. These maps use visual variables like color, shading, or symbols to communicate data tied to geographic areas.
A choropleth map is a type of thematic map that uses varying shades or colors to represent data values aggregated within predefined geographic areas, such as countries, states, or districts.
Using geteach.com, students explore the 2016 Brexit vote by comparing thematic maps at multiple scales of analysis—national, regional, and local. At each scale, students compare the simpler two-color map with a more complex choropleth map that uses multiple vote-percentage categories.
As they analyze both maps within each scale of analysis layer, students reflect on the following questions:
What is the scale of analysis for each map?
What patterns are easier to see in the simple two-color map?
What additional insights does the more complex map provide?
How does scale of analysis influence the spatial story these maps tell?
What are the strengths and limitations of each mapping approach?
Student can also use Google Earth – Link to File, students explore the 2016 Brexit vote by comparing thematic maps at multiple scales of analysis—national, regional, and local. At each scale, students compare the simpler two-color map with a more complex choropleth map that uses multiple vote-percentage categories.
As they analyze each scale of analysis layer, students reflect on the following questions:
What is the scale of analysis for each map?
What patterns are easier to see in the simple two-color map?
What additional insights does the more complex map provide?
How does scale of analysis influence the spatial story these maps tell?
What are the strengths and limitations of each mapping approach?
Conclusion
Kuby, Harner, and Gober’s book Human Geography in Action (Amazon Link: http://a.co/2C1hF9s) offers far more depth than this brief post. I highly recommend it for anyone—or any class—looking to deepen their understanding of geography.
The goal of this post is to highlight the purposeful inaccuracies in maps and why these inaccuracies matter. While maps, like many forms of information, can be misleading, it is not always intentional or deceptive. Often, the primary purpose of a map is to communicate information more efficiently than text alone. The decisions cartographers make give maps both their strengths and their limitations. As Harm De Blij said, “If a picture is worth a thousand words, a map is worth a million.”
[1] Kuby, Michael, John Harner, and Patricia Gober. Human Geography in Action. 6th ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2013.
One of the geography courses I am fortunate to teach uses a blended physical and human geography framework. The first several weeks of the year, the course entails why geography is important along with physical Earth observations and understandings. The first physical Earth lessons deal with landforms and the inner Earth/ outer Earth processes that form them. This June I converted many of the files from geteach.com to kml/Google Earth. Below are the maps sets used in class to visualize these Earth processes…+ a bonus Google Earth/kml file to help teach and/or review plate tectonics.
The pedagogical formula follows the working definition of geography taught to me from Brock Brown PhD.
“Geography is a perspective…the geographical perspective provides a broadly applicable interdisciplinary method of observing and analyzing anything distributed across Earth’s space.”
Starting questions: what, when, where?
Followed with: how and why?
Lastly: what if, what next, what about me, what about others, what should we do?
This summer, probably August, I will be turning off my tour creator for Google Earth web page. There are several reasons, but mainly Google’s Tour Builder can do almost everything I want, and its creations can be opened directly into Google Earth for Chrome. The only thing left for the Google Earth team to do is put these creation tools in Google Earth. A teacher can dream.
How to open Google Tour Builder file in Google Earth for Chrome
Extended Explanation
The image at the top of this post was my brainstorm for the tour creator. It was sketched out at the Macaroni Grill in Chicago’s O’Hare airport. It came about because some colleagues saw I was able to create voyager like stories and they told me they wanted an easy way to create these stories for this “new” Google Earth. I also thought students would enjoy creating these stories and understood that Google Earth for Chrome/Mobile would not launch with creation tools. I initially helped a friend develop a Google Sheets creator; where students could input latitude, longitudes, elevations, tilts, and heading. Then students could input images and descriptions. As that project was coming to an end I spent a week developing the Maps API version that thousands of students (I assume they were students; don’t keep track of that stuff) have accessed. Basically, creating the big paper above. I felt it would be easier for students to have spatial context when selecting their location and didn’t want them going from one site to another to put in location data. Anyways, I had intentions to continue this project, but in September 2017(?) Google launched their Open in Google Earth link from their Tour Builder. From Tour Builder students can insert images, YouTubes, numerous icons, save, etc. It would have taken a month for me to get all this done, and that would be without my day job. I didn’t, and still don’t, have a magic crystal ball, but it was not too difficult to read this future. I feel it would be better for teachers and students to use Google’s Tour Builder for classroom instruction. Students can just do more.
All that stated, it was a fun little project and I have many more. I still maintain my site, geteach.com, and have been developing numerous Google Earth for Chrome/Mobile (kml) files for a variety of classrooms. Thanks to everyone who continues to use and support anything created from from this little house in Austin.
As mentioned in several previous posts, learning to code KML was my gateway into programming. While I admit my code often looks like a three-year-old’s coloring book, the growth and learning over the past five years have been both enjoyable and relaxing. Initially, geteach.com was designed and created to allow students to explore one or two spatial distributions (perspectives) of their world more efficiently. There were many factors that influenced the creation of geteach.com, from wanting a hobby that helped me relax and think, to the frustration with ‘education/technology’ companies charging so much for something that a teacher, with a few pots of coffee, could create. I am so pleased that educators around the world can use geteach.com, along with other projects, in their classrooms..
The one thought that never crossed my mind when creating these geo-tools was the amount of teacher cred I would receive from students. My first experience with this teacher cred happened five years ago while teaching summer school. During this session, I encountered many reluctant learners, but one student, in particular, was a classic John Bender from The Breakfast Club. About four days into summer school, I was demonstrating geteach.com when ‘John’ blurted out, ‘You created this?’ John was, in business management terms, a first follower. From that point on, this room of reluctant learners pivoted into ‘just enough’ learners.
Every year since the creation of geteach.com I have had these moments in the classroom. I never know when this moment is going to happen, but each time I get the same half proud half embarrassed feeling. This year I did not tell the students I am the creator of geteach.com. In one class, a student clicked the YouTube icon on the page and figured out I was the creator. Then followed an awesome teachable moment of contagious diffusion from that student’s group in the back-right corner sharing the information until it reached the front left group. Another class figured out it was me when they looked at the page source of the page and found my name somewhere in the code. That group also found one of the easter eggs in the JavaScript which x10’d my teacher cred. (Hint… think Konomi’s Contra)
For the past week and a half, I might have been viewed by many as an absent-minded teacher who can’t take roll, someone who loves to talk about geography as a perspective that transfers across disciplines, and an idealist of lifelong learning. Once students realize that I learned to code through spatial thinking, these qualities—minus the roll-taking part—are no longer just words, but true beliefs that are core to my teaching and learning philosophy. Learning to code and developing the language of technology through a spatial lens has given me a window of credibility to build the relationships necessary to last at least the next 180 days, but hopefully beyond.
