With all of this technology, it is nearly impossible, and becoming unethical to leave it out of class in today's society. With in my ag-ed class, what I would like to do is incorporate some of the earth web cams available online. Especially in the natural resources aspect of ag-ed, global imagery and global information systems are huge; The natural resources program at UConn even has its own concentration in global information systems.
What I would first use is Earthcam, (http://search.earthcam.com/search/ft_search.php?newcams). I would use this website to show students actual live feeds from around the world. I would then ask students to develop theories of what resources are available in those specific areas of the world. For example, if a student came across a live feed of Hotham, Australia, the mountainous regions of Australia would be viewed. The students could assume that the region has some area of aridity, some forested regions, and perhaps a large quantity of minerals stored within those mountains. After that, an assignment could be to further research an area of interest that the students came across to really see what natural resources are available.
Another way to incorporate this technology would be to use GoogleEarth, (http://www.google.com/earth/index.html), which could be used for students to research things such as deforestation, mountaintop blast mining, strip mining and contour farming. The students could zoom in on areas of the Amazon forest to see the effects of fish-bone forestry, or the tops of Appalachian mountains which have been blasted as a technique of mining. The students could either make assumptions based on the images or use the images to be integrated into a project the students are assigned.
With all of these capabilities, the future of ag-ed will most definitely be altered, and will hopefully become more global oriented as opposed to locally oriented. This will hopefully inspire students to make a difference in the world.
Refrences:
EarthCam, retrieved from http://www.earthcam.com/, (June 29, 2011).
GoogleEarth, retrieved from http://www.google.com/earth/index.html, (June 29, 2011).
This is my first time having so many Ag Ed students! I definitely need to update my list of web resources and add some more appropriate, content-specific sites for you guys! I'm glad you were able to find some useful resources!
ReplyDeleteThere are some minor issues with your post. (1) there are no citations and (2) your references are not correct. It should look like the following:
Organization name. (year of publication). Title of web page. Retrieved from http://www...
Ok, I wasn't sure about the citations in the blog, because i was just using the concept of the website as opposed to specific ideas, words or material. Is it just rule of thumb to make a citation if a site is mentioned?
ReplyDelete