Tech Edge, Mobile Learning In The Classroom - Episode 53, Geography
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03/27/2017
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Technology Information: Geography with vectorkids - State Capitals and funbrain - Where is that?
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- [00:00:00.598]Coming up on Mobile Learning
- [00:00:01.660]in the Classroom, geography apps.
- [00:00:03.374](motivating background music)
- [00:00:17.224]Hi, I'm Zoe Falls, and today on Mobile Learning
- [00:00:19.573]in the Classroom, we're gonna look
- [00:00:20.641]at some geography apps.
- [00:00:22.497]So, my original plan for today,
- [00:00:25.611]the websites decided not to work,
- [00:00:27.132]so it was originally gonna be geology,
- [00:00:30.629]so I went and found some geography stuff instead.
- [00:00:33.563]I'm gonna start with the G.
- [00:00:35.863]The first one that we're gonna look
- [00:00:36.696]at is state capitals.
- [00:00:39.412]And I was thinking about things
- [00:00:40.435]that you can do with your kids over spring break,
- [00:00:45.094]if you go on vacations anywhere
- [00:00:46.802]or even just a little trip to see grandma and grandpa.
- [00:00:49.417]I know my parents, when we were in the car,
- [00:00:51.604]we'd play the game where if we saw
- [00:00:53.159]an out-of-state license plate,
- [00:00:55.526]my mom would say the state and I had to say the capital,
- [00:00:58.370]or she turned it into a math game
- [00:00:59.943]and I'd have to add or subtract or multiply or divide
- [00:01:02.132]the numbers that were on the license plate.
- [00:01:04.074]I didn't like that one quite as much,
- [00:01:06.122]but identifying the capital
- [00:01:07.036]from the state license plates was pretty cool.
- [00:01:09.922]And then we started keeping track
- [00:01:11.214]of how many states we saw and how close
- [00:01:13.019]to 50 we got, and you got more points
- [00:01:15.066]if they were further away from where you were,
- [00:01:17.204]so it turned into a little fun car game.
- [00:01:18.905]So that got me thinking, what are maybe
- [00:01:20.196]some apps that you could have in the car
- [00:01:22.427]to use with your kids when you are traveling
- [00:01:25.989]to keep 'em entertained, but also to keep
- [00:01:28.291]a little learning going on while they're on break?
- [00:01:30.854]So this first one I found is fairly easy,
- [00:01:34.332]so if you have younger kids, early elementary,
- [00:01:37.010]maybe even Pre-K, and it's just state capitals.
- [00:01:40.996]So you click on a state.
- [00:01:43.306]Oh look, I clicked on Nebraska.
- [00:01:45.006]And it's gonna give you three options.
- [00:01:46.952]And then you go ahead and you pick what you
- [00:01:49.987]think the capital is.
- [00:01:51.404]So, I think it's Lincoln, and I was right!
- [00:01:54.275]So it's gonna tell me, "Very good!"
- [00:01:55.923]It tells me how many I've completed,
- [00:01:57.824]and then how many attempts.
- [00:02:00.152]So let's click on another state, Pennsylvania.
- [00:02:05.050]So, I think it's Harrisburg.
- [00:02:07.933]Oh good, I was right again.
- [00:02:10.086]Okay, so let's say I'm down in Arkansas
- [00:02:12.723]and I think it's Charleston.
- [00:02:16.410]Then it's gonna tell me, "Please try again,"
- [00:02:18.437]'cause the capital is not Charleston.
- [00:02:20.957]This is gonna be Little Rock.
- [00:02:22.439]So now it's telling me that I've completed
- [00:02:23.899]three but I've had four attempts.
- [00:02:26.131]And again, you can just click through
- [00:02:27.263]and do the entire country, including Alaska.
- [00:02:31.917]So I think it's Juneau.
- [00:02:33.380]Very good, and then you can reset the game.
- [00:02:35.544]So you can see if they can get them all right
- [00:02:37.622]on the first go, or how many attempts
- [00:02:40.059]it takes them to get each state.
- [00:02:42.797]So if I, meant to hit, click the wrong answer,
- [00:02:46.948]so let's say I get it wrong, I can try it again.
- [00:02:51.112]And if you click on the state again,
- [00:02:52.399]it'll give you a different set
- [00:02:54.075]of capitals to choose from, that way you can help ensure
- [00:02:57.069]that your child is actually learning
- [00:02:58.997]and not just going well, if it wasn't A,
- [00:03:01.220]it has to either be B or C.
- [00:03:04.150]So that's one app, and again this could
- [00:03:06.275]be something you do in the car,
- [00:03:09.304]in the hotel while you're checking in,
- [00:03:11.220]maybe while you're waiting for an airplane.
- [00:03:14.195]But again, a really easy-to-use,
- [00:03:17.500]it's colorful, and I see this being really useful
- [00:03:20.075]with younger students, with younger kids,
- [00:03:23.160]or you could have siblings using it.
- [00:03:25.952]Another one that I found that's maybe
- [00:03:27.872]a little bit more advanced, maybe some upper-elementary
- [00:03:31.057]into early junior high is, Where is That?
- [00:03:35.441]And, you can choose a different country,
- [00:03:38.462]and then you can choose a different level.
- [00:03:41.314]And, you can actually choose a continent,
- [00:03:43.069]not just a different country.
- [00:03:45.602]And you can identify, then you have
- [00:03:47.813]to spell the name, then you have
- [00:03:50.115]to give the capital and identify
- [00:03:52.070]the country or state.
- [00:03:53.949]Then you are given the capital
- [00:03:55.523]and you have to spell the country or state,
- [00:03:57.603]or you can identify which country
- [00:03:59.344]or state is highlighted, and fill in the capital.
- [00:04:02.331]So this one has some progressive levels in it.
- [00:04:04.750]You can start it easy and work it up.
- [00:04:06.951]You can start in the United States
- [00:04:09.106]and work through all five levels,
- [00:04:10.793]and then challenge yourself as you move on.
- [00:04:12.917]I remember when I had to learn all
- [00:04:14.304]of the capitals of all of the countries
- [00:04:16.103]in the world in high school, and we didn't
- [00:04:19.861]really have any apps like this, at least that I know of,
- [00:04:23.005]and something like this would've been really useful
- [00:04:25.657]and fun instead of running around
- [00:04:26.891]the house randomly spelling out countries and capitals.
- [00:04:31.571]So let's go ahead and let's check out Europe,
- [00:04:34.447]and we'll do Level 5 and we'll see how much I know this.
- [00:04:40.552]So again, it gives you a line map.
- [00:04:43.215]And what I like about this is it only colors
- [00:04:45.736]the one that you are focused on.
- [00:04:47.164]You see the outline of all the other countries,
- [00:04:50.001]but it only highlights and colors
- [00:04:52.457]the one you're looking at.
- [00:04:54.700]And I'm thinking that that is France.
- [00:05:00.399]And I think the capital is Paris.
- [00:05:03.787]So again, it gives you multiple choice,
- [00:05:06.143]and then it has a fill-in-the-blank
- [00:05:07.370]for the capital, I'm gonna say Check It!.
- [00:05:10.771]Oops, France is the correct country,
- [00:05:13.072]but the capital is Paris.
- [00:05:15.284]Oh I put Pairs, not Paris.
- [00:05:17.682]So it also checks the spelling,
- [00:05:20.220]which can also be a really good thing
- [00:05:22.325]for students that maybe know the capital,
- [00:05:25.462]but can't spell, or type it wrong like I do.
- [00:05:28.956]So, then we have another country highlighted,
- [00:05:31.638]and I think that might be Bosnia, and I'm...
- [00:05:40.076]Okay, so it was Bosnia and the capital of Sarajevo.
- [00:05:43.795]So again, some of these might be
- [00:05:45.548]a little bit hard to see, but you can zoom in.
- [00:05:50.353]So if you had this on your iPad
- [00:05:51.697]or on your phone, you could zoom in
- [00:05:53.371]and make it bigger.
- [00:05:54.357]You could also have your kid pull up Google Maps
- [00:05:57.988]or Google Earth and do a comparison.
- [00:06:00.311]That way, some of the downsides to this I think
- [00:06:04.500]are because it is just a simple line map,
- [00:06:06.297]it doesn't really give a sense
- [00:06:07.668]of how it fits in to the overall globe.
- [00:06:11.876]And it's also maybe not detailed enough
- [00:06:16.330]to be really useful.
- [00:06:17.851]But if the goal is just to do a quick sort
- [00:06:20.490]of, can you identify, and then some baseline information
- [00:06:23.596]on countries and capitals, it could be
- [00:06:26.160]a really good kind of fun way to make some learning happen.
- [00:06:30.602]Let's check out one other one,
- [00:06:32.293]so you can do the whole world.
- [00:06:34.698]And we're gonna try Level 3, 'cause I'm not feeling
- [00:06:37.630]quite as confident anymore, and Show Me The Map.
- [00:06:42.860]Oh sure, it gives me the country capital of Yerevan.
- [00:06:48.042]And, I'm guessing Armenia, I was right.
- [00:06:54.950]I honestly guessed on that one.
- [00:06:58.884]Guatemala City, Guatemala.
- [00:07:01.926]Now again, the downside here is there's no visual map.
- [00:07:04.895]So you're not being able to map what you're learning
- [00:07:07.900]to a physical location on a map,
- [00:07:09.889]so I would consider that to be
- [00:07:11.329]a detriment of this particular interaction.
- [00:07:15.024]But again, it's something.
- [00:07:19.667]And so if we go back, let's check out one more.
- [00:07:23.773]Let's try Asia, and let's do Level 2.
- [00:07:34.266]So again, it is gonna give you the map, and it's China.
- [00:07:42.020]Check that, and I was right!
- [00:07:44.151]And so again, now it's gonna give you all
- [00:07:45.593]of the small little islands as well.
- [00:07:48.069]But again, here it does give you the map.
- [00:07:50.473]So only when you're in the world option does
- [00:07:53.009]it not give you the full map.
- [00:07:55.514]So again, probably not the most robust website out there,
- [00:07:58.921]maybe not even the most interactive
- [00:08:00.870]of things out there, but it's more fun
- [00:08:05.527]than maybe some other ways of doing it,
- [00:08:07.352]and I think you could add some more interaction
- [00:08:09.592]to it as you guys were on, if you're on vacation,
- [00:08:11.988]in the car or waiting for a flight,
- [00:08:14.535]whatever it is you're happening to be doing
- [00:08:16.443]over spring break or leading into summer,
- [00:08:19.959]you could ask your children, you could have your
- [00:08:23.487]kids quiz each other.
- [00:08:25.036]You could have some sort of scaling competition with it,
- [00:08:28.691]and who doesn't like gummy bears?
- [00:08:30.951]So if you get five right, you get a gummy bear.
- [00:08:33.808]All sorts of different ways to incorporate these
- [00:08:36.084]into some of what you're already doing.
- [00:08:39.244]So that has been a couple of geography apps,
- [00:08:41.844]and I'm Zoe Falls, thanks for watching.
- [00:08:43.939](motivating background music)
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- Tags:
- CEHS
- College of Education and Human Sciences
- Tech EDGE
- UNL
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Department of Teaching Learning and Teacher Education
- University of Nebraska
- Apps
- PhET
- Geography
- vectorkids
- State Capitals
- funbrain
- Where is that?
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