The View from Above: Google Earth’s Impact
Google Earth rocks! (Doesn’t it?!) Well, let’s read, talk, and write about it!
Writing in this course will focus on questions concerning the use and display of spatial and remote sensing data in Google Earth, Google Earth’s applications, and the privacy and security debates associated with its use. We will address questions including:
1. What is Google Earth and what kind of geographic data are available through it?
2. Who is using this program? How and Why? (We’ll look at applications ranging from education, to business, to science, to just plain fun!)
3. Does Google Earth encourage a spirit of exploration? Or doesn’t it? (How do we define exploration?)
4. What questions does use of Google Earth raise for national security? privacy? How might we deal with these issues?
5. Do the positive impacts of the technology outweigh the concerns raised?
We will address how Google Earth and associated spatial data are applied in a variety of scenarios - research, environmental management, education, travel, etc. The course will employ a range of texts – given Google Earth’s relatively recent arrival on the scene, we will make generous use of news pieces, websites (the Google Earth Community, for one), trade publications, and blogs, in addition to academic articles. Writing assignments will be multiple and varied and will take place both in and out of class. For example, your response to readings may be blog entries, discussion board posts, 1-3 page documents prepared before class, or shorter in-class responses that react to readings and our class discussion. Two longer (7-10 page) assignments will provide you with the opportunity not only to articulate a position, but also to share your work with classmates. These longer assignments will go through multiple drafts, to which your peers and I will read and respond, in order that you might receive feedback that may be used in revising and editing your work. Each assignment (supporting a claim, reviewing current literature) will require you to respond to/comment on texts we have discussed in class as well as sources you have obtained through library research. We will wrap up the semester by working on how to communicate what we’ve learned about Google Earth over the course of the semester to a wider audience, for example synthesizing the results of the literature reviews produced in order to produce a document or presentation that discusses Google Earth’s “state-of-the-art.”
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