Study On The Application Of Google Earth In Junior High School Geography Teaching

The development of geographic information technology, makes the geography research change from qualitative description to quantitative analysis and even spatial analysis, also has a strong impact on the basic ideas and research system of geography, and finally promotes the development and reform of geography teaching research. A new round of national geography curriculum standard, makes the teaching focus change from knowledge inculcation to cultivating of capability, and the ultimate purpose is to cultivate students’ comprehensive analysis ability and problem-solving ability; emphasizes the importance of information technology in the geography learning, advocates learning geographic information technology knowledge, or use it as a new teaching tool in geography class. The complexity, extensity and abstractness of geography makes the knowledge more difficult to understand. How to make the abstract things intuitive, make the complex phenomenon simple, help the students to establish the space thinking ability, and how to improve the teaching effect? Google Earth has obvious advantages in powerful information storage, easily operating and visualization, and simple and convenient operation,therefore, compared with the other GIS softwares, Google Earth is more suitable for the junior high school geography teaching, and discussing its application in geography teaching in middle school is very necessary.Based on reading a lot of geography literature, the author first makes further analysis of the research background from three aspects, namely, the development of information technology, the requirements of national middle school geography new curriculum standard, and the disadvantages of professional ArcGIS software application, then, investigates the significance of the research, and consults the frontline teachers and relevant experts, finally determines the main direction of the topic after repeated discussions, and determines the research method and makes the research train of thought. Second, the author introduces the main function of Google Earth and summarizes the application and researches status of Google Earth in our country and abroad in middle school geography teaching, also sums up the main direction of existing research and the existing deficiencies, explores the theoretical support of the application of Google Earth in the junior high school geography teaching. This paper adopts the questionnaire investigation to conduct an investigation during seventy-five teachers in some cities of Henan Province, make investigation of teachers in their own quality, the use of the status quo of Google Earth software in geography teaching, and the advantages and disadvantages of using it during the teaching process, and then, make a further analysis on the existence problems of application of Google Earth in geography teaching, including the weak support of external environment, the low teacher’s attainment, the simplex teaching forms, the undisciplined and ineffectual of students, and lack of a perfect teaching evaluation system, and so on.Based on the existing research and practical investigation data, the author proposes series strategies on this basis. Firstly, we should strengthen the input of material resources, financial resources to improve the infrastructure and external conditions, strengthen publicity and ease the teachers’ burden, provide favorable conditions for the application of Google Earth; Secondly, we must promote teachers’ professional attainment from many aspects, for teachers to effectively use the Google Earth Teaching; Thirdly, it is necessary to develop diversified forms of use, including developing the new curriculum with Google Earth, establishing network teaching platform, developing software of teaching games, integrating with new teaching modes; And we also should strengthen the training of students before class, and organize various kinds of extracurricular activities, to improve students’ familiarity with Google Earth software, to lay the foundation for the application of classroom teaching; Finally, perfecting teaching evaluation system is also very important, because implementing diversified evaluation mode and the idea of developmental evaluation can achieve quantitative analysis and scientific evaluation of the teaching effect of Google Earth. It focuses on strong professional attainment the new geography teachers should have, such as the concept of innovation, new teaching idea, information technology application ability. This article attempts to make useful exploration for promoting teachers’ attainment, to train new geography teachers in order to adapt to the new curriculum standard, and exploring effective application of Google Earth in geography teaching in junior middle school. The results of these studies may be to some extent to enrich and develop modern geography teaching theory.