Influence of Google Earth software on students' academic performance in teaching of climate topics

Influence of Google Earth Software on Students' Academic Performance in Teaching of Climate Topics The aim of this study is to determine influence of using Google Earth Program on students' views and academic performance at the 10th grade geography lesson in secondary education. The sample of the study consists of students from two class studying in the 10th grades of an Anatolian high school in Akçaabat district of Trabzon. Explanatory sequential mixed methods design was used in the study. One of the classes participated in the study as experimental group (n: 33) and the other as control group (n: 33) were selected with simple random sampling. While the teaching of climate of Turkey for the experimental group was carried out via Google Earth Software, the control group was taught by printed maps. Data were collected via four different instruments, namely: Open ended questions for the climate elements and factors that effect climate of Turkey; questionnaire for the student personal information; Google Earth toolbars and learning papers and semi-structured interview for the students' views on the selected teaching tools. Independent sample t-tests and paired sample t-tests were used for the comparison of between and within groups' scores obtained from pre-test and post-test. The data obtained from the semi-structure interview was analysed by descriptive statistics. Analysis of variance on the pre-test scores showed there was no statistically significant difference between the control group and the experimental group. On the other hand, post-test analysis of the scores of the groups showed that there is a significant difference in favour of the experimental group. The study also showed that Google Earth Software is more effective teaching tool than the printed maps for the teaching of climate and climate elements, particularly air pressure, humidity and rainfall. The study concluded that Google Earth supported teaching has a positive impact upon the students' academic achievements and the students' views towards the course. Google Earth Software is considered by the students as visual, remindful, interesting, entertaining, facilitative, dynamic and three-dimensional teaching instrument. The results of the study suggested that students should be encoured and engaded to use Google Earth for increasing their level of geography learning. Various suggestions were also made to teachers, researchers, program developers and field experts for teaching geography. Keywords: Geography Teaching, Climate of Turkey, Google Earth, Printed Map, Academic Performance, Students' Views