"Field Trip"

For Kevin Borg's presentation, he used representational visuals using Google Earth and Google Maps. The purpose of his visuals was to show what the software can do; Upload maps (1921) and then set them on top of the current land and see what is still in existence. He used the town of Harrisonburg and showed and old factory that is now a parking garage. The intended audience for his presentation was JMU students and the surrounding community. The presenter did not explain thoroughly what Google Earth or Google Maps was so those were the assumed "experiences" represented in the visuals along with some prior knowledge of the history of Harrisonburg and existing buildings. His visuals were an accurate representation of what he and his classes had accomplished using Google Earth and Google Maps along with actual maps from 1921. Without the visuals for his presentation I would have not understood what he was talking about so the visuals definitely helped. Most likely Adobe Photoshop and Google Earth were used in his presentation. The projector was used to show the visuals and the quality of Google Earth's images helped get Borg's presentation understood. The presentation only showed a map of Harrisonburg but leaves curiosity to what used to exist in other places such as our individual homes or the JMU campus.  Two new terms I learned from his presentation were Geo spatial technology and Sandbox

Steve Whitmeyer's presentation used representational visuals and also an arbitrary visual with the different colored map with shapes and letters. It is assumed that Whitmeyer created the visuals or used a software to create the visuals of the map of Virginia from a geological view. The purpose of the visuals was to show the audience that rock formations could be detected using Google Earth Pro and could affect building projects. The intended audience in JMU students and the community along with potential builders who would be interested in using the software to determine whether they should build on the designated land. An assumed experience of his presentation would be an understanding of geology and what certain rocks are and mean in terms of building and construction. The visuals were an accurate representation of what Whitmeyer was presenting and they made me understand why the software would be a good thing to expand to other states besides Virginia. The presenter probably used Google Earth Pro and Adobe Photoshop and it was presented on a projector. The presentation did not show the complete geological view of the US but led to curiosity of what the rest of the country is made of. I didn't learn any new terminology from his presentation.

Overall, I found each presentation interesting and made me curious to use Google Earth and the possibilities that is has.