Local Guides at the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO): From Classroom to Community
Caption: A selfie showing Emeka and Environmental Management Students during a field work within the campus.
Building a community may be intentional or unintentional. Where there is lots of interest and passion, people tend to stick with what they really love even after the assignments are over. Like-minded people may come together to build on it, thus attracting others to further deepen their interests.
This is probably the case for the new Local Guides community at the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO). It all began in the classroom while teaching courses like Environmental Monitoring, Photogrammetry, Geomorphology, Meteorology and Remote Sensing. The simplest way to have the students carry out a quick practical assignment was by using Google Maps. They could look at landforms, air quality, wildfires, vegetation, hydrology (watersheds), and other features using their smart phones since we didn’t have a big screen. Over 300 students benefited from this knowledge through class lessons, continuous assessment using Google Classroom, and even examinations.
Caption: Students gather round Emeka to learn how to use Google Maps to find geo-location (longitude and latitude).
Recently, some of them became more passionate about Google Maps and its numerous usefulness over time. Some students actually started perusing the app at their 200 level and are now in their 500 level (final year). When I saw their interest and regular questions even outside the classroom, I decided to introduce them to the Local Guides program. Immediately after I did this, I started seeing lots of contributions within the university community and some places I have contributed to on the maps. Some would post selfies and group photos at nice locations. Then I saw the need to guide them appropriately on the dos and don’t: avoid adding selfies, write helpful reviews, use their own photos, and give a fair rating. Doing this was an extra task, though, and I deemed it necessary in order to have more useful and helpful contributions on the maps. This is how FUTO Local Guides began!
Caption: Selfie showing showing Local Guides, Crowdsource and GDG contributors during Crowdsource Meet-up at FUTO
Fast-forward one month, and we now have about 100 active members and have hosted a few meet-ups for sharing knowledge. The students are now pursuing different interests, including mapping accessibility on campus, adding roads, organizing waste management using Google Maps, planting trees, monitoring human activities like sand mining along the river, and taking 360-degree photographs. And my students actually earn grades from doing these activities as part of their continuous assessment. Some of them are already thinking of a cause to pursue as part of their community support, and we can’t wait to see the outcome. I look forward to more exciting days within the FUTO Local Guides community.
The good news is that we have three Google Communities already on campus: GDG, Crowdsource and Local Guides. I started the Crowdsource Learning Community (CLC) at FUTO serving as its faculty advisor.
Caption: Photo showing Local Guides: Emeka, Juliet, Uche, Donald, Godfirst and some student influencers during a Crowdsource Meet-up in FUTO
Oh, and before now, I had a special Local Guide buddy - Juliet who stopped me on the way to the library because she saw my LG tag on my backpack. We are building this community together. @Julietezego and I teamed up to also build the Crowdsource Learning Community, where she is the lead influencer.So, we are going to be doing fun stuff together soon as Local Guides; teaching students more about quality contributions on maps and using the Ricoh Theta (loaned to me by David) to create Street View within the campus. Other Student Local Guides like @DONALDUZOMA12 @GodfirstOnuoha have been also helpful building this community.
It sounds exciting but because of academic activities, it’s going to be a bit tough but…Wish us luck!
Oh! Thank you 