Tuesday, August 18, 2009

I can see my house from here!

I remember when I first heard about Google Earth, all I did was look at places that I had lived and travelled to as well as famous landmarks and places that I had yet to visit (Great Wall of China, Rio de Janeiro, Cairo). I then promptly forgot all about it again . . . . until now.

Google Earth (GE) 5.0 is available and capable of so many things - travelling back in time, under the sea and to the moon. How on earth (pardon the pun) was I going to be able to find out how to use this? Having my eyes opened to the wonders of blogs, I actively started looking for them and found one that provided me with information and basics on how to use Google Earth. GE itself also provides video tutorials on how to understand all the features (for version 4 and above).

Google Earth and Lit Trips were mentioned in a tutorial, though I do seem to remember reading a blog where it stated that this cannot be accessed in EQ schools (please correct me if I am mistaken). Then there are the benefits of using Google Earth for mapping activities. Google for Educators also provides information on how GE can be used in the classroom. (see my Slideshare Sidebar). Also, on my learning journey I found a video on how GE can be used in conjunction with IWBs.


It will be up to me to find ways to engage my learners with activities incorporating this tool, so that students can make meaning and learn through formal and informal learning experiences.

References:
Google Earth in the Classroom. Downloaded August 2009 from http://www.google.com/educators/all_grades.html

2 comments:

  1. I love Google Earth (mainly cause I can see my own house). I think it really has the potential to be a great tool within the classroom. Using it within the classroom in the correct way, is the hard part. There is no use using this tehcnology and not having the teaching behind it.

    This tool would be useful for geography, weather, travelling etc. The ideas are endless. This was probably one of my favourite technology of them all.

    I can't wait to use it in my classroom.

    I had never heard of Lit Trip I am going to have to have a look at what this is.

    Thanks for the ideas,
    Cassie

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  2. No problem Cassie - I hope it helps. Kira posted a great blog about how she used Flickr to help with a lesson on weather - if you haven't seen it, the link is:
    http://kira-elearning.blogspot.com/2009/08/flickr-within-classroom.html
    I'm loving that by following our fellow e-learners blogs, we are gaining a huge resource full of lesson ideas and applications for these technologies that I hadn't even considered.

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