Goole Earth - a very cool classroom tool

Google Earth is more than just a program. It is a sharing platform that enables a multitude of classroom uses. 


It is at its heart a mapping program that has evolved to provide every aspect of a map in virtual 3D. You put in any search term and if there is a physical place associated with it, it provides the information in a visual form on the Earth, in the ocean or on the Moon.

◦       

Be  Beyond just being able to get directions from A to B, it allows anyone to zoom in down to the “street level” anywhere in the world. The recent additions of Google Moon and Google Oceans also have the same map features. I found it somewhat hard to navigate once you left Earth as it’s harder to provide a location point in the ocean or on the Moon unless you know the exact coordinates.

◦       I feel one could spend hours exploring these virtual worlds. It’s actually a bit thrilling to see the program zoom in from earth view down to the very address you typed in and watch as it slowly renders that address in virtual 3D—down to the colors of curtains in the window. The tools provided enable you to create a customized map, annotated it with words or pictures and even record a message to narrate it. Additionally, it has the added advantage of enabling you to see everyone else’s creations. Everyone is contributing to the creation of the Google World experience because a lot of the interesting content has been pre-created by someone else. Some are excellent (Visiting each moon mission, created by NASA) while others are harder to understand. This could be time-consuming as with any other content vetting on the internet. However, if you are in the Ocean or on the Moon, the pre-made maps are a good start for exploration if you don’t know exactly where you want to be.

This tool that could be applied in many ways. It fits in best with social studies and science. Indeed, Google Earth has been busy updating itself to now include:

1. Google Oceans-visit any location in the ocean, visit any marine center, shipwreck or dive site.

2. Google Moon-tour any location on the moon, follow along any moon expedition,

But regardless of the subject matter, Google Earth could be applicable if there is a need in a lesson to:

         - Let students create personalized, annotated maps or a tourist map of any kind

         - Let students visit a place, virtually. There are links to help locate these types of places and to provide further information. There’s also a historical view also enables you to look back on these places in any given year in the past. 

Teachers can use Google Earth as a way to bring any class topic to life. They can use this as a group tool to visit a place virtually or to follow along on a pre-created tour. They can visit:

         - any place (and time) they’re reading about in a novel (ie: Walnut Creek, any city in Europe after WWII)

         - any physical geographic formation or area (ie: Great barrier reef in Australia, Great Wall of China)

         - a landmark, building, monument (ie: a gothic cathedral in France, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue)

         - noteworthy place in the news (ie: Haiti, currently active volcanoes)

         - Let students create comparison maps

         - Downtown NYC (1942 and now)

         - Southern coast of Lousiana (before and after BP Deep Water oil leak)

Students could use this in a more creative fashion, by becoming content creators themselves. If students were old enough to have their own accounts, they could create google accounts and presentations on their own. Or, I imagine this could be done in groups for younger students. I think the mindset and pedagogy of a webquest is a good one to have when using Google Earth in the classroom. Technology skills needed are very similar to the ones needed in a webquest. They will be doing much zooming in and out. Much of the cognition skills needed involve navigating the program and going through it to see what they need for their particular purpose. Students need to have an understanding of folders, as things are organized in folders on Google Earth.

I think the amazing thing about Google Earth is its collaborative nature -- your finished product becomes part of its library of resources. Once you create a map, you can send it to others via email, but also post it for public viewing. In this way, classes can take advantage of a lot of pre-created content. But, it can also contribute to the ever growing catalog of content to view, which is very powerful. Of course, this will follow along any popular content platform (like You Tube) where there will be so much to vet that it's hard to get to relevant material.