The Whole World in Your Hand

Google Earth is by far one of the most amazing applications.  I only spent a few minutes listening to the Atomic Learning lessons.  I've used Google Earth before and am familiar with most of it's capabilities.  The one feature I either didn't know about or had forgotten was the Tour.  Setting up a series of locations and turning on the turn was fun.

The slide show I watched about using Google Earth in education had several good ideas.  One suggestion was to zoom in on a city where only a few streets and buildings are visible and play a twenty-questions type game to guess which city it was.  This seemed to me a fun way to teach geography.  The virtual drive idea was also cool.  With Google Earth, not only can you visit the location of a field trip you can even see the sights along the way.  A virtual field trip would also be possible.

Using layers to make an interactive learning map was suggested by several sources.  In literature, a map could be created to show the location of authors or places in a story.  In science, a map can be created to show the changing of the seasons over time.

The possibilities for Google Earth are out of this world.  In fact, Google Earth even allows you to take your students on a trip to the Andromeda Galaxy or somewhere closer like the moon.  For younger children, you could to an alphabet field trip; taking your students on a virtual trip to famous places that start with each letter of the alphabet.