Google Earth

A. I had used Google Earth before, so I was pretty excited to learn about the capabilities it has.  I learned with google earth I can explore the moon, look at underwater terrain, watch the sunset in any location, and view overlays of important information on any area.  You can also create overlays of your own.  Another neat feature is that you can look back in time to earlier pictures to see how the area has changed.  And it seems like there are many, many more possibilities that are not apparent when just exploring the program for the first time. 

B.  I looked at ideas for using google earth with elementary and middle school students.  The ideas for middle schoolers involved a lot of creating layers to help students explore historical places, poets, presidents, battlegrounds, and even human migration.  There was also a great idea about using placemarks to track where and how laws are made, and the historical feature to track how humans are changing the environment.  There was also a great idea about creating 3D shapes and comparing them to real-life buildings.  For elementary, the uses were more simple-- identifying states and countries, for instance.  They also suggested having them placemark places that are important to them personally, having them use the weather layer to track rainfall over a period of time, exploring distances between places, and creating a map using the line tool to track American explorers. 

C.  I looked at the Google Earth for Educators page.  One thing I really liked was being able to see an example of student work.  This gave me a much better idea of what students can accomplish.  I also discovered World Wide Panoramas, which allows you to stand in all kinds of places all over the world and look around you.  There are categories like family, history, paths, food, and a lot, lot more.  I loved it!  I also learned that you can create virtual tours, which could be a very useful assignment in school. 

My general feeling is that if I became a little more familiar with Google Earth, it could be a really great tool, with lots of applications I haven't even thought about!