Lost Johns: Google Earth: Unleash the Educational Potential

One of my students asked if I liked Google Earth the other day when I was using Google Earth to show them the Galapagos Islands and I told her that I loved it. Moreover, I told her that it made me feel like singing. She took the bait and asked, “What does it make you feel like singing?” To which I replied, “He’s got the whole world in his hands…” If you use Google Earth you should get my bad attempt at humor!

Anyway, the educational potential of Google Earth is limitless. Moreover, I keep stumbling upon new features within Google Earth as a result of other bloggers. Today I was reading David Warlick’s “2 cents worth” blog and he had a post about Google Earth and Quentin D’Souza. Quentin D’Souza is an educator from Toronto Canada that seems to be on the cusp of things. Moreover, he has a teaching with technology blog that highlights new technologies, specifically Google Earth. Go visit Quentin D’Souza AKA the Teaching Hacker to see some great innovative curriculum ideals utilizing technology.

Quentin has a number of Google Earth posts that are worth looking at, as well as an informative video entitled “Google Earth: Educators Perspectives”. Another blog well worth mentioning is Mister P’s (Alan Parkinson’s) blog entitled “Google Earth’s Users Guide Project”. Alan’s blog is a Google Earth fans dream come true! I am going to take the time to go through his blog when I have the opportunity so stayed tuned for more post about Google Earth.

Note: If you are an educator and you are not currently using Google Earth with your students, please start. I don’t get to use Google Earth as much as I would like but I try to use it a couple of times a month to take virtual tours Spanish speaking countries. My students love it and learn from it! Good Luck…