By now most everyone has heard or used Google Earth, I am hear to tell you that it is the most utilized tool in my curriculum today. Being a Geography teacher I utilize maps everyday to illustrate what I need to get across and Google Earth just helps me to solidify what I am wanting to teach. It is so rich in content I do not know how teachers lived with out it.
Features like street view and 360 cities I can take students to places they have only dreamed of, by not only looking at where it is on the map but letting you explore the city or country on your terms with out stepping foot on a plane. This is extremely important in schools that have a higher poverty rate or that
are in a more rural setting. Not only can you use Google Earth to show cities it is also great for sharing pictures that people have taken at various places in the world it is also great for teachers to show the topography of an area. When I use Google Earth to show an area to my students I will show the landforms and how they interact with the surrounding areas as well as the nearest cities as stated earlier in the writing. One of my favorite tools to use is the measuring tool. I use this to show the distance from one place to another. Sometimes I use it to show how long a lake is or how long a river will flow.
Google Earth is such a content rich program I feel that it would be a shame if teachers did not use it in their classroom. This has opened the doors to the world to my students and I am grateful that I can share this with them. This is one teaching tool I would recommend and will use well into the future. Google has hit a home run for education with this product.
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