I am still obtaining new information about Google Earth, but there are many opportunities that it could give students in order to help them better learn. One of the first things that Google Earth could do for students is help them learn directions. This site provides students with images and the further you zoom in, you can even see street signs which would be a lot more realisitc then talking about North, South, East, and West in the classroom because those are very abstract.
Another benefit of Google Earth is the fact that students could "travel" to a new destination even though they never actually leave their classroom. As with directions, this is a lot more concrete then listing off characteristics of a place they are not familiar with. Google Earth provides images of places, buildings, and the even the sky. This could allow for discussion of time zones, climate, or perhaps even moon phases.
There are many other features of Google Earth that I have little knowledge about, but one thing I did see was information about the community. This could be beneficial for students so that they could learn ways to keep their community clean for example. Many of these topics could fall directly into lessons that students already learn in different ways. However, by using Google Earth students can have more concrete examples which will help them learn easier. As students get older Google Earth could still be beneficial for them as well.
Alexa,
ReplyDeleteI like your thoughts about how students could use Google earth to "travel". One question that I had was how can students use Google earth to help keep their community clean? Would students locate spots with garbage and then go to those locations? In addition, I think that Google earth could also be of great use to social studies and geography teachers.