Week 8/Thing #19

As I have been exploring Google Earth I was basically thinking this was a science or geography resource until I clicked on googlelittrips.org - awesome! There is a page for Young Readers and I went through some of the examples - all I can say is wow! This is amazing. I looked at Make Way For Ducklings and it had photos and questions to answer. Then there is one created by 1st grade students - The Yellow Balloon. It has facts in the placemark balloons. Paddle To The Sea is different to the others because it has a ton of information in the placemark balloon- plot summary, discussion question, links to website, and more.

I can also see this tool as a resource for history as well and a way of intergrating topics/content.

This is definitely something I would like to explore further and possibly create one using one of the books I will be using with my students about habitats.

Google Earth Placemarks

I did it!!!!!!!!! I didn't understand the KML spreadsheet description and was very confused. As it turns out, I downloaded Google Earth 5.0 onto my computer and you mark places using a different method. This is the video I watched instead. It was much simpler.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB1EseH7jzs

I followed the instructions and marked two places with descriptions in the balloons. My daughter is getting married in May in Connecticut and I thought it would be fun to practice marking the places for the reception and cermony. It was very easy with the exception of editing the dialog box. I am sure there is an easy way but I had to delete and do it over.

There were instructions on the video on how to email the placemarks and I tried to do that but it was difficult because I do not have a gmail account so it was complicated to set up sending the email another way so I abandoned the task.

I could definitely see this as a valuable tool for a project in upper grades.

Week 8/Thing #18

I have finally been able to find time to practice placemarks on Google Earth. I think I will have to watch the video several times before I can actually practice doing one. I think this will take a while.

Google Earth/Ocean

OK.....................so I haven't got to the video about the balloons on Google maps but I did discover Google Earth/Oceans. Again, an incredible resource. I checked out most of the tools and I was really impressed with the BBC short films which are also on Youtube. What I liked about the videos was how they showed you where in the ocean the video was taken so you could get a sense of where in the world it was. I think I could use this even with Kindergarten students and they could associate the visual with the geographical location which is a powerful learning tool for students. I could have the images projected onto a smart board with a projector from my computer while the class/small group watched. I am not sure how I would plan to have them explore the site individually. We have a unit about "habitats" and I could use this to show "real" pictures of different habitats in the world and the animals that inhabit them. I am excited.

More Google Earth

Well, I have not learned how to do the balloons yet because I discovered that you can not only visit places on earth you can visit the moon!!!!!!!!!!!! They have a marvelous video on the Apollo 11 mission. There are also photos of the moon. I can see this being a fabulous resource for students to use in the classroom/computer lab. I also explored the content on the site to "visit" Mars as well as the stars. It would be a great resource for an astronomy class. Amazing!

Google Earth

I am absolutely blown away by the Google Earth web site. I am only on the tour tools and it is amazing. I went to my mom's house in Scotland and saw all of the houses we lived in - Florida, Virginia, and Ohio, as well as my mother-in-law's house in Connecticut. It was incredible to see the houses at street level. It did take some time to get used to the tools and how to use them but it would not take as long as you get used to them. I am going to try doing the balloons on the maps.

Week 8/Thing #18

I have finally found time during the winter break to finish up my online time for web 2.0. It is not that I didn't want to put in more time blogging, it is finding time to blog. I am finding that to be the case for a lot of the content for web 2.0. I know that it is valuable but where in my hectic schedule do I find the time?
I have been updating my wiki and asking parents to visit it but I have not had much response. I will send out email invitations as well as enter the addresses of the parents on the wiki so that if they do want to visit the wiki it will be easier for them. Again, that takes time!!!!!