Measure the World! Google Earth II

Thoughts after reading Richardson & Berger

http://www.google.com/earth/index.html

After reading Richardson & Berger books, I quickly realized that Google Earth can be used for so much more than I had been using it for. Google Earth was no longer a tool for simply looking at pictures or seeing your house from a satellite or street view; it was a tool that my students could use for actual curricular topics.

I quickly learned that Google Earth has a measurement tool that can be used to measure the length of an object or building. This measurement tool can also be used to measure the area of any building anywhere on Earth. This gave me a great idea for a small, 1 week project were my students learned a great deal about measurement, units of measurement, conversion and perimeter.

The Earth at Your Finger Tips! Google Earth I

Google Earth more than a Viewing Tool

http://www.google.com/earth/index.html 

"Fly to any place in the world" claims the ad encouraging users to download Google Earth which was originally called Earth Viewer (Britt & LaFontaine, 2009). This premise of allowing users to see the world using satellite imagery of places they may have never been able to see with their own two eyes. This ability to expand our little lives from our tiny sphere of influence and take in the information about far reaching destinations around the globe is at the foundation of web 2.0 tools.

Google Earth relies on the premise of showing the world to individuals from the comfort of their own homes. However, the usability of Google Earth has been ever expanding. Now Google Earth 6 can allow users to explore the world in 3D, view maps of the areas they visit with their computers, provide historical images of locations, and even allows users to explore the sky, stars, and moon (Richardson, 2011).