If you want to know about all things Googly (as our certified Google instructor Bill puts it) you can follow the Google Educator group in Missouri on Google+. Bill let us in on this awesome way to keep your finger on the Google pulse. Bill got to visit Google HQ last summer, and he always knows the latest and greatest things that are happening in the world of Google. I love his workshops because I always learn about something super new and cool. In this workshop, it was Google Cardboard. This is a new virtual reality interface that uses cardboard goggles. You place a phone in the goggles and through integration with Google Earth, you can go on expeditions. This is the next up-and-coming thing in Google for Education. But before we all have access to the goggles... Here is how Google Earth is awesome and can potentially be used in your classroom:
First things first: probably the most important thing I learned in this workshop is that Google Earth (and therefore Google Tour Builder) works best in Mozilla Firefox. Umm wut? I know, it's super weird. It has to do with the fact that Google updates Chrome so frequently that it can't keep up with itself... or Earth can't keep up with Chrome... or something like that. Anyway, just know that even though virtually every other Google process (drive, in particular) works much better in Chrome, Google Earth does not. So go on and open your dusty old Firefox browser. And then make sure you have the Google Earth plugin. And then you will be golden.
~Side note here; I was attempting to download Google Earth to my computer (in order to open KMZ files, I'll get to that in a minute) and had an error with the installation. After a Google search of the error code, I found that windows has an install/uninstall fixer and it totally works, so try it.~
~Another side note; Because Chrome does not play nicely with Google Earth, Chromebooks are not the best choice. This would be a good time to use desktops or laptops if you have access to them. However, Google Earth and Tour Builder WILL work in Chrome. The visual experience is just much much better in Firefox with the Google Earth plugin.~
Now, a little about Google Earth. I had no idea all the cool stuff you could find on Google Earth. We all know about the little cars with the cameras that go around documenting our world for street view. But there are people with Google camera backpacks hiking, diving into oceans, and walking through museums (just to name a few) getting awesome images for us and they are all just sitting there waiting for us to find them! Did you know that Google Earth also has maps of the moon and Mars? One of the first things we did was go to the Google Tour Builder website, and take a look at some samples in the gallery. This is the one that really amazed me (remember you want to view in Firefox with the Google Earth plugin to get the best experience). There are pictures in this tour that capture underwater life off the coast of an island. We are so used to the idea of Google Earth having street view pictures of roads and buildings, but I had no idea that these images were here for us to see. So I thought--what if I went and looked at the Galapagos Islands? Would I see wildlife? No such luck, it hasn't been photographed yet. But Bill told us you can apply to be a photographer for Google Earth. If you are going on a trip, you can take a Google camera and document these amazing landscapes and seascapes for them. This set me on a hunt for other cool things to see. Really the only good example I found beyond the under water images from the tour I linked to above was one of a herd of elephants that was captured in Chad (coordinates 10.903497 N,19.93229 E). You can see it at VirtualGlobetrotting, among other things like the inside of the Lourve Museum (well, hey there Mona Lisa)!
Some tips for working with Google Earth; if you are dragging the little man to get street view, go for something highlighted in blue. These areas are documented so you can actually get a good picture at that level. Everything else will be zoomed in satellite images. Use the advanced search settings to look for KML and KMZ files. You can open these in Google Earth and find some pretty cool stuff that people have created. There is a way to link them into the Tour Builder, but I was having a bit of trouble with that! Bill recommended saving the file to your drive and then using the drive link in Tour Builder, but I haven't tried it yet.
In Google Tour Builder, there is a nice feature that you can look at historical images of a location. Some areas have more historical images than others. I zeroed in on Greenland, hoping to see an evolution of ice there. The images went back to the 1930s but I didn't have a lot of luck seeing a drastic difference at the level I was looking. As I zoomed in, the images available did not go back as far. When students turn in a Google Tour, they will be essentially sharing it with you through a link. Bill gave a great tip for students turning in a link--create a form with their name and a box to paste their link. Then, you will have all of the links together in a spreadsheet. So smart! I can definitely use this for other turn-ins when Google Classroom isn't really the best mode.
Here are a few ideas of ways to use Google Tour Builder that my colleague and I came up with:
- Timeline of atomic history
- Timeline of astronomers
- Map locations of nuclear power plants or other types of power plants
- Plot the path of migration of finches from the mainland through the Galapagos Islands
- Map the path of a historically significant group or event (for example, Freedom Riders)
- Show the locations of scenes in a book (for example, all of the stops in Around the World in 80 Days)--there is actually a whole website devoted to this kind of thing, see Google Lit Trips
- Have students map the path they take to get to school and have determine things like distance/displacement, speed/velocity, gas consumption, etc. Then map everyone in Tour with school as a Hub. (This one we came up with during a culturally responsive teaching workshop later in the week)
Here are some other links to check out for Google Earth/maps stuff:
Bill's link for our workshop
Google treks
Smarty pins
Geoguesser
Geosettr (create your own Geoguesser game)
Google maps education
Map lessons at Real World Math
Have fun getting Googly!
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