Using Google Earth to teach / reinforce understanding about Geographry

In keeping with the premise of The Learning Home (...combining the old and the new...to give your family a more robust and well equipped foundation...), here is how we are integrating Google Earth into learning opportunities and our HomeTone.

• On the computer desktop (or side bar or favorites...any place easily accessible) of the computer in the Playroom, have a link to Google Earth (which will need to be installed onto your computer beforehand) and whenever a discussion or question arises about geography (e.g. "Where is Italy", "Where do we live?", "What is the Grand Canyon?", "Is Alaska really that big?" etc), click on that link and enter in the location. As your conversation with your children continues, their view will be filled with an engaging view and zoom-in of the location you entered. This provides an interesting backdrop from which to answer the question and a great launching point to hand the mouse over them and say "explore around and see what you can find". Simply showing them how to zoom and pan reveal so much and can help to solidify the "where is here" questions which inevitably come up.
  
  
• We've also added the Sightseeing "Tour" which Google Earth provides, to our HomeTone. To do this, install Google Earth and then run it. Once it is running from the "Tools" menu, choose "Options" then the "Touring" tab and set the Tour Pause to be a little longer than the default (e.g. 4 sec)...
  

• Then check the "My Places" Checkbox to tell it what to take a tour of...

• Then from the "Tools" menu, choose "Play Tour"...

There are lots of interesting aspects to this which can be incorporated into teaching but not just because it is very cool to watch, but it is very cool and easy for a child to mouse around and see their whole world (and beyond by selecting "Switch to Sky" on the "View" menu).

Also, we've added our home address and the addresses of relatives to the "My Places" list so that the tour also takes them there. We also add the location of the vacations and the places others in the family have gone to (or maybe are going to next week for work) so that they can see those as well.

NOTE: Like any "thing" which you can continually add to, it's important to prune the list every once in a while.

If you are an educator, take a look at how this might be incorporated into an existing curriculum.

This is also reprinted here at TheFatherLife.com (thanks Father Life).