Google Earth and Tour Builder

     This week we spent time with 2 different apps.  One that I have limited experience with, and one that I have no experience with.  Those 2 apps are Google Earth and Tour Builder respectively.  There is also a Google Earth plugin for your browser.

     According to Google^© “Google Earth allows you to travel the world through a virtual globe and view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, and much more. With Google Earth's rich, geographical content, you are able to experience a more realistic view of the world. You can fly to your favorite place, search for businesses and even navigate through directions.”  Personally, one of the coolest things I found out about was that you don’t even have to stay on Earth.  You can “walk” on the moon where NASA astronauts walked all those years ago.  You can even go where no man has ever gone before, Mars.  You can even enable the Flight Simulator and fly several different types of aircraft.  You are also able to dive down deep into the ocean.  You can turn back the clock and view historical areas using thebutton.  The possibilities are positively endless.  While working on some assignments I found 2 really good resources on using Google Earth in the classroom.  They are Bring Google Earth Into Your Science Class & How Teachers are using Google Earth in the classroom.  If you would like to learn more about using Google Earth please check the following Google Earth Tutorial:

     Tour Builder, to me, was more of an addon to Google Earth.  It is not a standalone program, it uses Google Earth to take you on a tour of your choosing.  According to Google^{© “}Google Tour Builder is a web-based storytelling tool which lets you easily create and explore stories and places around the world. Based on the Google Earth plugin, you can create a tour of any subject of your choosing, zooming in to show the places where events took place, and easily integrating the story’s text, photos and videos. Your tour will fly users from one place to the next along the storyline of your tour, immersing them in the relevant places through Google Earth’s imagery and the custom content you provide.”  I did really like the freedom of Tour Builder.  In my opinion it was very easy to use.  I really liked the ability to embed photos and videos directly from Google.  If you want, you can also upload photos or videos from your computer into your tour. I did find a few websites about using Tour Builder in the classroom: Tour Builder in Google Earth & Take a Trip with Google Tour Builder.  If you would like to know more about using check out this Tour Builder Tutorial: 

Here is a tour I created on Albert Einstein using Tour Builder.  What suggestions do you have for using Google Earth and Tour Builder in the classroom?