Google+Earth

=Google Earth in the classroom =

I (Melissa Wert) stumbled across an interesting article called "Power of the Mashup" in the August 2007 issue of //Learning & Leading with Technology//. The article discussed "Google Lit Trips," a project created by high school English teacher Jerome Burg, in which he plotted the travels of characters in __Candide__ using [|Google Earth]. I checked out the [|website] referenced in the article and discovered numerous "lit trips" posted by teachers willing to share their work with others.

At least two powerful features of Google Earth leapt out at me: the map provides a 3D geographical representation of the location of a story, which helps the reader grasp terrain, distance, population, etc.; in addition to providing actual imagery of the earth, Google Earth may also be used to attach information to points of interest. For example, for any given placemarker, one may add a pop-up box containing text, images, hyperlinks, video, etc. The teacher may provide all of the information and/or students may add itheir own nformation. The time it takes to learn how to do this is approximately 30 minutes. Thus, a teacher could provide a fully-complete "lit trip" map for students OR a skeleton map with a few placeholders, along with a list of sites to be plotted by students, along with discussion questions to be answered by students within their own map. Each student may turn in her own map as a complete project.

After reading the article, I thought of three immediate uses of Google Earth maps at Harpeth Hall: create a map of the Iditarod race for the 5th graders to follow during that cross-curricular unit; create a map of the Lewis & Clark trail for Merrie Clark's 7th graders; and map the travels of characters in __The Kite Runner__, being read by HH sophomores. 
 * Note: to view these examples for yourself, download and install [|Google Earth]; then click on the map links on this page, save them to your laptop; open Google Earth and open the desired map; go to Tools > Play Tour.**

I did some searching on the web and found a Google Earth Iditarod map, which I edited to include Harpeth Hall as the starting point (see below - the map is [|2008 Iditarod for HH.kmz]). 

I also found a Google Earth map of the Lewis & Clark trail (below), complete with links to an informative [|website] about that journey (the map is [|29917-lewis_and_clark_expedition.kmz]).



Scottie Girgus and I created a Google Earth project for __The Kite Runner__. Students are provided a [|Kite Runner Starting Points map] which is divided into six folders: Your World, where students locate and mark their own homes and school; Region Overview, which provides a geographic context for the beginning of the story; and Parts 1 – 4, which map significant landmarks from the four main sections of the book (Kabul, California, Pakistan, and Afghanistan). The place markers in these folders serve as starting points for each student’s **individual** journey through the text. Students are also given a Kite Runner Google Earth Itinerary which directs them to “Travel To” the specific locations already pinpointed on the map. At these sites, they find instructions on the place markers telling students to quote from the text, to add images, to view videos, or to reflect on the situations connected to the location. Other steps on the Itinerary require students to “Locate” certain places by using the search feature of Google Earth (for actual sites, such as the San Jose flea market) or their own imagination (for Amir’s house in Kabul, for example). At each location, they must add their own place marker containing quotations from the text, relevant images or videos, or reflections on the importance of that site.

The image below is of the route taken when the characters fled from Afghanistan to Peshawar, Pakistan through the Khyber Pass.

I found the exercise of searching for cities, specific neighborhoods, and even individual buildings mentioned in the book to be quite illuminating. The story became more real for me as I saw the actual terrain of Afghanistan and Pakistan and as I viewed houses and mosques in Kabul. The sense of distance traveled by the characters was made very clear as I flew from Peshawar to California.

The great thing about Google Lit Trips is that they are fairly simple to create - all one needs is Google Earth installed on their laptop and a list of locations to plot. I am more than happy to meet with anyone interested in creating a map of their own.