GOOGLE Earth

Without geography . . . you're nowhere . . .man . . .! So goes the main point of a recent technology mini-workshop I took that focused on Google Earth. I learned that that I am able to visit many places in the U.S (as well as around the world) by simply using an address and zip code. It was interesting to visit a location (I visited my high school) and use the latitude/longitude pointer to get around. . . all the while seeing the pointer coordinates change. People can learn about the elevation (the feet above or below sea level)as well as get a cool "bird's eye view" (how high you are above the ground). View the places all around the earth. I went to Vietnam and enjoyed zooming in on places I know in Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon for example. However, I mostly enjoyed viewing and navigating the streets of good ole' Saint Paul. If a person clicks on "Street View" roads with available street views appear with a blue border. Those are the streets you can follow as if you are right in the front seat of a car. This is all very fun and I certainly want to spend some time this summer determining how I might be able to use this tool in my U.S. history classes this next fall. One bummer is that NOT every street in our Saintly city has been digitly photographed yet however, it seems that this GoogleEarth technology will only improve over time.

Anyway: do check out GoogleMaps (aka GoogleEarth) at this address: http://maps.google.com/support/