Monday, March 8, 2010

Week 5: What a View!

Have you checked out Google Street View yet? You should because Google Street View has probably already checked out you! You’d be surprised where you and your class can go. Reading a book set in Iowa? Might as well “drive” down Temple Ave. in Shell Rock so that students can get a glimpse of the vast terrain. Or maybe “drive” by the Guggenheim on 5th Ave. in New York City. It’s easy—just visit Google Maps, plug in an address or just zoom in on an area you wish to “visit.” Look for the little yellow guy and drag him over to one of the street views that are available in that area (available streets will be highlighted in blue).

This week, tell us how you might use Google Street View in your classroom. Be creative! It’s not just a mapping tool. When I looked at my house using Street View, I was able to use clues (evidence) in the view to determine the day and time (well, I narrowed it down to a 4-hour period) they must have driven down my street.

OR

If there isn't a way you could use Street View, visit the Google for Educators page or the Google blog (side note: it's really amazing what Google offers beyond search) to to learn about some of the other great resources Google offers that might be useful to you and your students. Let us know what you find and how you might use it.
Posted by Kimberly Allison at 4:40 PM
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Marie Page's avatar

Marie Page · 788 weeks ago

I love google maps, I use it to get directions all the time. After reading this weeks assignment and currently doing a Landscaping Unit in my Plant Science class I thought it would be sort of neat to check out other peoples yards and have the students critique the landscapings. Some areas don't view the complete yard, or might not get that close to see what the plant is, but my students can be able to view what is wrong with the landscape...etc point out service area, vs - outdoor living area and so on. Also in my Animal Science class we can visit farms and critique their farm management plan and point out problems with their land, mud management, etc... ~ Marie
3 replies · active 788 weeks ago
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Gavin's avatar

Gavin · 788 weeks ago

I already commented on something similar with Google Lit Trips before, so I'll go for option 2:

One of the big advantages I can see with Digital Backpack is using Google Docs for assignments. I'd love for one day, for the process between notes, rough draft and final draft in English to completely online, so that I can add formative comments and corrections along the way and students can collaborate more easily. Combined with Google Sites, it's a simple way to collate notes from in-class discussions, share knowledge and have a "one-stop revision shop" for students. The story about the school district who used Google Apps to develop an online learning portal was fascinating, considering how much money has been poured into similar initiatives with less-than-stellar results. It'll be interesting to see how these apps have developed in 5 years, when we're really ready for Digital Backpack.
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Abby Smith's avatar

Abby Smith · 788 weeks ago

I can see myself using Google maps with my Language Arts classes! Specifically, we could check out towns that we read about in novels. For instance, we are reading a novel that takes place in CT, but having never been there, my students really have no idea what the towns are like and this program would enable them to "tour" the towns mentioned in the novel. The characters in the novel travel to NJ as well. This technological tool would be great way for students to "visit" the towns in CT and NJ and do a write up about the history, relevance to the plot, and why, based on the towns features, etc, the author chose this particular area as the setting of the book, etc.

As technology evolves it will be interesting to see if maybe we can check out particular maps of areas from different years so students could compare, for instance, what Maple Valley looked like in 2010 as compared to 2015, etc.
6 replies · active 786 weeks ago
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Nathalie's avatar

Nathalie · 788 weeks ago

I am happy about this week's focus because I have used Google Maps for 2 years for a specific assignment. It os of course not perfect but I will now use an extra step using Google Street View to enhance the whole assignment. Here's the assignment in a nutshell: students get to investigate a city in France, we compare and contrast with Americna cities etc Then they do a pretty challenging communicative activity whereby they take a virtual tour through a peer's city, following their directions and reporting on the whole experience, My extra step will be to have students use laptops in class (Digital Backpacks) or their own electronic device of course to use street view and actually take the tour their partner will have designed for them. Oh how I look forward to next January!
3 replies · active 786 weeks ago
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Hilary Hall's avatar

Hilary Hall · 788 weeks ago

We've talked as a world language department @ THS about using Google maps and earth in the classroom. Nathalie does a cool activity (see above) that I really love. I'm thinking about including a similar activity in my cultural unit on Quebec or upcoming cultural unit on Francophone Africa. It would be great to be able to walk around an African city and get a feel for the culture that you can't get by reading about a location.
1 reply · active 787 weeks ago
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Melissa C.'s avatar

Melissa C. · 788 weeks ago

I have an assignment I do with The Great Gatsby where I have kids draw out a map of New York with all the locations visited in the book. It helps them understand where West Egg and East Egg are located in relation to the Valley of the Ashes and Tom and Myrtle's apartment in Manhattan, etc. In the book, some actual street addresses are given - such as the address for Tom and Myrtle's apartment. Students have actually used Google Maps to pinpoint the exact location so that they can transfer it to their maps. The assignment is a good way to orient them with the locations in the book, as well as break up the monotony of simply discussing the book.
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mel brooks's avatar

mel brooks · 788 weeks ago

For my art class, there are far too few examples of "real" single point and two point perspective pictures available in books and on line. This (google application) allows for very real examples that are available for projection in class.

Excellent, varied, and multiple examples to work from both in class and as reference.
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Dan Nelson's avatar

Dan Nelson · 788 weeks ago

I confess my idea came from a discussion with Rhonda Ham about my family's trip to Hawaii this summer (I've never been!). We thought it would be cool to have students use Google Maps to find a location and then write an essay about that site. For example, if the essay was to be a process essay, students would need to have a starting point (like home) and then follow the route from home to school (or wherever). The maps would provide plenty of images for students to use and their writing would need to incorporate what they saw (like hills, curves, wooded areas, housing developments, etc). They could use each paragraph for a different section of the trip. Lots of other uses (like assigning a research essay on a place they want to visit and then writing descriptive essays) - as unlimited as the maps themselves. Thanks Rhonda!
3 replies · active 786 weeks ago
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Laura Bennett's avatar

Laura Bennett · 788 weeks ago

I'm taking this is a slightly different direction. I like using Google Maps beccaus you can see refugee camps in Sudan. However, the streetview obviously isn't avaliable using Google Maps, but, you can zoom in on Google Earth and get a really good look at what everyday life is like in the refugee camps on the border between Sudan and Chad in the Darfur region. You can use the same sort of mapping tool in Google Earth to identify the routes that people took from their villages to the refugee camps.
1 reply · active 787 weeks ago
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Lora Gillingham's avatar

Lora Gillingham · 788 weeks ago

I checked out Google Books. They just settled a class action lawsuit with publishers and authors to try to bring more books online. Currently, they offer full-text versions of over 7 million books! I found neat copies of The Story of King Arthur and his Knights by Howard Pyle, copyright 1903 and many others. Books are available in full text if they are out of copyright. Eventually, Google Books will have electronic vesions of copyrighted books for purchase. To buy them, you will have to create an account and once you make your purchases, the books are available forever on your electronic bookshelf (which will have both public and private options). This will be a great way to find out-of-print books. Obviously, there are a myriad of applications for this in our library (staff and students sharing bookshelves, for one), but I found it exciting on a personal level, too!
4 replies · active 787 weeks ago
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lgranger's avatar

lgranger · 788 weeks ago

I have never used google street view, didn't even know it was there. That's why I'm glad I'm taking this class - to learn about all these cool little things that out there. I think there will great way to use this with my stats class. I try to incorporate this with our unit on surveys or probabilities next year.
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Tom Milligan's avatar

Tom Milligan · 788 weeks ago

What an interesting tool. I'd love fo my students to be able to plot a fun run in their area of the community! 1-2-or a 3-mile loop in their neck of the woods to provid themselves and others an area to get out and jog. Develop the safety aspects and terrain of the area for those interested to run their course.
1 reply · active 787 weeks ago
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Brett Thompson's avatar

Brett Thompson · 787 weeks ago

One of my students showed me the street view feature while they were using Google Maps to design a walking tour of Fremont for a "cultural landscape analysis" field trip we went on earlier this year. It's hard to keep up with these kids.

I like using Google Docs as well, but you have to encourage the students to be patient and persistent as sometimes (like any technology) it can get glitchy. Right now we are using Google Docs for groups to co-write a scripted debate regarding a WWII topic. Each group will present their debatable question in polleverywhere.com for their peers to vote on as they listen to the debate in a fishbowl format. We'll see how it goes...
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Bill Cooper's avatar

Bill Cooper · 787 weeks ago

Bill Cooper
Went to the kids with this one and they, first showed me all the things you can do with it. Of course!
We have been looking for an idea for a rally and, it was suggested, that it would be fun to use it to "snap shot " landmarks and have participants move from place picking up clue pictures as they went.
Marie suggested that she uses it to direct people on field trips.
It would also be a great tool if you wanted to do a project on urban planning using their own community. One of the things my boys saw right away came in response to a their personal experiences in dealing with traffic during peak times. They could visualize extending a road now existing between Wax and Witt to provide a bypass for local traffic.
All in all this is one of the more useful sites for use in my classes.
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Cheri Merrill's avatar

Cheri Merrill · 787 weeks ago

Our 7th graders are going on a field trip to the Cedar River Watershed and I thought I might use Google maps as a way to introduce my students to the various places we will be visiting (Rattlesnake Lake, Chester Morse Dam, etc.). I was also intrigued by the photos that were taken and noticed there weren't any photos of the Interepetive Center or of the dam. I was wondering if some of my students could photograph these and then add them to Google Maps. That would be cool.

Just for fun, I also looked up my own residence using Google Street View and found a photograph taken by my son of our house in the snow! What a surprise!!!

Thanks for introducing this to us.
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Rich Young's avatar

Rich Young · 787 weeks ago

I'm hoping to use it one way in sophomore English and another way if I ever teach American Expressions again. In English 10, it could be useful to have students explore the barrio in Chicago as they read House on Mango Street. (Pretend the title is underlined.) Perhaps it will help supplement the description that Cisneros gives, especially if the student has not been outside of Maple Valley very much. Even if the student has been to Seattle, many of them will not have a very good idea of what the location is actually like. In American Expressions, however, I can see a use for it as students prepare for the junior art field trip. They could plan their routes ahead of time, making note of some good landmarks to guide them. In addition, it might give them a preview of the art they want to see. While I certainly don't think it will take the place of seeing it in person, it might provide those who don't go on the field trip a little better idea of the environment of the piece than a still shot will do. Someday they might even be able to take the virtual field trip and go all the way around a sculpture.
3 replies · active 779 weeks ago
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Patty S.'s avatar

Patty S. · 787 weeks ago

In our 6th grade social studies curriculum we look at human interaction with our environment. We use aerial photos from the UW library. The ones we have go through 2000 I believe. It is fun to see the continued affect that humans have had on the environment, so we have brought up Google Maps so they can see what the area looks like currently.

We also have a lesson where kids report on a place (ei. New York City) to teach how places are unique and special. I think adding Google Maps as a resource for this project would be a great idea.

Also, it would be a great place to go so show students famous buildings when studying ancient civilizations.
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Tracy de Leon's avatar

Tracy de Leon · 787 weeks ago

I have loved reading the posts so far. I see so much value for language arts & history classes. I think it is a great idea to go "look" at the places you are reading about in novels. Maybe I am not looking in the right places but I have yet to find a meaningful application or activity that applies to geometry. Am I missing something? I looked under many Google tabs...gone google..google posters...classroom activities and tools for classrooms. I didn't find anything.
These google sites are great personal tools for me but nothing that seems to be useful in a geometry class.
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thehurt 17p · 787 weeks ago

There are a couple of Google Tools that I've found useful.
From a student perspective, I think Google Scholar is a great asset for more advanced research projects. Since it searches only "scholarly" articles, it provides more legitimate resources for students doing research projects. I know I used it a ton near the end of my schooling.
I also want to echo what Brett said earlier - Google Docs is really an amazing tool. I've had a couple 9th grade classes using it a lot this year, and it negates a lot of compatibility issues ("I don't have Word, Mr. Hurt!"). Since it's free and reads Word documents, students are able to access any handout I want to give them. In addition, I think the best feature is that it's accessible from anywhere - if Student A is working on a paper at school, she can save it on Google Docs, go home, and pick right back up where she left off. Then, she can share it with Student B (or Parent A or Teacher A) for editing.
Of course, the only downside to using Docs is that students need an account, but there are some workarounds for that...
1 reply · active 787 weeks ago
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Laurie's avatar

Laurie · 787 weeks ago

Like Kevin, I'm a huge fan of Google tools - I love Google docs and have used in in 7th SS, and a number of others for my own stuff. Even though I've used Google maps and Google Earth, I didn't know about the street view. I don't think that has as much applicability in class as Google maps, but this activity encouraged me to think about maps again. Besides what Laura and Cheri posted for our upcoming units on global issues and the environment, we could use that feature to emphasize the case study of how Los Angeles has such a huge population and no significant sources of fresh water. It would be cool to have students look at satellite views of (green) population centers complete with swimming pools, then the likely water source(s) available to them, to evaluate the sustainability of that lifestyle.
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Joelle's avatar

Joelle · 787 weeks ago

One way I could use the Google maps is, once I know what watershed we are going to on a field trip, I hope to show the students where we will be going for a day. Just so they can see and view what the day will look like for them. This is a CSC done field trip. So even I am excited to see Google maps once I know the destination. It may also serve in an assignment for students who aren't able to make the trip. Many great applications now time is needed so they can be put into the lessons!
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Vasili · 787 weeks ago

I'm thinking of something clever to add to the discussion, and am thinking of how I could use these applications productively in my 6th grade language arts curriculum, beyond giving the kids a visual tour of certain areas and locales where our stories may be set, in addition to Google Maps... But beyond a teacher-directed activity, I'm unclear on how to make this particular tool relevant in the 6th grade LA classroom...

It's interesting, as we look at these cool applications, to confront the question of how can these tools be effectively integrated, and when is it appropriate? For instance (and not to beat a dead horse), at my building, there is the issue of access to computers, since Social Studies has first dibs on all resources. Then, with 11&12-year-olds, I have the concern about allowing them to do their essays on a Google Doc's platform, v. doing it in-class, because I want it to genuinely be their writing, and not that of their parent(s).
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Penny Blair's avatar

Penny Blair · 787 weeks ago

Google Maps is new to me and I will need to spend a lot more time before I will be proficient, but I will let students use it and gain proficiency from them and by teaching. I can see this used in my career unit as I ask students to find an actual company or agency who would hire them in the job they are looking at. They could see locations, find potential places to live and the prices (other web sites). The real estate feature makes apartments real also. They could evaluate the type of transportation they would need, where to buy groceries, eat out, go to movies and so on. I would also like to use this in making decisions about day care in another class.
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Jennifer Roesch's avatar

Jennifer Roesch · 787 weeks ago

I would use google maps to help plan community trips. If we were going on a Metro trip downtown and we needed to get off at a certain intersection this would help the students be prepared before we even got onto the bus. They could look at what landmarks are around the bus stop that we need to get off at and hopefully this would give them some extra confidence when learning how to ride the bus.
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Rhonda Ham's avatar

Rhonda Ham · 787 weeks ago

As I was checking out the Google Street View I thought of a lesson I observed in a history class that had students divided into groups connected to state representatives. Some groups had a lot of students and some groups had only a few students. The goal was for students to understand why different areas had more power in the House than other areas. As an added visual for this lesson, students could google different towns with a focus on viewing the downtown areas as well as the outskirts of town. This could help students understand why areas have such different viewpoints regarding land issues or traffic.
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