Google Earth

Today I downloaded the Google Earth application and I was astounded at this program. I think Google Earth is a very useful internet tool that can be used for Social Studies, Science and Geography. The program allows the user to navigate zoom in to view any area of the world. As a user explores a region there are links provided that show images of the area explored.
As I tinkered with the program I was able to explore the globe. My first stop was Guam. At first I used the cursor to find Guam, but then I saw an option on the sidebar that said “fly to,” so I typed in Guam. What happened was the program took me to my location and provided all the villages for me to explore. As I explored the village of Dededo, I was able to locate my school and my home. As I was doing this, I thought about how great this program would be if I incorporated it into my Social Studies lessons, since my students are currently learning about Geography. I think by exploiting this program to students they can graphically see how the island is mapped out as well as compare the landforms of Guam to other areas of the world.
For Science lessons, Google Earth would be a useful tool for teaching about the weather, animals and ocean and marine wildlife. In the program, users can view the different temperatures around the world. Users can also see cloud patterns as well monitor the development of storms. For lessons on oceans or marine wildlife there are many links provided by the World Wildlife Foundation that give tidbits of information about protecting the animals around the world the World Wildlife Foundation also allows provides links for users to find out more about an endangered species and how we can help them. You can see different areas of which endangered species live. However, the information is not only limited to being viewed as text, but also video as well. There are numerous educational videos provided by Http://www.youtube.com that can be found while exploring Google Earth.
I think this is a program that should be incorporated into the classroom more, however because our public schools lack decent internet speed, it may be difficult to use this program in the classroom. Once a user explores this program they may see that it has so much to offer. I recommend anyone to give this program a try as it is easy to use and full of information about different areas around the globe. It is free to download and can be found at this site http://earth.google.com/.