Google Earth & Google Tour Builder

Google Earth

As I was exploring Google Earth, I just kept thinking about time travel. Yes, time travel-it's how my mind works, people.  Stick with me here...if time travel ever comes to fruition-for people other than Superman of course- what would people BI (before internet) think about this?  Witchcraft!  That's what they would think.

I know Mr. Chan!  You're not the only one with amazing talent on this earth.  There are people that made it possible to see things 1,000s of miles away right at your fingertips.

Imagine walking inside from tending to the farm animals all day and the girl who writes "The Way I No'te" blog is sitting at your non-Ikea, hand-crafted kitchen table with a magical contraption that looks like a book from the future.  Your conversation goes a little something like this...

She says, "Hello.  I've come from the future."

You say, "No way, man!"  The two of you are clearly distant relatives, judging by your vernacular.

She says, "Yeah, man.  I've come back in time to perform an experiment."  

You say, "Totally!"

She opens up a hard, plastic, black book called a 'laptop,' and says something you never thought you'd hear.  "Would you like to see Stonehenge?" 

It was like magic to your ears.  Stonehenge?  Sure, you've never heard of it- but this extremely cool and wildly intelligent young lady from the future brought it up.  It has to be worth it!  You jump on her offer as if she knew you were thinking that very second, I wish I could see Stonehenge before I die.  "YES!"  you exclaim, "I thought you'd never ask- clearly because I didn't even know you existed until only a moment ago."

The wildly intellectual blogger from the future moves her fingers as fast as lightning across the 'future book.'  Something she called, Google Earth magically appeared and you were transported to another place.  

***Soliloquy: Don't ask me how there was internet or satellites back in this time for this all to work- don't think, just go along for the ride.***  

"Sorcery!"  you exclaimed.

"No man, this is all common in the future; but yeah, it's kinda sorcery.  I don't ask, I just go with it." 

"Oh.  Sorry I lashed out on you like that, man.  Best friends for the next two minutes before you head back to the future?"

...but she was gone.  The blogger lady had performed her experiment and she was on her way.

That's how I expect someone would react to this from the not-so-distant past.  Check this out.  You might even react the same.

 How can you possibly use this in the music room?  Good question.  I struggled with this a little myself.  However, there are some uses that you could use this for.  If you think of some ideas, please share; because this is such an amazing tool!  How I would use this in my MUSIC classroom:

• Show famous performing arts buildings around the world.  I often talk about musicians that dream of performing at Carnegie Hall or on Broadway.  Sometimes students do not grasp what Broadway is.  You could show many different theaters of Broadway.  You could walk them up the steps of the Sydney Opera House in Australia.
• We often talk about composers.  You could show pictures of places of significance to these composers.  Such as homes growing up, places they worked, etc.

Here are some other videos that might be useful to you:

Streetview

I've been using the pegman a lot lately.  Pretty cool!

Placemarks and Tours

Searching for Places

Google Tour Builder

This tool I see more useful in the MUSIC classroom.  Google Tour Builder uses Google Earth, but you can create slides based on your tour stops.   Watch this video to see how it works:

The features of panning and tilting are a nice feature.  You do not have to view everything at a birds-eye view.  I immediately thought of composers when I was looking in to this tool Google has provided us with.  Students read and hear about the biographies of old composers, but putting a landscape and images with their struggles and triumphs can help to ingrain the memory.  I placed a tour together of some of J.S. Bach's significant life moments.  It helps paint a picture of his life.  Take a look!   BACH TOUR HERE!

As I was working on this tour, I thought it would be nice to be able to record this somehow for my younger students.  Well, turns out there is something for that too.  If you are interested in recording, check out this tutorial HERE.