Okay, I know that Google Earth has been out for a while, and I got my geography fix even before that with NASA’s Worldwind, but I really figured that the tool was a novelty at best.
    Boy, how stupid I can be sometimes.
    I had the opportunity this afternoon to play with Google Earth with a few of my students today, and I am now convinced that it is a necessary utility on any school computer.  In fifteen minutes or so (okay –  maybe an hour — we did lose some time this afternoon), we scanned Mount St. Helens, took a peek at the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, looked in on one student’s home in Denmark, and checked out the beaches where the Allied troops landed during the invasion of Normandy in 1944.   Oh — we also took a peek at the bird’s eye view of our school.  A few minutes after my students left, a couple of staff members came in and we started all over again.
    Pretty much everyone said, "Wow."  A lot. 
    One student turned to me at the end of his study hall and asked if it was okay that we were doing what we were doing.  "I guess this is learning," he said.
    Yeah it is.  (This was the same bright young man who asked to take a look at Normandy, as he’s reading some Stephen Ambrose right now. 
    What a great tool.  Don’t you hate it when you miss the significance of something?  And aren’t you glad when you discover it, even if it’s late?  What did you miss the first time around? #