I recently spent two days attending a Google Workshop for Educators in Minot. There are many amazing and useful free tools in Google that educators can use to enhance their teaching. Here are a few that I will share with my high school staff. However, these tools can be used for any age group.
If you look at only one link in my post, make it this one. This is a YouTube video of the history of war from WWII to the present told through the foods of the country. Interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-yldqNkGfo
1. Google Earth
Google Earth is a free download available from Google. Within Google Earth are many useful tools to go along with different curricular areas. Below is a site with a slide show of possible uses.
http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/GeogP/gearthplan/
Another site that I know the language arts department will use is Google Lit Trips.
http://www.googlelittrips.com/GoogleLit/Home.html
One trip correlates with The Odyssey, which grade nine teaches. The trip will take you to the Google Earth view of the various settings of The Odyssey and show actual photographs of places. It traces the entire voyage. That is just one example. Other lit trips that correlate with my school curriculum include Night and The Grapes of Wrath. There are also many uses for history, for example, taking students to actual battlefields. The uses are endless, and you can find many more by Googling Google Earth lessons. However, I warn you that once you get in, you will be jumping all over the world looking at places. It is fun.
2. Picasa
Picasa is a free web-based application that you can use to organize, edit, and share photos. It also allows you to create slideshows with captions. The program offers simple editing tools, such as getting rid of red eye, changing color settings, changing tones, for example to sepia tones, writing captions, and zooming in. Teachers through elementary students would be able to use this. Uses would include using photos and slide shows for projects and reports and sharing these. Students can create collages from original photos or free access photos from the web. These can be used in any class including social studies, language arts, and art. What makes Picasa better than Google Presentation is the ability to edit and enhance the photos. The first site below has ideas for uses of Picasa. A good link on this site is Picasa (and Photo Story) in Education. Because this is free and web-based it is an alternative to I-movie.
http://picasained.wikispaces.com/
3. YouTube
YouTube is a great 21st century tool, both as a resource for teachers and as a tool for students. Below is a nice article with an overview of YouTube in the classroom.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/columnists/dyck/dyck016.shtml
Many videos are educational lessons. Below is a link to educational videos on YouTube. I have looked at many videos to help me prepare lessons I teach to sophomores on evaluating websites in Google searches. My husband frequently uses lessons in speech class. It is another tool for presenting lessons.
http://www.smartteaching.org/blog/2008/08/100-best-youtube-videos-for-teachers/
Another good article for how to use YouTube is below. The article lists safe ways to use YouTube videos in class.
http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/2009/09/26/you-tube-in-the-classroom-ways-you-can-say-yes/
Check out all the videos in TeacherTube. As you find wonderful videos, you can create an account in YouTube to save your favorites. If you want to show a portion of a video, here is a link that shows you how to do that.
http://www.tubechop.com/
If you want students to access YouTube, there is a safety feature you can activate. Here is a link to a YouTube video on the safety feature.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWO5f7IsKY8
High school students love to post their own videos in YouTube. That is a way to create web-based videos without worrying about compatibility issues. Also, if you want student videos posted but made private, on May 12 an unlisted video feature was started in YouTube. This would be great for school assignments. Here is a link on how to create unlisted videos.
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=181547
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