172 – Google Earth

This week is education week on the WELSTech Podcast, and Gail Potratz joins us to take a look at Google Earth. Listen now or download Episode 172 (57:21)

The discussion:

Tour the world – Google Earth is a powerful desktop mapping tool that has many uses in the classroom.  Martin and Sallie welcome back our semi-regular classroom technology correspondent, Gail Potratz, from Emanuel in New London, WI, and we discuss the many uses of the software. Getting started resources:

• Feature Tour
• Tutorials for Educators
  • Sharing Stories with Google Earth
  • Google Earth on Google Tools for Schools
• Create a Narrated Tour
• Blogs
  • Google Earth Blog
  • Google Sightseeing
  • Google Earth for Educators
• Google Earth on the WELSTech Wiki – Add your Google Earth projects

Eight uses for Google Earth in ministry:
1. History and Literature tours

• Gail shared downloadable samples from Johnny Tremain (class instructions) and Castillo De San Marcos and Fort Matanzas
• 10 US History Google Earth Tours via Free Technology For Teachers

2. Historical maps

• Historical imagery
• Tour ancient Rome

3. Bible land tours

• Bible Geocoding – Google Earth files of every location mentioned in the Bible organized by chapter and book

4. Geography class

• Sample Google Earth tours

5. WELS locations

• Download the WELS Locations file in KML format for Google Earth

6. Map your members and prospects

• Use Batch Geo to easily create maps for outreach and of member locations
• View Gethsemane’s instruction page for mapping prospective church members

7. Ocean exploration

• Google Ocean Showcase

8. Astronomy

• Hubble Telescope – Downloadable tour
• Tour the Moon
• Space games

Ministry resources:

(33:44) Proclaim – Cloud based worship presentations

News in tech:

(34:46) Google Docs Viewer Now Supports 12 More File Formats

Picks of the week:

• (36:12) Mark your calendar for World Maths Day (March 1) and World Spelling Day (March 3)
• Sixty-Six Clouds – Word cloud images of each of the books of the Bible
• Windows Live Writer – Multi-platform blogging tool

Community feedback:

• (46:25) Lesley Bergeman from Good Shepherd’s in West Allis, WI shared the news that YouVersion is giving away free mobile downloads of NIV 2010.  Offer is good through March 1.
• John Shoosmith from Redeemer in Yakima, WA suggested we provide easy to include images and links to popular WELS content.  We’ve started a new Webmasters Widgets page on the WELSTech Wiki to share this info.
• Jason Schmidt from Gethsemane in Omaha, NE shared a link to the FACE Kids Site which focuses on copyright
• Maren McPeak from St. Mark’s in Citrus Heights, CA trained their teaching staff on Engrade online grade book and shared video tutorials of the getting started process
• Chris Hintz form Emmaus in Phoenix, AZ asked our recommendation of a Content Management System (CMS) tool for congregations and schools.  Martin and Sallie recommend FinalWeb and WordPress.

The featured artist:

(52:55) We close the podcast with the music of Mike Westendorf (www.mikewestendorf.com and mikewestendorf on Twitter) - You Are Amazing from his CD titled ”Undefined”

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