elearnr

Google Earth is a fantastic, FREE, tool for teaching and learning. There are many, many different ways of using it. It’s almost as if the whole world is a canvas!

As befits Google Earth, the following are some ideas from educators around the world as to how to use the program effectively.

Tom Barrett has created a Google Presentation to which other educators have contributed. Check it out here:

Further Links:

• gMapExplorer (nifty alternative to Google Earth, but needs browser plugin installed first!)
• Google Earth Goods wiki
• Google Earth lessons
• Google UK Schools
• Digital Geography – Google Earth posts
• Google Earth blog
• Ogle Earth
• Google Earth mobile (e.g. iPhone)
• Jim F’s Google Earth Netvibes page
• Google – Geo Education: classroom ideas

Know any other useful links not in the guide or above? Please share them!

Blogs are great. But sometimes you just want students to use something that is intuitive, easy-to-use and looks great. Enter glogs!

Fortunately, Glogster, the place to go if you want to create a glog, has an education version. This means that you can set up glogs on your students’ behalf if you wish – although they can set up their own. Using Glogster is very straightforward and produces fantastic results you can either leave online or print out.

Here’s how to get started:

You can check out a couple of my GCSE History students’ glogs here and here.

Using an email system instead of a paper-based one has many advantages, not least the money-saving aspect and speed of communication. Our school needs to have every member of staff using the new Microsoft Exchange-based system instead of the previous Azzuri one ASAP.

Check out the guide below to get started:

You can use an application called OWAnotify to check your emails on a regular basis:

Click on the icon above to go to the site to download the application. I suggest saving it to the following location:

You should configure the settings as follows:

If you have any problems with this, please ask either Jason Spooner or myself (Doug Belshaw) for help!

Remember that the address for accessing your emails outside of school is http://exchange.ridgewoodschool.co.uk

This week’s elearning staff session is on del.icio.us, the ’social bookmarking’ site. As I mention in the guide below, I find it useful for 3 reasons:

1. Storing links to useful websites and web applications to access wherever I am.
2. Discovering new resources that other educators have recommended.
3. Creating a repository of useful links for a particular purpose (e.g. a department or for pupils on a certain course)

There are many more features of del.icio.us than I’ve had chance to explore in this session. For information about some of these, check out this slideshow from Jon Hoff:

Students inhabit a visually-rich, media-driven world. Sometimes, as educators with limited time on our hands, it’s difficult to compete. Animoto is an easy-to-use and extremely powerful way of creating short videos to grab students’ interest. Better still, it’s free for educational use!

Follow the guide below to get started…

Here’s a video I produced using Animoto in an attempt to encourage more Year 9’s to opt for GCSE History: