Celebrities and star athletes endorse products; why not teachers? Granted, young boys may not be in a rush to imitate Mr. Oldman’s turkey neck or Mad Hatter hair, but he still spends a lot of time with the lads. Hence (we believe) Google’s new move to introduce educators to Google Earth.
On the Google LatLong Blog, Anna Bishop writes, “We know that the last thing teachers have is tons of free time to spend learning about new teaching tools. That’s why I’m thrilled to point out some new YouTube video tutorials that offer up basic tricks for using Google Earth and can serve as inspiration for lesson plans. . . . [I]t’s our hunch that educators will find them particularly useful.”
Now, whether the move is sneaky or not, it sounds like a good idea. Google Earth is the sort of thing that’ll cause kids to say “oh, cool,” and that’s an important step in the learning process. If teachers can get familiar with Google Earth in less than ten minutes, all the better.
So Bishop continues, “These short clips (there are 5 total) will walk you through some of the most popular features in Google Earth. . . . More videos are in the works, and, of course, the Google Earth User Guide is also a great training resource. We hope that you’ll soon be developing and sharing your own educational content just like these awesome literary field trips!”
And that’s Google for you – keeping one eye on improving the world and another on its market share. Hey, whatever works.
