172 – Google Earth

This week is education week on the WELSTech Podcast, and Gail Potratz joins us to take a look at Google Earth.

Podcast: Download (39.4MB)

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 on the WELSTech Wiki – Add your Google Earth projects

Eight uses for Google Earth in ministry:
googleEarth 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

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

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”