Google Earth and Wikipedia

I had fun 'Travelling' in Google Earth! I can see this to be a fantastic tool for students to research different parts of the world. When opening the program, a virtual globe comes into view, and by entering a place name, students are able to 'fly' to the part of the earth they want to research, be it a town, a state, a country, a river or a mountain range, and view it from close-up. Students can also view places of interest as photos by clicking on 'Street View'. Even old imagery can be viewed, and this feature would be great in history lessons. Any of these images can then be printed or shared with others via email. On this free version the sky, the moon and mars can also be explored.

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia. Anyone can edit it; however, there are strict guidelines in order to make sure the information remains accurate. Wikipedia is easily accessible and therefore ideal for quick research.

In order to prepare children to become successful in our Knowledge Economy, we, as budding teachers, are not so much the knowledge transmitters, but rather learning managers, the ones managing knowledge, designing strategies to teach students how and where knowledge is produced, accessed and how it is put into practice. Both Google Earth and Wikipedia are research tools that students can use to gain information themselves, and it is our job to guide students to this information.