World Geo Websites

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Permalink Reply by Sherri Johnston on March 8, 2010 at 10:12am

I'm not sure what content is taught in your World Geography course, but have you tried Google Earth and Google Maps Street View? The Street view is amazing. I had a colleague recently show me a street view image of a cathedral in Europe. We were able to walk around the building, look up and down the street, and the photo had captured a snapshot of daily life, so cars, people, etc. were all in the scene. I felt like I was really there.

http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/help/maps/streetview/


Also, if you want access to beautiful photos, I've begun to use compfight.com. It works in conjunction with Flickr, but I like it because it allows you to access to Creative Commons photos that you have a right to use, there is a safe search feature so you won't get any questionable content like I often do on Google Images, and you can choose original works. I did a search for Peru and the amazing array of photos that came up springs to mind all sorts of possibilities for visual literacy activities, reflections, what can you infer, etc. The photos could launch an inquiry activity - what do we know, what questions do we have, how can we go find out?

Not sure if this site would fit with your curriculum, but I think it is really cool. A museum in Washington, DC has created a feature page that assembles 757 front pages of newspapers every day from 74 countries. You can sort papers by region, put them on a map, and even see the top ten list of best front pages. I can only imagine the possibilities for current events, multiple perspectives, worldviews, etc. Access it at newseum.org

For some statistics to compare countries, visit gapminder.org

Hope that helps! Good luck on your search for meaningful tools to support your students' learning.

Permalink Reply by J on March 9, 2010 at 6:11am

thank you so much. i will absolutely use it. thanks, again