Welcome to the GELessons Blog!
Having been dealing with technology most of my life, from my first Apple IIe to the current pile of PC’s and Macs that sit cluttered throughout my day I have been excited about the potential that home computers offer and especially of the potential they offer in the classroom. Having been a ‘computer’ teacher for ages 5-14 over the last dozen years I have seen how students are fully engaged when they are presented a good lesson on the computer, much more so than they are in a ‘traditional’ classroom.
That is why when I was visiting my son, a Computer Science Professor at the University of Central Florida, and he pulled up Google Earth on his home PC I was stunned! For the past 4 years or so I had used a wonderful program called EarthBrowser which offered much the same ‘wow’ factor as Google Earth as well as some of the data link capabilities, but Google Earth blew it away with the marvelous ‘to the street’ level of detail.
As I became empassioned about Google Earth I learned more and more about what it could do. From simple presentation capabilities to full fledged programming of placemarks and overlays, and it was FREE! Of course I had to install it immediately throughout my lab at school and within a week the kids were going bananas, first by finding their house, then by looking further and further afield, exploring the ancient pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, the footprint of the World Trade Center, and on and on.
To make a long story short, I decided that the wonders and potential of this tool had to be shared with teachers, so I created this site. Over the coming months and possibly years as time permits I will create lessons that can be used by other teachers and it is my hope that other teachers will join in to contribute their own ideas, expertise, suggestions and editorializations.
You are invited to join in! Visit the Bulletin Board, upload lesson files, or contribute to the image gallery. This site is free to use as long as I can afford it
Enjoy!
David