Tutorial: Google Earth
Google Earth
Google Earth is an incredible geospatial tool that can be used for a wide variety of educational and research purposes. This digital globe software is very easy to use. Individuals can download the software for free and can easily browse, carry out inquiry, create new knowledge and data, and can save and share information using KMZ data files, or you can easily output the content as image files for incorporation into presentations or reports. Google Earth is a great research tool and with it anyone can collect information. A wide-range of Imagery including historical imagery contains a great deal of information about both natural and human landscapes around the Earth's surface. Street View functionality is also expanding in major cities and some rural areas and this adds an incredible array of 360° panoramic views as though the user were actually in place on the street. Built in features also provide terrain views to add to 3-D visualization. A whole range of additional tools (measuring tools, image overlay tools, video touring tools, and others) allow for both qualitative and quantitative analysis of landscapes through time. Google Earth layers offer additional geographic information sorted by thematic area, provide labels, political boundaries, and more. Google Earth is also searchable and allows you to fly to most any location by name or coordinates.
For all of these reasons, this software will be the principal tool that will be used in this course to help you develop critical geospatial skills.
Download the Software
Go to Google Earth (link is external) and download the latest version for your computer.
Tutorials and Resources from Google Earth
Note: There are a number of instructional elements on the Google Earth Help Center, so make sure you refer to the Help Center when necessary.
- Getting started resources (link is external) from the Google Earth Help Center website.
- The Science Education Resource Center (SERC) (link is external) has an extensive tutorial document that is extremely useful.