Has anyone used Google Earth Lit Trips? I'm looking at some online here: http://www.googlelittrips.com/GoogleLit/K-5/K-5.html but they don't seem very interesting. Is it me? What am I missing?
We just saw this in our district training this morning. I wasn't very interested either, but it could be the way it was presented.
I don't think it is you. I'm a huge Google Earth fan and I think LitTrips are a waste of time. Maybe I'm just not getting it but I think they are way overblown in terms of excitement and educational value.
OK, I am feeling like I can stop racking my brain for what I'm missing ! It is kind of neat, seeing the places from the book zoom into view and reading a little factoid about that place. But for all the overhead of loading Google Earth, it just seems to fall flat.
We've had several techie people in our building the last few years and every time I ask about resources for English they mention littrips. But there's nothing to DO with the littrips except look at them. Maybe as an introductory piece they'd be useful but otherwise you might as well put up a powerpoint. Now, if there was an easy way for your students to MAKE a littrip, that'd be different (and hands on) but as is . . . meh.
I, too, have checked out LitTrips and was not impressed with them. Here is something I ran across a week ago where you can easily make maps and add music, text, and photos to each spot along your "trip". http://tripline.net/ Our 2nd grade teacher and I are going to buddy up our students to create a hyperbole "What I Did on My Summer Vacation" story and trip....based on the book by Mark Teague, How I Spent My Summer Vacation. http://www.amazon.com/Spent-Summer-Vacation-Dragonfly-Books/dp/0517885565 I am thinking, too, about using it to map our Flat Stanley project adventures.
