Response on Tour in Classrooms

After creating my own Google earth tour I think that there are many benefits of using the tour in the classroom. One of the benefits are the many options for the layers on Google earth. From just reading text or looking at pictures, students could not use the ruler tool, or the 3D building or street view applications. Students are able to explore the sites and really visually see what it looks like or interact with the location through Google earth. Google Earth also lets the teacher put links to additional websites for students to view etc. Students can read what the teacher put for the information, but also view additional resources the teacher posted. Some of the downsides of Google earth is how time consuming creating a Google earth tour can be to make. If a teacher is spending so much time creating a tour, using other resources might have been more time efficient. If the students were to view tour individually, students would have the responsibility of understanding the information of the tour more independently then if they were having whole class instruction.