Take your students on the flight of their lives!

What is the benefit of technology in the classroom if it’s not to broaden our view of the world? With web 2.0 tools the four walls of our classroom are torn down and a universe of adventure and learning is opened up. I am continuously blow away by Google Earth and the amazing new features that seem to pop up in each new version of this powerful (and FREE) program.

In the latest version, Google has given users an incredible (and FUN) way to tour the world’s sites from the air. The flight simulator feature lets users chose either an F-16 fighter jet (which at full throttle will top 1100 miles per hour and fly to 50,000 feet), or a smaller S-22 stunt plane (for those leisurely flights where you want to soak up the sites from a lower altitude and slower speed.) That’s right, you can now fly over any place on earth with a frighteningly realistic flight simulator in Google Earth.

I say frighteningly, because the first time I got into the cockpit, I crashed four times in a row into the “earth’s” surface. My virtual debri is scattered over the Shanghai suburbs, the Northern Idaho mountains, the flanks of Mount Rainier and the foothills of the Swiss Alps! After an hour or so of crashing millions of dollars worth of airplanes, however, I finally began getting the hang of the controls and am now a qualified “pilot” and have made successful flights on three continents!

Check out Google Earth’s flight simulator, and just imagine how this could be used in conjunction with a SMART Board or laptops in the classroom (can you say kinesthetic learning?!) On my 13 inch Mac the experience is awe-inspiring, I cannot wait to hook this up to my 37″ TV and then my 72″ SMART Board and get the kids into the cockpit as we begin to explore the myriad spectacles Google Earth presents its users!

Here’s the view as I fly over my new apartment in Zurich, Switzerland! What a way to get oriented to a new home!