How To Use World Wind In the Classroom

NASA World Wind can be a very powerfull tool in the educational setting. Virtual Globes have taken satalite, aerial and topographic data from the hands of a few experts and have made it accesable to the masses. Even through Millions of people have downloaded virtual globes onto their desktops and labtops and have spent numerous hours finding their houses, office buildings and favorite vacation spot I have found the amount of material on using these programs to aid teaching in the classroom surprisingly sparse. The purpose of this part of the site is to give some basic ideas of how these programs, and NASA World Wind in particular, can be used in the educational setting. I do this drawing from my expierences experimenting around with the program in my classes and from communjications I have had with other educators.

My goal is every few weeks to post another article focusing on one aspect of virtual globes in education. I plan to start by looking at the different ways it can be used int he classroom; to create images, to create interactive lectures, for homework assigmnets and hands on labs. I then would like to look at how it can be used in different subject areas, expanding beyound my own use in geology. If other people have ideas for articles and what me to post them, send them to me at the e-mail adress at the bowwom of this page and if I like the article I will post it here as well.

The Athenian School

Steve.Wood@athenian.org

Phone (925)-362-7572