Google Earth teams up with National Geographic to take students on voyages

By Trevor Mogg June 26, 2017

google earth student voyages voyager — Google

Google rolled out a revamped version of Google Earth a few months back, bringing with it a new look and lots of fresh features.

One of the key additions was Voyager, a special section geared toward classroom use that offers interactive guided tours built by “the world’s leading storytellers, scientists, and nonprofits,” according to Google.

Recommended Videos

Offering a fun and informative way to explore a location through a range of often exclusive media, launch partners included NASA, BBC Earth, and possibly every child’s favorite, Sesame Street.

A few months in and the Mountain View, California-based company is now ramping up efforts to encourage greater use of Google Earth in the classroom, with the launch of brand-new Voyager partners.

Announced on Monday, June 26 at the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) conference in San Antonio, Texas, the new content includes Voyager modules from the likes of National Geographic and PBS Education. There’s also new material from science-based HHMI Biointeractive and ocean-focused Mission Blue, all helping to broaden the range of subject matter offered by the Voyager feature.

Expeditions

Google is also expanding Expeditions, another of its initiatives aimed at giving teachers and students more options in the classroom. First announced in 2015, Expeditions is a virtual reality (VR) tool that offers students the next best thing to a real-life field trip.

Using Google’s Cardboard viewer, students can immerse themselves in faraway locations and learn more via rich content embedded in the Expedition.

The company said at this week’s conference that it’s about to launch a “self-guided mode” for Expeditions “so anyone can access more than 600 virtual field trips on their own.”

Students who fancy a solo excursion can choose from a variety of adventures — think Great Barrier Reef, the Great Wall of China, and even places likely to be off the school trip list for a while yet such as Mars — and learn more about the place as if they were there exploring in person.

Special classroom kits supplied by Google include Asus smartphones, Cardboard viewers, or Mattel View-Masters to transform the phones into VR headsets, a tablet that enables the teacher to direct VR tours, and a router that allows Expeditions to run without an internet connection.

“We hope that this encourages exploration and personal education, making it easy to learn using virtual reality,” Google said in a blog post on its website outlining the new VR content.

Also, if you’re interested to engage more deeply with Google Earth, check out our guide on how to get Google Earth Pro for free.

Topics

Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

Computing

How to change margins in Google Docs

Laptop Working from Home

When you create a document in Google Docs, you may need to adjust the space between the edge of the page and the content --- the margins. For instance, many professors have requirements for the margin sizes you must use for college papers.

You can easily change the left, right, top, and bottom margins in Google Docs and have a few different ways to do it.

Computing

What is Microsoft Teams? How to use the collaboration app

A close-up of someone using Microsoft Teams on a laptop for a videoconference.

Online team collaboration is the new norm as companies spread their workforce across the globe. Gone are the days of primarily relying on group emails, as teams can now work together in real time using an instant chat-style interface, no matter where they are.

Using Microsoft Teams affords video conferencing, real-time discussions, document sharing and editing, and more for companies and corporations. It's one of many collaboration tools designed to bring company workers together in an online space. It’s not designed for communicating with family and friends, but for colleagues and clients.

Computing

Microsoft Word vs. Google Docs

A person using a laptop that displays various Microsoft Office apps.

For the last few decades, Microsoft Word has been the de facto standard for word processors across the working world. That's finally starting to shift, and it looks like one of Google's productivity apps is the heir apparent. The company's Google Docs solution (or to be specific, the integrated word processor) is cross-platform and interoperable, automatically syncs, is easily shareable, and perhaps best of all, is free.

However, using Google Docs proves it still has a long way to go before it can match all of Word's features -- Microsoft has been developing its word processor for over 30 years, after all, and millions still use Microsoft Word. Will Google Docs' low barrier to entry and cross-platform functionality win out? Let's break down each word processor in terms of features and capabilities to help you determine which is best for your needs.
How does each word processing program compare?
To put it lightly, Microsoft Word has an incredible advantage over Google Docs in terms of raw technical capability. From relatively humble beginnings in the 1980s, Microsoft has added new tools and options in each successive version. Most of the essential editing tools are available in Google Docs, but users who are used to Word will find it limited.