Street View

Today I started playing around with Google Street view and it got me thinking and looking at Geography use of this amazing tool.

In Geography the following are listed as skills for Key Stage 1

observe and record [for example, identify buildings in the street and complete a chart]

use secondary sources of information [for example, CD-ROMs, pictures, photographs, stories, information texts, videos, artefacts]

This is within a context of looking at Places and what they are like:

Knowledge and understanding of places
3. Pupils should be taught to:
identify and describe what places are like [for example, in terms of landscape, jobs, weather]
identify and describe where places are [for example, position on a map, whether they are on a river]
recognise how places have become the way they are and how they are changing [for example, the quality of the environment in a street]
recognise how places compare with other places [for example, compare the local area with places elsewhere in the United Kingdom]
recognise how places are linked to other places in the world [for example, food from other countries].

Google Maps, gives an oblique view of places normally seen as just terrain or plans in Google maps/Earth. I think Google Streetview is going to be as exciting a tool to use as Earth and Photosynth in that you can immerse yourself within a world and poke around to find out what its like.

I can't wait to use Streetview with a class when working on descriptive writing about settings too.

I just wish all of the UK was covered, as yet my old home had yet to be photographed.

The other bonus of Street View is of course the option to embed, though this probably doesn't work in Fronter.