Google Tour Builder

  I love checking out twitter on a regular basis.  I learn so much and get ideas for things I can use in my math class.  Late last week, there was a post on the Tour Builder from Google that is in beta form.

It allows people to create tours based on where they've been or where they want to go to.  The tour incorporates google earth, photos, google street view, maps, videos to create a tour.

The reason I'm excited about this product is that it makes it easier for students to create tours based on mathematical themes.  I saw a tour for Kindergarten which showed students 3 dimensional shapes in real life.  There were some wonderful pieces of architecture contained within the tour.  Older students could make their own versions.

Several months ago, I wrote about two tours in the UK where people walked through areas of Oxford to see mathematically based buildings, etc.  Students could research mathematically inspired buildings and create their own tours via tour builder.  I know that most of my students will never leave the village or at least never get farther than Anchorage.  This type of activity shows them a world outside of Alaska, they will never see on their own.

The program allows people to connect slides to Google Earth, maps and sometimes Street view.  It allows students to place more than one image or set of text in each slide.  Students can add pictures they take or find on the internet.  The program allows videos to be incorporated into the videos.

I plan to have my geometry students use their cell phones to take pictures of geometric shapes, vocabulary, etc around the village.  I'll include a portion that they must take a video while explaining why they chose a certain item for their tour.  Its harder out in the village because we do not have anything hire than a one story building, even at the airport with its metal buildings large enough to house front end loaders.

Think about all the possibilities:
1. Basic geometric vocabulary with pictures from local places.
2. 3 dimensional shapes from around the world.
3.  Trigonometric applications such as surveying, in the real world.
4.  Graphs, charts, and other real world applications.
5. Math tours of certain cities.
6. Vectors and plane trips from one place to another.
7.  Taxi cab geometry.

There is this wonderful site with step by step directions to create a tour using the program and a multitude of resources geared to see what can be done with Tour Builder.

Let me know what you think. I'd love to hear. I hope to have my example put together later in the week so I can share it with you.  Have a great day.