Last spring at the Midwest Educational Technology Conference, I
attended a session in which Hall Davidson, of Discovery
Educators Network, spoke about using Google Earth in the
classroom. At that time I was unable to use this tool because my
former district blocked Google Earth in the district. (I guess
they weren’t really interested in engaging students with
technology.) Because I was unable to use it, I kind of filed it
away in the depths of my brain. Last week this memory was
brought back to the forefront by a podcast entitled The Savvy
Technologist. I don’t remember what the context was, but I seem
to remember something about how the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum had created a layers file for Google Earth
entitled “The Crisis in Darfur.” In one of my schools there was
a student movement to assist the people in Darfur and raise
awareness to the community and student population. I remembered
Hall Davidson’s session and approached one of the social studies
teachers to see about an application of th