Google Teacher Newsletter - Winter 2009 Edition
Google Educator Outreach
We hope you're enjoying 2009 thus far; a year which has already brought much excitement and change in the world. We're excited to be able to celebrate these changes, and would love to ask you to get involved in our celebrations, with a few new initiatives and changes of our own which we'd like to announce.
First off, we're excited to once again be hosting the Doodle 4 Google competition, where we invite K-12 students to play around with our homepage logo and see what new designs emerge. This year we're inviting U.S. kids to join in the doodling fun, around the intriguing theme "What I Wish for the World." As we mentioned, these are exciting times, and both our country and the world are on the brink of significant change. At Google we believe in thinking big, and dreaming big, and we can't think of anything more important than encouraging students to do the same. This year, we're honored to be partnering with the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum for the competition as we hope to encourage the next generation of designers and artists. Registration closes on March 17, 2009 and entries are due by March 31, 2009 at 11:59pm Pacific time. Teachers, you'll find everything you need to get started at the official website http://www.google.com/doodle4google. Only teachers or school employees should register. Parents or students who are interested should contact their teacher to register them.
Speaking of changes around in the world - when it launched three years ago, Google Earth
changed the way people everywhere access the world's geographic
information. Since then, we've added useful features like 3D buildings,
Street View, Sky in Google Earth, and countless educational content
layers. This week, we are thrilled to unveil three exciting new
features in Google Earth 5.0! With touring in Google Earth, your
students can record and play back their own tours, complete with
voiceovers! In addition, new historical imagery allows you to use a time slider to
explore local and global changes over the past few decades. Finally,
you can now dive to the deepest part of the sea with oceans in Google
Earth! Our newest release allows you to fly beneath the surface to
explore underwater canyons, see shipwrecks in 3D, and watch YouTube
videos submitted by oceanographers and aquatic experts. Check it out at
earth.google.com!
As educators, each of you have areas of expertise on which you could write some big fat text books. How about writing a knol instead? Knols are articles written by people who are knowledgeable about specific subjects. Anyone can write one and now we're giving you a little added incentive to show off your skills. We've teamed up with the good people at Dummies.com to give you the chance to write a how-to article about something you're great at - and maybe even become a bit more famous in the process. Simply go to the official contest page, create your own knol about a subject you know well, and the contest judges will select five finalists who will be eligible to have their knols featured on the Dummies.com site. In addition, the best entry overall will be awarded a $1,000 grand prize. Submissions are open through March 23rd, 2009.
Finally, if you haven't submitted your lesson to the Google Ancient Rome in 3D Curriculum Competition
yet, it's not too late. Don't miss your chance to win a fabulous prize
package by integrating this exciting new 3D layer in your classroom--register today and upload your entry before February 9th, 2009!
Thanks, teachers. We look forward to reaching out to you once again in the spring - when the weather is warmer and the summer is in all of our sights!
Warm Regards,
Cristin Frodella
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