Santa Tracker and other Google Maps goodies

It's time for a tech tip...why? Because it's Tuesday!

With the holidays approaching, I'm reminded of one of my favorite traditions--Google's Santa Tracker! You can trace Santa's trek across the Christmas night sky in realtime using Google Maps.

In recent months, Google Maps has become an increasingly versatile tool. Here are a few thoughts on how you might use it in an academic setting:

• Google Sightseeing highlights places of interest from around the world
• Earth-Picker is a very cool game that drops you near landmarks in street view and challenges you to identify the city--quite addictive!
• Smarty Pins, another map-based game, asks you to identify places on a map based on trivia questions--you pick the topic, with games ranging from science to culture

If you're interested in learning more about Google Maps for classroom use, check out https://www.google.com/edu/training/get-trained/maps/introduction.html

Enjoy!