GoogleLit

Google Lit Trips is a cool use of existing technology for the classroom. Free, easy, and, most importantly, interesting to the students who will use it.

Using Google Earth, which can be installed on almost any computer, students create virtual tours that follow the travels of their favorite literary characters. Each significant location in the book can be marked on the map, and includes notes and descriptions that are associated with that location. Use it to present a book report, or to encourage interest in a book in other students. Or, for better understanding of a book you're reading, you can follow along through a tour created by someone else, follow their links to background information, read their notes about the significance of that location to the storyline, or just get a better feel for the journey the character is taking.

For example, here's an image from the tour for Grapes of Wrath. It shows the journey they take across the US, and each of the cities mentioned along the way. You can learn more about any of these locations by clicking on them, and various quotes from the story that are directly associated to a location are also marked on the map.


Anyone who doesn't use this technology is missing out. It's simple, it's fun, and it encourages deeper, more meaningful learning while integrating different subjects and technologies. This is one way to reach those students whose strengths may lie outside of reading and literature, and get them interested in more reading.

Read a description/review of Google Lit on Edutopia.org here.