Google Earth goes well beyond what a static two-dimensional photograph or map can offer to the study of the Bible.
Download the Google Earth application at http://earth.google.com/.
Tips for showing Google Earth:
- Google Earth requires quite a bit of bandwidth which may limit how many people in one classroom might access it simultaneously.
- Google Earth can use "cached memory" to improve the view the second time around. Check that your cached memory is set to the highest possible limit in Google Earth preferences. Before making a presentation, run through it once on that computer.
- Increasing the "Fly-to-speed" in Google Earth preferences will save some bandwidth at the expense of the feeling of flying.
- If importing .kmz or .kml files of tours, they get imported into "Temporary Places". If you want to keep these tours for later viewing, click on the item in "Places" to highlight it, and then go to "File > Save to My Places".
- Consider assigning students the task of creating fly-by tours of biblical stories.
- If Google Earth doesn't connect to the Internet on your school network, check if the proxy settings are set correctly in Internet Explorer.
Layers
In order to add a multimedia element to your Google Earth exploration, try turning on "layers" such as "Wikipedia" and "Panoramio" (In the Layers area, look in "Geographic Web").
Tours
Download tours created by others and posted to various web sites as ".kmz" or ".kml" files. Try these:
- Bible Mountains from David Becker's Guided Bible Studies for Hungry Christians
- Tour of Passion Week Events from ESV.org
- Links to .kmz files for just about any place in modern Israel at Navimap.org
- Bible Geocoding from OpenBible.info
- Download a .kmz file that has "the location of every identifiable place mentioned in the Bible," or download locations by Bible book or chapter
- Also check out the .kmz downloads of atlases, overlays, and photos.
- And try downloading the Jerusalem map overlay
Download tours of Paul's Missionary Journeys, created by Tim Schumacher
Paul's 1st Missionary Journey.kmz
Paul's 2nd Missionary Journey.kmz
Paul's 3rd Missionary Journey.kmz
Paul in Athens.kmz
Paul's Shipwreck.kmz




