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Application of Virtual Globes in Education
Author(s) -
Rakshit Rahul,
OgnevaHimmelberger Yelena
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
geography compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.587
H-Index - 65
ISSN - 1749-8198
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2008.00165.x
Subject(s) - geospatial analysis , skyline , globe , focus (optics) , data science , computer science , geography , world wide web , multimedia , remote sensing , archaeology , medicine , physics , optics , ophthalmology
The advent of virtual globes and online mapping has generated interest in spatial representations of data among many non‐geographic communities, including educators and researchers who have very little to no expertise in geospatial technologies. In this article, we give a state‐of‐the‐art survey of existing virtual globes and review the existing teaching applications related to them. We focus on the four most popular virtual globes (Google Earth; NASA World Wind; Microsoft Virtual Earth Earth; and Skyline Globe), illustrating their various applications and comparing their capabilities, with a particular emphasis on educational aspects. We also explain the distinction between the virtual globes and various online mapping applications, such as Google Maps mash‐ups.