Google Earth

Google Earth represents, in essence, the whole world on a student's computer.

Google Earth and Geography 
Students can use specific Google Earth layers to study economic, demographic, transportation and any other type of information in specific geographic contexts. The juxtaposition of information and location is what's new and most exciting about Google Earth from an educational perspective; this geographic context enables understanding in a way that static maps and diagrams cannot. 

Google Earth and Math
Students can use real-time coordinates in Google Earth to do distance calculations, and verify the results using Measurement tools.

Google Earth and Geology
Students and teachers can view tectonic plate shift evidence by examining whole continents, mountain ranges, areas of volcanic activity and so on. Impact craters, dry lake beds and other major land forms are all available for viewing.

For instance:– Thanks to to a fantastic new effort by the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program, students can now study the world's most comprehensive placemark collection detailing the world's Holocene volcanoes, with images, links, descriptions and information about thousands of volcanoes around the globe.

Google Earth and History
Students and teachers can use Google Earth to research the progress of human civilization, the growth of cities and the impact of human civilization on the natural environment. Using SketchUp and historic overlays, students can actually recreate ancient cities.

More Classroom Uses:
If you haven't downloaded it yet, there is a neat free tool for Windows users that allows you to create charts and graphs inside Google Earth. GEGraph takes either raw data or basic placemarks, allows you to enter data and then creates some neat graphs (bar, circle, squares, etc.). Using this resource with data sites such as world population data through the US Census Bureau can produce all kinds of useful classroom lessons. Here, for example, is a simple sample compares infant mortality rates in North and South Korea.