Thanks Google Street View!

There I as, trying to find my house on Google Street (along with everyone else in Vancouver!) when I realized what a great learning tool it is.

As regular readers will know, I am somewhat directionally challenged, I get lost a lot. But I am also a visual learner, I learn and understand best when I see things. And now, thanks to Google Street View, I can see more than just a great map, I can actually see what the streets look like and what my destination looks like. I no longer have to try and remember street names, I can see where I have to go and how I can get there.

I can see that the junction I have to turn on has a McDonald’s on the corner, or that I have to go past a blue house just before I get to where I want to go.

Google Street View has made finding my way around so much easier. I may never get lost again! Well, at least when I am in a city that has been covered by Google.

Why am I so excited about this?
Well, suddenly someone is teaching me the way I like to learn! I no longer have to rely on translating verbal instructions or working out which way is up on my map. I can see where I have to go and how to get there. I love it.

What has been the problem so far?
When I want to go anywhere I have had to rely on my skills of verbal memory (street names) or my visual spatial skills (Map reading).. Neither of these are very good. I know that my strongest learning skill is my visual skill, I remember and understand what I see much more than what I hear.

So, now that finding places is so much easier for me, does that mean that I was stupid before? That because finding where to go was difficult for me I was lacking some sort of skill, I was being not very bright?

No.

What it means is that no one had come up with a way of helping me learn that fitted the way I learned. Just because I can now use Google Street View to help me get around does not mean that I am suddenly much more clever than I was before I used Google Street View. I just needed a way of finding directions that fitted my learning style.

What does this mean for students?
Think about it. Think of all the bright students who cannot do things because they are not taught in the way they like to learn.

They are not stupid, though they might think they are, they are just unable to do things because no one has shown them how. No one has helped them learn in ways that they can learn.

One of the main reasons children underachieve in school is because they are not being taught in the way they learn.

Google Street View helped me. What do you need to help your child?

Now I have it. Thanks Google Street View!