If you have not checked out Bing.com you owe it to yourself to spend some time on this web page. As I write this, I have just viewed the picture for today and have been reminded that today is Pearl Harbor day. There is a fantastic picture of the memorial displayed when you go to Bing.com on 12/7/2011 and as I hover over the picture four “hotspots” pop up. From one you can click and be taken to an aerial view of the memorial site. Another hotspot takes you to a web page where reflections about the ships lost in that harbor can be found. A third takes you to webpages where students can research the history of the event that led to our engagement in WWII. The last hotspots leads you in to a virtual tour of the remainder of the memorial. This is almost as good as loading your students up and taking them to Honolulu to see this historic landmark and there are no parent permission forms to worry about or field trip fees to collect.
Each and every day a new picture appears with hotspots for students to discover that provides focus on the topic and relevant information. As a teacher you can go backwards on the website to previous pictures which might better integrate the standards you are teaching that day. This website makes an excellent bell ringer activity, a center activity, or an inspiration for class discussion.
The tool bar or menu at the top of the webpage takes you to: Explore, Images, Videos, News, Maps, Travel, Search History, MSN, and more. This is an outstanding page to springboard from as you begin your lessons. Spend some time today exploring all that is available on Bing.com.
A teacher asked me just today how to search further back than a couple of days. Try this, if you missed a day or just want to see it again, click the arrows at the bottom right of the screen to scroll through the past seven days of homepages. You can interact with each page just as you could when it originally appeared. And to go back even further, check out the Bing homepage Visual Search gallery.
