Users advance the trip, zooming into locations either in the order provided or by clicking each location in the sidebar. (It's a little odd but it works, and there's a video tutorial and downloadable guide to help.) Users then open that file in Google Earth note that the Lit Trip is usefully saved in Google Earth's My Places for easy access later. In terms of the Lit Trips themselves, each follows a unique route depending on the book or narrative selected. To get started, users select a title and then receive a downloadable ZIP file or direct link via email. Google Lit Trips lets teachers and students use Google Earth to explore the real-world locations of more than 100 titles ranging from fiction to nonfiction and from kindergarten through college levels.
If these activities really take off, why not create a class Lit Trip? Students can be assigned different stops corresponding to a book's geographical journey, conduct research and gather media and extra materials related to that stop, and then work together to build the Lit Trip. Alternatively, the class can be divided into small groups by location, with each group presenting that location, its materials, and extra research when the class's reading catches up to that point. Collaborative groups can visit Google Lit Trips at certain key point during their reading, and discuss the pop-up material (video clips, photos, tutorials, questions) at each location. Each location in a Google Lit Trip is a springboard for potential research, which can be assigned independently or to small groups. If letting students wander alone is too big of a jump too soon, smaller tasks in guided groups can make the experience a bit less daunting. For high school students and above, the option to create a Lit Trip and submit it to the site offers students not only opportunities for creativity and independence, but also an extra extrinsic incentive: possible publication. After the intro, students and teachers can use Google Lit Trips to explore the cultural and geographic setting of a literary work. Given some of the technical quirks of Google Lit Trips, teachers will want to start by reviewing and demonstrating the site on the projector as a whole class.