Geography Programs

1. KGeography -
   
   

   

   
   A program for learning geography from KDE-EDU package. Selecting one of the almost 20 maps, we can try our hand at tasks in which we find a given country on the map, or we can match the country/region to the capital/flag or vice versa. Admittedly, I think this program is very cool and find that it truly tests your knowledge (who knows the capital of Djibouti? or what does the flag of Afghanistan look like?), but it has also some drawbacks. Magnification of the map is far from perfect where you can check your answers by finishing the requested amount of questions and reviewing a “report card” of sorts.
2. GoogleEarth -
   
   

   

   
   Admittedly, this application was not designed as strictly educational, but it certainly poses a good educational tool for all geography enthusiasts. The programmers at Google created this program that combines both maps and satellite photos to take total landscape images. While using this application we can not only see every area of the world, but also search through data by name (ah, that Google’s searching engine…), find hotels or restaurants all over the world, or find the closest connection between two locations. This application is still undergoing development and getting new elements all the time. Initially it offered 3D views of some cities and now additional modules for searching the sky have been introduced. Open source alternative to GoogleEarth is Marble from KDE.