When we visit my in-laws we stay at a hotel that is directly across the street from their flat. We usually spend a fair amount of time walking around in that area – to and from their flat and the metro station in particular. All of the following images were copied using Jing from Google’s Street View.

We often walk by Peter’s old elementary school – it’s such a cute building. We usually visit during winter or spring break so I haven’t seen kids around it but it looks like it would be a fun place to learn.

My father-in-law is a fantastic tour guide. He always shows us all over Prague during our visits. I’m sure this is mainly for my benefit since my husband is originally from Prague, but he seems to enjoy the touring as well.

We usually walk by St. Wenceslas Square at least a few times – it’s a very touristy area but great for people watching.

Near St. Wenceslas Square is this KFC. Why would I bother taking a capture of a KFC?

This was where Peter had his first job. It was on a summer vacation when he was in his early teens and he worked there for only a couple of weeks. His stories recounting his experiences there are hysterical.

The Prague National Theater is absolutely gorgeous. We’ve seen a few performances over the years here. It’s not uncommon for us to go to 4 or 5 nightly events during a 6 day visit to Prague. My mother-in-law wants to make sure we get in the appropriate amount of cultural experiences during our visit. 

One final capture from Google Maps Street View, simply because it makes me laugh – McDonalds. I’ve never actually eaten here but think we have walked by once or twice.

All this virtual touring is definitely making me miss Prague – especially Czech food.  Our next visit is this Christmas and we are definitely looking forward to it!

I think that there are some definite applications for using this in the classroom. What about using this for a virtual field trip? A lot of museums and other attractions now offer virtual tours on their sites. What about creating a virtual field trip that not only included a particular museum, but the surrounding area was available for the students to explore as well? I think this would be super cool for students.

I love to try new recipes – especially those by Giada from The Food Network. While I was assembling last night’s dinner – White Bean and Chicken Chili, I started coming across ingredients I didn’t have on hand. The first odd sounding ingredient was Fennel Seeds. So I Googled.

Courtesy of the All Foods Natural website, I learned that Fennel has a “sweet and light anise flavor, used in fish stocks and sauces or as season in salami and sausages, sometimes used in baking”. But this wasn’t exactly what I was looking for – so I refined my search to include ‘substitutions for Fennel Seeds’ and Googled again.

This time, according to the Chef2Chef online forums, I learned that “anise seed and licorice root” were acceptable substitutions (according to one poster). I also realized that this didn’t help me very much since I didn’t have either of those ingredients. I made the decision at this point to move on to the next ingredient I wasn’t familiar with – hoping that the Fennel seeds weren’t that important to the flavor of the recipe.

Next up – Chili Powder. I knew what this was but I didn’t have any (I seem to recall an incident where I used way too much and was told to not use it anymore). So I Googled for substitutions again – remembering that adding the word ‘substitutions’ to the ingredient name brought back what I was looking for much faster. This time WikiAnswers came to the rescue, teaching me that “you can make your own or substitute the spices by using red pepper, garlic, oregano, cumin, paprika and garlic”. Since I had most of these – I just shook in a little of each. At this point, the mixture was starting to smell quite good so I was feeling that I’m on the right track.

As the Chili continued to simmer, it was time to make the Cheddar and Scallion Bread. One of the ingredients that it called for was Green Onions. I wasn’t sure which part of the green onion to use. But the picture looked like it had a few green pieces mixed into the spread so I was assuming the green parts. I decide to Google again just in case. 

I learned from Tony Tantillo’s website that “the green part is used as a garnish” which led me to think that it was probably the green bits I should be using.

I realized something important as I finished preparing the meal. All this searching didn’t add much time to my cooking process as I did it while I was cooking. It did, however, save our meal because it ended up being tasty and not over seasoned.

Have you ever tried explaining your information searching (i.e. Google) process to someone else? Perhaps to your students or participants in a training session? Sometimes the concept that might seem the simplest to you – using Google to search for information – might not be as simple for them. Instead of giving them a topic and saying “go forth and Google!”, try walking them through your process as you search. I’d love to hear your thoughts!