Google Geo Teachers Institute - 2 of 5

The first day of the Geo Teachers Institute was focussed on Google Maps and GOOGLE EARTH.
We are now on version 6.2 of Google Earth, which has come a long way since the earlier versions. Make sure that you have an up to date version from here.
I've previously blogged about the video materials that were made available related to Google Earth.

We heard in person from Jerome Burg who created the idea of GOOGLE LIT TRIPS. These are essentially study guides to accompany books, where the locations or journey in a book have been turned into place marks. The place marks contain descriptions, or questions, or activities, or supplementary information. This is an idea that could be used in schools, although I am cautious of the potential copyright implications here ?
Check the website for files for a range of books, and advice on how to use the website on an iPad - perhaps 'in location'.

There is a new look to the GOOGLE EARTH OUTREACH page. It's worth visiting if you haven't been for a while. There is plenty here to borrow and use, with new support areas.

Also this collaborative GOOGLE DOC has 26 ideas for using Google Earth in the classroom - I contributed a few of them.

Also check out a series of useful videos made by Richard Treves, who presented in London, and is also involved in a UCL funded project looking at using Google Earth to teach undergraduates.

There was a quick tour through points, lines, polygons and tours, but I would have liked to see more of a connection during the day with the teaching of geography, geographical enquiry, and the link with concepts of place, space, scale etc. There was also a little too much emphasis on using the technology inside, rather than using it outside. 


There's plenty of relevant material on my Google Earth Users Guide blog, which I set up in 2006.


Also the KEYHOLE BULLETIN BOARD, which hosted many hundreds of thousands of
The NEW FORUMS or GEC (Google Earth Community) that replaced it don't seem to have the same 'atmosphere' to them - it's all a bit 'corporate' now, and very hard to see what's been added recently and how popular particular postings are.
Perhaps one of the best areas is that where moderators have 'selected' some of the best content. This sort of curation works if the people doing the selecting have good taste of course, and are successful in selecting appropriately for a wide range of audiences... Check the MODERATED area of the Forum. I had a quick look, and discovered some useful glaciation files...

Finally, here's a Google Earth challenge for you.
Thomas de Bruin created an alphabet around the Netherlands.
Why not find and create your own ?
You don't have to find all 26 letters, just start by trying to find three or four, and develop it from there...

In the next post, some information on KML... (not the Dutch airline)

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