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SLF 2008 - Breaking Down Walls with Google Earth

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Above are the slides from my 2008 Scottish Learning Festival Presentation on Breaking Down Walls with Google Earth many of the ideas I have already shared at Teachmeet07 and Teachmeet08. Screen vasts of the demonstration's are below embedded as Google Video files.

Idea 1 - Use the Google Maps mash-up Smoke Signal Generator (http://www.mapmsg.com/send/smokesignal) as a different way to set learning objectives, homework tasks or to re-cap a lesson.

You can use the mash-up in exactly the same way as you normally use Google Maps to find places by typing in the location. You can zoom in and zoom out in exactly the same way and switch between map, hybrid and satellite view. The mash-up however allows you to generate smoke signals from any location within Google Maps. The screencast below shows the demo that I used at tonight.

Idea 2 - Turn on the Grid Lines and spin the globe

This is a very simple, yet powerful and magical idea. I believe that children find maps, globes and places fascinating. A great lesson starter is just to have Google Earth Spinning as your class comes into the room (they will instantly start to comment and try to work out where places are). You can also very easily turn on the Grid Latitude and Longitude lines to allow you to quickly add an extra dimension to this starter activity. Here’s the screencast showing you how to do this:

Idea 3 - Teaching about place and location

At the front of your classroom have a bucket of European or world city names (would also work with countries, mountain ranges, rivers etc…). You can get lists from websites like www.citymayors.com.

Students pick a city name from ‘the hat’ and type the location into Google Earth – class watch as they fly from their school to the city location. Once in the city Student gets one or two minutes to explore in front of the rest of the class. As long as you have websites like Panoramio enabled within Google Earth there will be no shortage of things to look at and you will quickly get a real feel for what an area is like. I think it is very important to always flay to your location from your school, this adds to the experience of distance, place and space. Here’s a quick screencast showing what I mean:

 

Idea 4 – Teaching Distance

The Google Earth Ruler is really simple to use and allows you to quickly change between units (cm, m. km, ft. yards etc…) There is a  lot of scope here about to talk about measurement and also ratios if you start to swap the units around. You can also use the ruler to perform interesting tasks. For example you can calculate how far the ingredient of a pizza have travelled before it gets to the UK. Here is the screencast showing you how the ruler works:

Idea 5 – Sea Level Rise Mash Up

http://flood.firetree.net/ is a favourite Google Maps Mashup of mine. It allows you to change the sea level height to see areas of land that would be flooded due to sea level change. Its simple but really effective, interestingly it wouldn’t take much for the Glasgow Science Centre to be underwater.

Idea 6 – Look at what other people have already created

At http://www.gearthhacks.com you can download klm files (Google Earth Files) about Current Events, Previous Events, Sightseeing, Sports, Historical Places, Transport, Natural Formations and a whole heap of other stuff. The Current event files are excellent. The screencast below shows how quickly it is to download a Google Earth file on recent Greece Fires.

Idea 7 – Flickr and Twitter Vision

Flickr vision is a another great lesson starter activity or way to promote class discussion. The site basically shows the geographical location of real time photos being up-loaded to Flickr. It gives a real feel for what’s going on in the world and sense of place. It can also be used to promote interesting discussions. For example, you have to wait a long to see a photograph being up-loaded from Africa, Antarctica or South America? You can see an example below:

You can even use Flickr Vision in 3D:

Twitter vision gives another interesting perspective. It basically shows text messages of people thoughts from around the world.

Idea 8 – Turn Layers On and Off

Sometimes things get really crowded and sometimes you want more detail. You can turn layers on and off using the layers tabs. Fly to New York to see the 3D Buildings in action. If you are struggling with Bandwidth Issues at school you can save on bandwidth by turning the layers off.

 

A great layer below is World Oil Consumption

Idea 9 –Google Earth in the web browser

This video shows Google Earth working inside the web browser. As this becomes more developed it will be great news for schools, as you won’t have to get Google Earth Downloaded onto you school / home computer.

Idea 10 - Monster Milk Truck

 

Monster Milk Truck allows you to drive a virtual milk cart around the globe to explore things. The video shows me driving around and then teleporting to Edinburgh – can you work out which famous building I deliver the milk to?

Idea 11- First Person Camera

In a lot of ways this is similar to Monster Milk Truck. The First Person Camera API allows you to wander around the world (Google Earth) on foot.

When you get into some of the cities with 3D buildings, it kind of reminds me of some of the early versions of Doom. Which is interesting as one of the ideas that I have been talking about recently is could Google Earth become in itself a rich gaming environment?

Idea 12 - Driving Simulator

 

The plug in driving simulator is fantastic particularly for some of the big US Cities that have 3D Buildings in them.

Basically, you type in where you want to start and where you want to go to. Google Map directions appear on the left hand side of the screen and calculates your route. A Google Map shows your intended route on the right hand side of the screen and in the middle Google Earth fly’s you though what your route will look like in 3D.

Idea 13 - Google Sky

Google Sky is a great resource for teaching children about the solar system. It has obvious links to A Curriculum for Excellence in particular the outcomes for Science and Social Subjects. A You Tube video about Google Sky is below:

Idea 14 - Have a look at these other great resources

 

Try and follow these websites for some up-to-date Google Earth information and ideas on how it can be used in Teaching and Learning.

• Google Lat Long Blog
• Google Earth Users Guide Project
• Juicy Geography Google Earth Guide
• Google Earth Blog
• Ogle Earth Blog
• Google Earth Developers Blog

Idea 15 - Book a course

If you want to know more about Google Earth. Why don't you come along to my presentation at the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers Annual Conference or book a course with the Royal Geographical Society?

 

 

Connected 19: Follow the Leader, from policy to practice

East Lothian gets a few mentions in this terms edition of the LTS Connected Magazine. Once again I am really pleased with the quality of the magazine, it just seems to get better and better. It’s also great to read that it could be up for an award.

I was really pleased to see that my short Google Earth Presentation from Teachmeet07 got a mention in the 'Mousewatch' section on page 11. I even get my picture on page 27 – fame at last!

If you haven’t got a copy of the magazine yet, you can download it from the Connected Live Website.

Teachmeet 2007: 7 minutes of ideas for using Google Earth in the Classroom

I have had a lot of emails asking me to share some of the information from Teachmeet07. This has been one of my back list of posts to complete for a while now. Last night I up-loaded all of the screen captures (I used Bulents Screen Recorder) to Google Video, so this is what I covered during my presentation titled ‘7 minutes of ideas for using Google Earth in the Classroom’.

I started off by explaining that one of my themes for the last year has been keeping things simple and that small ideas change things. I also stated that anyone can use Google Earth, and illustrated it with is example:

My next idea uses a Google Maps mash-up Smoke Signal Generator (http://www.mapmsg.com/send/smokesignal). You can use the mash-up in exactly the same way as you normally use Google Maps to find places by typing in the location. You can zoom in and zoom out in exactly the same way and switch between map, hybrid and satellite view. The mash-up however allows you to generate smoke signals from any location within Google Maps. My suggestion was that this could be a fun little starter activity or a different way of trying to set or re-cap lesson objectives. The screencast below shows the demo that I used at Teachmeet:

My next example is the simplest example of them all. I believe that children find maps, globes and places fascinating. A great lesson starter is just to have Google Earth Spinning as your class comes into the room (they will instantly start to comment and try to work out where places are). You can also very easily turn on the Grid Latitude and Longitude lines to allow you to quickly add an extra dimension to your simple starter. Here’s the screencast showing you how to do this:

Next a quick idea for teaching about European cities. At the front of your classroom have a bucket of European or world city names. You can get lists from websites like www.citymayors.com. The activity is as follows, pupil picks city name from ‘the hat’ types location into Google Earth – class watch as they fly from their school to the city location. Once in the city Student gets one or two minutes to explore in front of the rest of the class. As long as you have websites like Panoramio enabled within Google Earth there will be no shortage of things to look at and you will quickly get a real feel for what an area is like. I think it is very important to always flay to your location from your school, this adds to the experience of distance, place and space. Here’s a quick screencast showing what I mean:

Next we took a quick look at measuring distances in Google Earth. The screencast below will show you how to do this. Its really simple and the Google Earth ruler allows you to quickly change between units cm, m. km, ft. yards etc… here is lots of scope here about to talk about measurement and also ratios if you start to swap the units around. You can also use the ruler to perform interesting tasks Doug Belshaw
once told me about a activity that involved tracking the ingredients of a Pizza. Apparently it had travelled 800, 000 miles! Heresy the screencast showing you how the ruler works:

Next we moved onto an old favourite of mine a Google Maps Mashup called http://flood.firetree.net/ it allows you to change the sea level height to see areas of land that would be flooded due to sea level change. Its simple but really effective, interestingly it wouldn’t take much for the Glasgow Science Centre to be underwater.

The final website we looked at was http://www.gearthhacks.com from here you can download klm files about Current Events, Previous Events, Sightseeing, Sports, Historical Places, Transport, Natural Formations and a whole heap of other stuff. I used it to quickly download a file on recent Greece Fires to show how easy it is to incorporate simple Google Earth files into lesson or lesson starters.

I finished up by telling everyone about the Free Google Earth Courses for Educators that are being run by the Royal Geographical Society over the next few months. We are hosting the Edinburgh one in East Lothian.

Teachmeet 4th Edition @ SETT 2007

Last year I was quoted in the TES saying that TeachMeet was the best CPD that I had ever been part of. This September see’s the 4^th TeachMeet event at the Glasgow Science Centre and I am already looking forward to the evening. As with TeachMeet 2 the event will happen in between the two days of SETT (anyone know if GLOW mentors are being invited to SETT this year?).

One of the great things about TeachMeet is that anyone can attend (its free) and anyone can contribute. If you haven’t already been over to the Wiki why don’t you pop over and sign your name up. Remember you don’t have to contribute. Its OK to come along and meet new people, catch up with old friends and learn from others.

I think that September is going to be a busy month!

The Best CPD Ever (part 2)

I got a mention in TES this week where I described TeachMeet as the best CPD ever. I also mentioned that we hoped to do it again at SETT 2007. I notice that the wiki is ready to go now all I need to do is find some time to contribute.

David has suggested a new format for the next TeachMeet – I wonder if this idea will work? I was quite keen on the format of TeachMeet v.2 (7 minutes of presenting, 3 minutes of questions, followed by a more lengthy chat in the pub over a few beers).

No-doubt over the next few weeks the wiki will start to take off as ideas and contributions start to be developed.

Finally, I wonder if Stephen Heppell would come along as our celebrity? Can’t see why not – I think I’ll email him.