New Google Maps...

I'll report back what I think in a few days time...

Google Earth MOOC

An interesting new resource from Richard Treves on his Google Earth Design blog.

A new MOOC (online course) on Google Earth.

Google Maps Mania

In the recent Google Earth course that I ran in Birmingham, I showed Where's the Path.

Thanks to Keir Clarke for pointing out that the site has undergone an update.

Follow this link to see a version that has been updated, and modified so that it can be viewed on tablets.
A useful additional mapping resource to go alongside Google Earth with its new tools.

LocateStreet

Uses Google Maps rather than Google Earth, but worth a mention here...

You may have seen on my earlier post on GeoGuessr the mention for LOCATESTREET 

This is a variation on GeoGuessr, with various points being offered for guidance, although the Elevation option doesn't offer that much help...

You can choose to play on a Global basis, or other scales.

You are presented with 4 options of location to choose from, and if you pick the correct option you can earn bonus points for clicking on the actual location on a map...
The site takes you to some fairly out of the way places... I seemed to end up on rural roads, and in cul-de-sacs on industrial estates quite often.

Hardcore players should choose the GLOBAL option... and discover that South America looks a lot like Australia in places...
Choose the COUNTRY option, and explore a range of countries from a list, which includes the UK. This offers potential for a CITY based search for example.
There are also some US based Thematic search options.

The game is addictive. Had to stop myself playing on it last night....
If you get one of the highest scores so far you can enter your e-mail to be added to the High Score table. May be an incentive for some to use additional 'support' to search for business names etc., but that wouldn't be in the spirit of the game...

Also, while playing, I've come across a few random sights.
This looks like some sort of hawk diving into a field to catch something ?

And what is this bloke doing standing in the road ?

The game was developed by Nick Burkhart of Chelonia Labs in California.

As with GeoGuessr, there are various clues that you can look for to help with locating yourself in fairly random housing estates.

Telephone dialling codes tend not to be blurred out. 020 will tell you that you're in London.

If on a main road, head for junctions where there'll be road signs.

Look at the vernacular building materials - some places have distinctive stone or house designs.

Become familiar with the basic geography of London, which features heavily in the UK option.

Be aware though, that they can be misleading. I spotted a Yorkshire registration on a motorbike, which ended up being up in the far north of Scotland, flipping tourists...

Google User Community

A reminder of the Google User Community.
This used to be called the Google Earth Bulletin Board, but a few months ago it was replaced with a system of Google Groups, one of which is for Google Earth.

Search this for thousands of useful KML files and guidance.
Whatever you're after, it's probably here...

Here's a few examples that I found with a quick five minutes of searching:

- Texas biomes as an image overlay
- Everest reconaissance with routes

What is your best discovery in the Google Earth groups ?

Mapteach

Another new discovery while playing with the materials for the course on Thursday in Birmingham.

MapTEACH is based in ALASKA and uses some Google Earth materials to help explore certain elements of the area, and tell their story.
The use of maps to help stories is part of the indigenous culture, although they didn't use GIS or Google Earth of course... until recently.
Click the CURRICULUM link to see various GIS data files as well as Google Earth files.

Duncan Maclean from Kindrogan

One of the links I'll be sharing with the delegates on the Google Earth course is that of Duncan Maclean, from Kindrogan Field Centre.

Some nicely formatted and clear guides to GE, placemarks and importantly GE-Graph.

A few other new bits...

Preparing materials for course for the GA Google Earth and Beyond course on Thursday - just updated the Dropbox that goes with the course, and changing the spine powerpoint now, as well as reminding myself of some nice visualisation tools and other links.

Was putting together a new document on the Historical Slider, and looking for places where the imagery can be used best.

Came across this nice weblink, with 10 interesting places to visit on Google Earth.

Students could do this themselves of course and find ten places they would like to visit... or 10 examples of a particular feature e.g. active volcano...

Also remembered the old BIG HUGE LABS option for Earth as Art... (as shown by Noel Jenkins)

Also check out WHAT WAS THERE....

250 up

250 posts on the blog since 2006 when we got underway...

Not quite matching the 4500 on Living Geography, but useful nonetheless I hope...

Natural Info

A couple of useful Google Earth resources on the NATURAL INFO website.
This has been put together by FSC tutors I believe, notably Liam Ring, and contains a range of useful resources for teachers.

Go to the RESOURCES tab and click on GOOGLE EARTH RESOURCES.

A guide to GE and also a nice one for GE Graph...

You can download the files as PDFs
Also follow the site on TWITTER 

GA Course next week...

Just preparing materials for next week's Google Earth and free GIS course for the Geographical Association, which is taking place in Birmingham.

I shall be referring to this blog. Delegates have all had access to a DROPBOX of materials.
There's been quite a lot of activity since last time I ran the course.

Queensland Globe Layer

Thanks to Rebecca Nicholas for the tipoff to a file produced by the Queensland Government.

It provides what is called a Queensland Globe, with lots of information related to the state, including landscape, flooding and extreme weather as well as information on selected locations.
Download, then open in Google Earth.

Where has Merkador gone ?

A real shame yesterday when I was reminding myself of the Merkador website so that I could mention it at Richard Allaway's hangout session (see the previous post) when I discovered that it had gone offline in the middle of April.

Merkador was one of my favourite Google Earth sites, with some great KML files (which I hope I have saved somewhere) and the excellent resource which taught the basic skills in the form of a global quiz and challenge game...
I hope it comes back soon...

Google Earth Hangout recording

Last night, I took part in a Google Hangout on the theme of Google Earth in the curriculum. It was part of a series of presentations from the Google Education team.

It was presented by Richard Allaway, who created Geography all the Way, and talked about his planning, and also an activity which follows one of the first commercial routes: involving flying boats from Southampton to South Africa.

You can read about it on Richard Allaway's blogpost here.
You can see the mind-map that Richard used.

You can also check out the actual presentation below, and see me lurking away at the bottom, and dealing with the chat that was going on as the presentation was going on. Thanks to the folks who dropped into the presentation.

Google Earth Hangout on Monday the 6th of May

Don't forger that Richard Allaway is organising a special online event on the 6th of May.
It will take place at 8pm in the evening

This session will outline how Google Earth skills can be incorporated into the school curriculum and not just the Geography one!  This will lead to the discussion of a real, tested, classroom example of building a continuum of skill development leading towards a project planning the first commercial (1937) passenger flight from Southampton (UK) to Cape Town (South Africa) which happened to be on a boat-plane! (25 minutes)

I'll be there to help out... so I'll see you there...

The official site where you can sign up to join in or find out more information is HERE....