Teachers TV website to close

Yet another casualty of the cutbacks...

Teachers TV website will disappear on the 29th of April...

There are some other casualties of the austerity measures still to be announced - check this blog after the Easter break for one of the bigger ones - but the disappearance of the Teachers TV website means the loss of quite a few programmes that I was involved with producing...

So I'm currently downloading the WEATHER and CLIMATE series, and the SECONDARY GEOGRAPHY and ICT programme which featured Bob Lang, Paul Haigh and Helen Young.

This programme featured Google Earth used for virtual fieldtrips for exam specifications....

Get them while you can....

Google Earth Builder and Map Maker

Google Earth Builder was announced at the Where 2.0 event...


The website is HERE

There's also the steady roll-out of Google Map Maker.
This has just been added to the USA.



You can also SEE LIVE MAPPING by other users...

I need to investigate this, and Google Fusion Tables a little more when time permits....

GA Conference 2011 - University of Surrey, Guildford

A number of posts are appearing over at my LIVING GEOGRAPHY blog on the follow-up to the GA Conference 2011.

There were some wonderful sessions.... but enough about me...

Anne Greaves has started to post resources from the conference on the GA WEBSITE.

Image by Bryan Ledgard
Copyright Geographical Association

There were some really useful sessions for those who wanted to develop their Google Earth skills.

Richard Treves from Southampton University and creator of the GOOGLE EARTH DESIGN blog presented a very well received workshop on BASIC and ADVANCED skills.
He has kindly shared his slides and links HERE (and on the GA website too)

Declan Da Poer's Google Earth Science links were new to me - some very useful resources there....

Richard also touched on something I've been exploring for a while: GOOGLE FUSION TABLES.


A useful link through to Andrew Zolnai's BLOG on this theme.

Tour of Britain 2011

The route of the Tour of Britain 2011 was announced earlier today...
After last year's visit to Norfolk it's great news that the race is coming through the region once again....

This time it is coming a little further inland and if the map is anything to go by, it looks like it might even be coming straight through my village.
Will wait for the final detailed route map to find out more...

As with previous years, this would form a great context for learning about a whole range of geographical concepts and skills...

Flooding in Google Earth

Thanks to the Google Earth Blog for this article.

It describes some work by Richard Treves from Southampton University, who I met at the AGI event in Stratford upon Avon, and who is doing a workshop at the GA conference in April.

It's a technique for showing areas flooded to a particular depth in Google Earth. Nice when there are 3D buildings involved too, as the example shows...

Glacial resources

Via Twitter

@ProfessorRitter

A virtual textbook

and a nice activity which allows students to explore VISUALISING GLACIAL LANDFORMS using Google Earth.
Well worth seeking out...

Map edits...

Via Ordnance Survey blog...


A year of Open Street Map edits..

Nice video...

OSM 2008: A Year of Edits from ItoWorld on Vimeo.

Commercial break...

You deserve to get one of these for yourself, or your wife or husband or partner, or a friend, or as a prize....just buy one...

Now available from the GA's online merchandise store...

iPhone 3G / 3GS case, which has been given a GA makeover...
Show your support for Geography and the GA wherever you go, and protect your iPhone at the same time..

Can't wait for mine to arrive :)

Christmas 3D Trees on Google Earth

Via the Google Earth twitter stream...

There are 3D Christmas trees at places like Trafalgar Square, and the Rockefeller Centre in New York

How many can you find ?

FrozenUK

Started a new Twitter stream yesterday to collate stories of the Big Freeze...

Follow @FrozenUK for the cold weather geographical digest... or add #FrozenUK to your tweets and I'll pick it up and add it when I get the chance...

There is more snow falling as I type this...

The Cartographer

Google maps, rather than Google Earth...


This looks very cool - thanks to Kenny for the tipoff...

UPDATE: Now works with Google Earth too :)
See comment below....

Ollie Bray and Paul Cornish

Two useful resources
First, OLLIE BRAY has produced a series of 4 posts on Google Earth 6 summarising the new features.


Paul Cornish has produced an excellent resource and framework for studying Crime with Google Earth

Crime in London

View more presentations from Mr Cornish.

Google Earth 6

A new version of Google Earth was released recently: GOOGLE EARTH 6...
It includes millions of 3D trees, and other improvements, including better integration with Google Street View



Go to the AMAZON for example, and you can wander the jungle and explore some of the tree species in the rainforest... I'm sure we can come up with some ideas for using this in the geography classroom :)

Google Earth Weather Forecasting

When I taught weather with Key Stage 3 pupils, I used to use a Met Office pack which had some outline maps of the UK, and some reusable stickers with weather symbols on. It's still available for sale from the MET OFFICE shop for £15.

Students could be video/audio recorded standing in front of the board, to which the map was 'blue-tac'ed (is that a word ?)

Some colleagues used a 'green screen' setting on their camcorder and a tarpaulin from B&Q to rig up a more professional studio style effect.

Noel Jenkins produced a neat web based solution on his Juicy Geography website.

Now this can be done using a website based on GOOGLE EARTH...

I tried it out and it's a really neat tool that I'm sure I would use if teaching about weather forecasting and the way that the information is collated and presented.

Symbols are dragged onto the UK map, which can be re-sized and positioned accordingly, as in the example above. A large range of symbols is included, and they are satisfyingly large and clear. A LOGO can also be added e.g. a school crest or departmental 'logo' of some kind.

Once this has happened, pressing a button marked PRESENT THE FORECAST will start a Google Earth tour which mimics the slow pan across the country in various directions that the BBC uses in their forecast...

Give it a go...

Google Earth 4 Degrees

A very exciting new Google Earth layer was launched this week.

The layer has been produced in association with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and shows information about a possible 4 degree rise in temperature

A range of YOUTUBE videos are available for use with the layer.

The Tyndall Centre were involved in its creation...

Don't forget the Teachers TV programmes which I was involved in, which has a focus on a poem looking at various degrees of warming and the potential impact on the UK.