Google Earth Tour Creator

A new tool from Google, which has been trialled by a few folks. It's the Tour Creator.
Apparently it's easy to make 3D tours from my computer, so let's see...

For an early look, and a link to some examples, Richard Treves has been quick off the mark, and posted here.

Richard Treves in Education on Air

Richard Treves' tutorials...

I mentioned Richard's work on the recent Google Earth and Beyond course...

Here's a link to the first video from Richard's course, from which you can probably find the others.
Useful additional material.

New from Richard Treves...

Google Earth for Teachers resources.

As featured on GEarth Blog.http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2013/09/great-google-earth-resources-teachers.html

Go HERE to find introductory page to the online login.

Click ENTER AS GUEST and browse away...

The Checklist document is a useful one for those who want to develop their skills in a particular way, or create perhaps a Google Earth course, with certificate, for students to follow in their own time (or as part of prep or homework tasks...)

Check the YOUTUBE channel too...

Another really useful Google Earth link, and a useful reminder of some of the recent changes and updates.
Also read this to see how Google Earth has changed...

Resources by Richard Treves

A useful Prezi, shared at recent event in Southampton, and also a link to a MOOC on Google Earth tools.

Google Touring

A useful post from Richard Treves outlining a possible solution to the problem with Google Tours that seems to affect people in version 7

Richard was hoping to join me at my Google Earth course, but unfortunately couldn't make it...

Maybe next 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.

Olympics Teaching Idea

Richard Treves has shared a nice idea for keeping that Olympic/Paralympic spirit alive when you return to school...
It's an idea for using the Touring and Historical slider features of Google Earth to explore the Olympic Park.
Check it out HERE.
One to consider for the first few weeks back and Geography 'Boot camp' skills activities before getting stuck into the meat of the curriculum that you have planned...

It's perhaps not too early to start thinking about future major sporting events which might gain from a post-Olympics interest in such things...
How about:

200 up...

This is the 200th post on this blog, which isn't a lot compared to the 3000 on Living Geography, but sometimes it's quality not quantity. The blog started back in 2006, and a workshop on Google Earth at the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers conference.
At the time I'd just got an RGS Innovative Geography Teaching award to produce Earth: a Users' Guide. Which turned into this blog.. Over the years since I've continued to make use of Google Earth, and explored creative ways of using it for fieldwork, coursework and story-telling. Tom Barrett and I had an application for a Google grant (not successful on that occasion) and I've also met up with Richard Treves who has similarly made really effective use of Google Earth in higher education.

Even in the last few days, there's been the appearance of this CARBON VISUALS resource which offers some interesting ways of exploring energy efficiency in the city of London and beyond.

And now we have the significant milestone of 1 billion downloads of Google Earth



Lot of news coverage:

"Google Earth is probably one of the most downloaded applications of all time in terms of raw numbers," product manager Peter Birch told AFP.

To provide context, Google Earth and Maps vice president of engineering Brian McClendon pointed out that a billion hours ago humans were living in the Stone Age and that a billion minutes ago the Roman Empire was flourishing.

"We're proud of our one billion milestone, but we're even more amazed at the way people have used Google Earth to explore the world," McClendon said.

"When we founded Keyhole, Inc. back in 2001 we never imagined our geospatial technology would be used by people in so many unexpected ways," he continued.

McClendon was a co-founder of startup Keyhole, which Google bought in 2004 and turned into the free online Earth atlas launched in June of the following year.

The service weaves satellite images and aerial photos into 3D interactive graphics which people can zoom into, starting from space and homing in on buildings or plots of land.

Google Earth stories include that of a professor from the University of Western Australia who used it to discover ancient tombs and geoglyphs without leaving Perth.

Professor David Kennedy scrutinized Google Earth recreations of thousands of square kilometers (miles) in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, discerning clues to the whereabouts of archeological treasures.

Retired English teacher Jerome Burg created Google Lit Trips, which uses Google Earth to let readers follow paths set in famous books such as "The Travels of Marco Polo" and "The Odyssey" by Homer.

Renowned oceanographer Sylvia Earle takes Google Earth users under the seas to rally allies in a quest to stop widespread devastation of marine life.

Conservation group Save the Elephants uses the Internet Age atlas to track and safeguard magnificent pachyderms.

Google Earth has been used to help clear land mines, rebuild earthquake-shattered towns, stop mining operations from blasting off mountain tops, teaching geography to children, or simply see one's home from above.

A US couple living in Ireland even used the online atlas to research an ideal place in Oregon to plant a vineyard.

They didn't see the property in person until it was time to close the deal that led to the founding of their dream winery, Grande Dalles.

"Nobody anticipated all the things people would do with Google Earth," Birch said.

"It's a little hard to know where people are going to take it next," he added. "The more you can raise awareness of how we impact the world, the more there will be a chance for change."

There's also the launch of ONE WORLD MANY STORIES

I'm going to be doing some writing next week for a new Google Earth feature which is due to be launched shortly.
Here's to the next billion downloads...

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.

Kokae

I've mentioned the KOKAE resource before on my Google Earth page, but for those who don't know, it's a series of video resources based on Google Earth.
A session was delivered to the GA Conference in April 2007 by Richard Treves, and this is now available for you to view HERE. This includes all details of the talk and lots of other materials. A very helpful resource.

I was unable to attend this session as I was delivering our 2 hour workshop on GIS, delivered by members of the GA Secondary Committee at the time.
The materials from the GA Conference are now appearing on the website.
There's plenty more of Geographical interest there...

SAGT Presentation Slides 105-107

Richard Treves will be at the GA Conferene in 2007 delivering a session on Google Earth. This will be well worth attending - providing it doesn't clash with my own workshop of course.