Google Earth new version

It's already been blogged about in loads of places, but there is a new version of Google Earth which adds Street View, imagery dating, day-night shadows etc...
Ollie Bray has produced a useful post summarising the key points, so I'll leave it to him to tell you. Click the link to discover the latest...

Google Earth INSET Courses

The DIGITAL EXPLORER site has kindly made available a range of training materials, and also some example resources made by people who have attended their training courses.
Thanks to Jamie Buchanan Dunlop for this. I'm going to be attending one of these courses which has been organised for Chartered Geographers later in the year.

The HANDBOOK is excellent !
Many thanks.

100th Post

This has been a while coming...

The first item in this post is the completion by Mark Beaumont of his round the world cycle trip. It is not too late to support
The 195 day trip was followed by Scottish geographer Val Vannet, who posted a daily update of where Mark was that day, using Google Earth and a range of other resources to locate him, and check out the amazing geography of the place that he was travelling to...
Check out the ARTEMIS web site, and the GEOBLOGGING WITH MARK blog, which is being labelled up, so that you can use it to explore the world.
Why not MAKE A DONATION to Mark's charities if you haven't already.

Also check out some great resources at the THINKINGEOGRAPHY blog of Dr Andrew Lee, who currently teaches in China. This includes the recent addition of a superb new resource using Google Earth in an exciting and original way, which I have missed out on using this year as I have just finished my China unit, but would be good to have some additional materials for next year.
This is the LIFE TRIPS WITH GOOGLE EARTH section.

Here's the description from the website:

LifeTrips with GoogleEarth is a new website attached to a Wikispace which allows you to look at the lives of people in different cities. Using Google Earth it tracks the day paths of people who live throughout the world and helps people connect with people in their own city, or in a city across the world.

The site can be visited by anyone, though school students, in association with their teachers may contribute to the site by registering, and then publishing material to the wikispace.

This website provides an index for the Wikispace in which the site’s assets reside.

LifeTrips with GoogleEarth is an invitation to communicate.

Check out the movies on people who live in BANGKOK, and the instructions are also provided on the website. This is a super resource.

Also has a great blog, with posts such as THIS ONE.

One to check out...

FSC Fieldwork Sites

Noticed tonight that certain of the Field Studies Council Study Centres have a Google Earth file to show the fieldwork locations that they use.

Here is an image from the Slapton Ley centre...
I visited this in the 1980s as part of my degree, and have also visited 3 or 4 of the others over the years...

Creating Graphs and then placing them in Google Earth

Noel J has posted about the new graphing application that has been made available by Frank McAree of Alcester Grammar School.
The application offers the chance to create easy graphs which can be viewed in Google Earth. It can be downloaded from HERE.
The code generates a graph which can then be tagged to a particular location in Google Earth.

Check it out. This has a few possible uses as a basic GIS for plotting values for coursework / enquiries.

Nice work all round.
Will investigate adding to this to the relevant page of the website.

Coming up to 100 posts....

What has been the most exciting use you've made of Google Earth in the Geography classroom. Which example has 'clicked' with the students the most, or what has been the best piece of work that has been produced by a student ?
Add a comment below.
Happy to showcase work that is sent to me...

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all my readers....

Here's one way to spend £1 million...

A couple of quickies

First of all, from CREATIVE REVIEW'S blog, come 4 scenes from the Bible 'as they would be seen on Google Earth'... Check them out.

Also news from Noel Jenkins that for those teachers using his classic MONTSERRAT lesson, the quality of the images has been much improved. I remember using this a few years ago, and having to use an overlay as most of the southern part of the island was covered in thick cloud.

Wii Controller for Google Earth

Just came across this from Joseph Coulston - dates back a year or so...

Rainforest Ad

One of my favourite sites: HOUTLUST has now reopened at OSOCIO.
Check out this very clever BRAZILIAN AD, which has a GOOGLE EARTH type slider. Try sliding the zoom out to see what happens....

New GOOGLE School resources

Got a glossy poster in school today advertising a new GOOGLE service: Google Schools.
There are a series of free resources which you might find useful.

The GOOGLE SCHOOL site features a good CARBON FOOTPRINT site for example.

Also featured are POPULATION DENSITY, NATURAL DISASTERS and FAIR TRADE.

Check them out.

Population Density Overlay

Just looking at a find via Kenny O Donnell, via Google Earth Blog.
We were looking at global patterns of population today, and mapping them. Now there is a great GOOGLE EARTH FILE (click the link to download) which overlays the anthropogenic biomes over the world...
Also on GE Blog is reminder about various Santa trackers for Google Earth

Cyclone Sidr Resources

BANGLADESH - Cyclone Sidr Resources

Tony Cassidy spent the October half term of this year in Bangladesh.
As part of his travels, he was asked to create a resource.
The week after he arrived back in England, CYCLONE SIDR hit Bangladesh: the worst cyclone since 1991.

Details of the CYCLONE can be seen on the BBC NEWS site, and there is a very detailed article from the DAILY TELEGRAPH here.

Lesson	Ideas	Resources
1	Rationale- why study this event?Formation of the Cyclone Sidr. Cyclone protection in Bangladesh.	PowerPoint with linked video and embedded animation.Student worksheet about the formation of the cyclone.
2	Causes, Impacts & Responses.	PowerPoint introducing classification task.Student worksheet-classification task.
3	How quickly will Bangladesh cover?	PowerPoint comparing development statistics of the U.K. and Bangladesh.Student response worksheet.
4,5,6	Levelled assessment.	Students to produce a PowerPoint storyboard about the cyclone for B.B.C. news 24.Task worksheet. Assessment criteria. Outline PowerPoint.

The resources are a hefty 26Mb download.

If you use the resources, please make a donation to the OXFAM DISASTER RELIEF FUND. Click the link below, or the logo at the top of this post.

OXFAM DISASTER RELIEF FUND

Lots of new GE stuff

All on GE Blog.
Highlight is the ARCTIC ICE ANIMATION.

Jamie, Ollie ver (y good...)

Do you see what I did there ?
The free Google Earth courses mentioned below, run by Jamie from Digital Explorer are getting good reviews.I'm booked into one of the courses for (ahem) advanced users next year...

Ollie Bray went to one, and has since posted his notes and in an iterative way has referenced this blog, which I'll now link back to his...
Check out OLLIE's POSTING (which has some very useful GOOGLE VIDEO clips)