Andy Hudson-Smith of Digitally Distributed Environments has added a Google Earth overlay in the form of a London map from 1690. It would make an excellent teaching resource for both geography annd history lessons.
At first glance, I felt that the positioning of the 1609 map was a little out. However, after some considerable time fiddling around with it I can’t claim to have made any real improvement on the original overlay!
I’m rapidly talking myself into getting a smartphone. Not just for the live GPS tracking (see previous post), but because of concepts like Semapedia. In essence, Semapedia is about tagging real world locations with internet-based information, via a mobile phone. This could be a great (and highly subversive) fieldwork activity. Ogle Earth has posted an interesting article about Semapedia, together with a link to a Google Earth file for viewing some of the recently tagged locations.
I’ve printed out my first Semapedia tags – can you guess where they are going?
update 29/1/06 – I’ve just addded my first Semipedia tagged image to Flickr. The image is also tagged with the Flickr Fly script – see this page for more details
Ricoh have introduced a new camera which is able to add location data to photos as they are taken. This would be brilliant for fieldwork. An idea of the likely cost, and more details about the camera may be found at GeoSpatial Experts
This is just too easy! Locapoint provides an exceptionally simple way of annotating Google Maps. It’s also free! The only problem I’ve discovered is that the resulting code breaks this blog page. I’ll investigate further. The example shows the location of my previous post about the Charmouth landslip. It took about 30 seconds!
A big thanks to All Points Blog for highlighting this one!
I’ve now added the map to a page on Juicy Geography
Earlier last week the BBC reported a “dramatic rescue” of fossil hunters, cut off on a rising tide by a large landslide in the unstable Jurassic cliffs at Charmouth, Dorset, UK.
I have made an animation to explain the cause of the slump, or at least, what I think happened!
click the image to run the animation
The animation is made in Koolmoves. I really like this program, it’s much easier than Flash to learn, and it’s very good value for money. Some more of my animations may be found here.
I visited the site of the landslide to take some photographs, which can be seen at Flickr.
More information about the Jurassic coast here. Southampton University have a number of pages devoted to the geology of the region and this site has some useful visualizations about the mass movement processess operating locally. Fossil hunters might be interested in a description of the fossil-bearing strata and field guide found here.
Thanks to Ogle Earth, I discovered that the service provided by 3D Tracking.net will allow live tracking of students on a Google Map.
A child could be outside the classroom conducting a fieldwork experiment, while their location is fed back live to the rest of the group. There could be scope for various kinaesthetic activities based around maps – what is the straightest / quickest / most scenic route between places? for example. I’ve sought advice from the company who tell me that the quickest way into the world of live tracking is via a secondhand mobile phone like the Nokia 6600 from a well-known auction site and a Bluetooth GPS receiver from the same source. Initial calculations suggest that the total outlay could be around £100.00 – £120.00
There was a recent and rather short-lived discussion on the value of mobiles at SLN recently! Maybe this thread could be extended in light of this development.
I’m intent on trying this out, but its been pointed out to me that I need to have some slightly more focussed ideas as to the educational value before committing to a hardware purchase. That’s never stopped me before, and I do need a new phone…
Lynmouth on the 14th January
The surf is going off today. That’s not common at Lynmouth and it’s a long way from the main North Devon surf beaches. So why is it so crowded? Where are all the surfers coming from, and do they use the internet to make the decision? Local surfers have prevented a webcam from being installed and even Magic Seaweed, the ultimate surf forecasting site doesn’t mention this spot for fear of upsetting the locals.
The screenshot below displays desire lines that represent the origin of 15 surfers visiting Lynmouth on 14th January.
Respondents were asked for their postcode, which was converted into latitude and longitude using the converter at Nearby.org.uk The data was pasted into a spreadsheet and converted to a .kml file using Earth Plot software.
I also asked respondents whether they had used the internet to help them plan their surfing that day. The local surfers at Lynmouth are opposed to a webcam or online forecast for this area because of the overcrowding. I added this information as a simple post in EarthPlot, and edited the icon within Google Earth. Surfers who had looked at the internet for infomation about surfing conditions at other North Devon spots are shown with a webcam symbol.
Download Gogle Earth file: Lynmouth surfers
The results show that even local surfers use the internet before setting out to the beach. It may not be too long before Lynmouth does get a webcam although I doubt it would be a permanent fixture judging by the reactions of those who live in the town!
Please note that this isn’t a serious research project – just an opportunity to work with Earth Plot. A full review of this application is due to follow soon.
photos
click to enlarge
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