EveryTrail is one of my favourite iPhone Apps (related post) and the good news is that it now appears as an official layer in Google Earth (found in the Gallery layer) It’s a web-based application that lets you create and share journeys, along with associated stories and images.
EveryTrail round my block
I discovered a couple of my Trails in the layer that I created with my iPhone (download above example in Google Earth), though the pictures are (as expected) pretty dreadful.
It’s not necessary to use an iPhone – you can upload any .gpx file from a GPS device to create a trail. If you don’t have a GPS it’s no problem, simply mark a path on the map provided. You can import photos from a Flickr account, and if they’re geotagged, they’ll automatically show up in the right spot.
EveryTrail is a great option for fieldwork notes and images, and is quite simple enough for students to use independently. The ease with which trails can be created shared, displayed and seamlessly viewed with Google Earth make it a really great classroom application.
I thought Daniel Raven-Ellison’s Urban Earth project  was the most single most inspiring new geographical resource for teachers this year. In homage, I decided to (re)present my neighbourhood:
Until recently the simplest option for getting charts into Google Earth was Frank Macree’s Google Chart builder, but it no longer works (except in the Mac version of Google Earth) due to a Flash security update? The alternatives have been  GE Graph – which is a little too complicated for younger students, but produces superb prism type geo-located graphs, and online spreadsheets that can publish charts such as Google Spreadsheets, however these require an account, and therefore can be impractical in the classroom.
The solution would seem to be Rich Chart Live – as mentioned by Simon Renshaw at the SLN forum and Doug Belshaw at elearnr. This web – based app is free to use and doesn’t even require registration. Just choose a chart style, paste some data from an Excel sheet into a Flash form and tweak some settings. The output from  Rich Chart Live is embeddable – as seen in this rather silly example:
 The embed code works in Google Earth placemarks:
Brilliant – the classroom implications of this should be fairly clear! For those unsure of the procedure – just create a placemark and paste the embed code from the video into the description box.
I’m coming to the end of a very happy relationship with my Nikon D40, and about to buy a new camera with a bit more resolution and low light capablility, that will complement the ferociously expensive secondhand 17-35 f2.8 lens I found in my local shop last weekend.
I got really into photography this year but am still no clearer about understanding the elements of a “good” picture. I’m mainly into landscapes (obviously) and have selected 6 of my favourite pictures below. It would be brilliant if readers could take a quick look and vote for the one you like best. Even better to explain why in a comment – but don’t feel obliged.
China Clay
Wave Cut Platform
Eilean Donan Castle
Don't go chasing...
Jurassic Shipwreck
Magic Isles
Please vote for the best photo
Eilean Donan Castle (30%, 31 Votes)
Jurassic Shipwreck (23%, 24 Votes)
Magic Isles (20%, 21 Votes)
Wave Cut Platform (17%, 18 Votes)
Don't go chasing... (8%, 8 Votes)
China Clay (2%, 3 Votes)
Total Voters: 105
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Thanks very much for voting!
Update 23/12/08
The poll has closed and it’s been a very interesting experiment. The castle picture became our family Christmas card. I still think that the best landscape is the Lofoten Islands picture because of the quality of the light. However my favourite image is the least popular – the China clay pit. Viewed large, I like the composition and the juxtaposition of the pipe, the pit and the moors behind. I also like the subtlety of the colours, which my new lens (currently being repaired) was partly responsible for.
Don’t miss an essential resource for teaching settlement. Dan Raven-Ellison’s latest project, Urban Earth, is a simple, yet inspired concept: to walk across major cities, stopping every 8 steps to take a photograph.
Urban Earth
The outcome of an Urban Earth walk is a mesmerizing time-lapse film composed of thousands of still images. There’s no soundtrack to divert attention from the journey.
The archive of Urban Earth adventures is bound to grow over time as others take up the initiative. At the moment the project comprises films from London, Mexico City and Mumbai.
Urban Earth films can be viewed and downloaded in very high quality from the blip.tv page.
DoodleBuzz is a stunning method to explore the news. Lets say for example you were teaching about rainforests. Head for DoodleBuzz, enter the topic and draw a doodle. Be amazed as the latest headlines appear along the sketch. Summaries and related stories appear with more doodling.
DoodleBuzz Rainforests
If you like DoodleBuzz you might want to try some other relational browser applications like: Webpages as Graphs
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