A quick demo of how easy it is to the new Google Earth 5 plugin, which supports tours. No understanding of KML is necessary, simply record your tour, save as .kmz and upload to a web location. The Embedded Tour Player Gadget provides the required embed code. The Google Earth plugin needs to be enabled in the user’s browser.
To avoid irritating people without the Google Earth plugin, I’ve moved the demonstration to this page
My example illustrates Ethiopia’s controversial (aren’t they all?) Gibe III hydroelectric dam project, due to be completed in 2011. Great BBC resources here.
Here’s a short video to demonstrate AR Sights, an augmented reality application that uses a webcam and marker to display 3D models from Google Earth on your desk. The resulting output is really compelling; models can be resized rotated and moved around as illustrated in the video.
Here’s a quick mention of Thematic Mapping blog in which Bjørn Sandvik describes a number of data visualization techniques using Google Earth. Since I’m teaching about the Green Revolution tomorrow, I wanted to find a suitable animation to impress the class. A Google search led me to Bjorn’s blog and a kml file on the human population explosion that was perfect for my needs. The file can be found on this page, and is illustrated in the video:
I’m sure that many other geographers will find the population animation (and many of the other resources at Thematic Mapping) very useful.
Another discovery on Thematic Mapping, was Matt Giger’s EarthBrowser site tracker. I love EarthBrowser and was interested in this embeddable version. I tried it out but found that it currently seems to prevent Safari from scrolling properly.
I need to teach the Aral Sea to a GCSE class tomorrow. Aware of schemes to save part of the Aral, I used the Time Slider feature in Google Earth 5 to check the imagery for the area. Amazingly, the  whole ecological catastrophe is covered by the imagery database. I made a brief  video to illustrate:
Google Earth isn’t just an essential resource for teaching the Aral Sea issue, it’s a powerful political tool and students should be aware of this. Governments are becoming increasingly accountable in the face of unequivocal evidence from the Google database which has revealed slum clearance in Zimbabwe and genocide in Darfur. The Aral Sea crisis was kept secret for many years, and while Google Earth reveals the astonishing rate of evaporation, it is interesting to note that the current image (if it is indeed the most recent) does appear to show a slight reversal of fortunes.
Finally, could it be that Street View is coming to the UK in March?  I’ve heard a rumour
It’s unlikely to have escaped anyone’s notice that Google Earth 5 has been released, bringing a number of interesting additions and tweaks. These are briefly introduced in the official video from Google:
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So what’s in the new release for teachers?Â
Firstly, it seems that Google’s entire imagery archive is now available via the new History icon.Â
History icon
 A nice way to try this feature is to find the Superdome in New Orleans, (placemark) and examine the hurricane damage and subsequent repairs.
Digital Urban blog was quick to identify the teaching potential here, for example students might find examples of set-aside land, or new developments in the urban rural fringe. Here’s a video example of the latter:
Interestingly, Google are not always displaying the most up to date data. In the video example, the site of News International’s new print works is seen pre and post construction. However at the time of writing, the default imagery for this location is the 2003 tile. (see placemark)Â Possibly Google regard the Sun as a potential terrorist target?Â
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 Google Ocean is best explored by expanding the new Layer:
The new Ocean Layer
 There’s a huge variety of resources included in the Ocean Layer from BBC Blue Planet video clips, to marine expeditions and underwater features. Dive under the shimmering sea to immerse yourself in 3D topography of features like the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, or follow sharks around – see Ollie Bray. Note that the ocean will prove impenetrable unless the terrain checkbox is ticked.
Tours have been made easier with a dedicated icon button:
New Tour feature
Clicking the icon activates a pair of controls:
Tour control buttons
The red button records pretty much everything that happens on the screen – including navigation, and the opening of placemark balloons. The microphone icon allows voice recording, extending the possibilities for classroom activities. Vocaroo remains a necessity for embedding audio within placemark balloons see previous post. I’ve found the microphone feature to be be buggy on the Mac version, requiring a restart for each new recording, but the Windows version is fine. It’s brilliant that tours can be saved as KML- no more need to fudge around with  movie files – just click the disc icon on the controls.Â
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It might prove that some of the most important developments for the classroom may well be found in the less well-documented features. The GPS functionality that was previously available in Google Earth Plus has been incorporated into GE5. Now you can import GPS fieldwork data direct from a handheld device and live tracking is possible.Â
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Finally, the most significant advance could be a hidden feature that will be useful to content developers. Placemark balloons can now display a greater variety of html tags, including iframe content and CSS. It’s possible to insert a Google Docs presentation into a placemark for example.Â
Google Docs inside Google Earth
Valery 35 discovered that a Google Map is another example of embeddable content, as are BBC Class Clips videos, even without embed code, via a discrete method that I only reveal by special request!
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There’s now so much more scope to create some really stunning new content. Exciting times (and a quick Mac update hopefully) lie ahead!
Here’s a sampler of some new ideas I’ve been developing as part of an online resource to support the new GCSE AQA syllabus A.
Students are presented with an actual brownfield site in Google Earth, together with an imaginary development plan, represented as extruded polygons. They can demolish the buildings and create their own versions, or just edit the exemplar files.
Brownfield redevelopment - what would you do?
To demonstrate their understanding of the principles of sustainable urban redevelopment, students edit the KML with ideas on how the buildings can be used. More able students will refer specifically to the socio-economic geography and environment of Shoreditch to justify their ideas.
The actual resource contains a detailed KML file and lots of supporting files including images, panoramas and video, as well as an extended webquest style teaching activity. I hope to be able to publish a couple of exemplars here in due course.
The aim is to create an alternative to standard textbook-type questions, while promoting independent enquiry, creativity and spatial thinking.
In the meantime, Digital Geography is in a minor hiatus while I endeavour to meet the deadlines!
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.
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