The rest of this article is at Juicy Geography Google Earth blog

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Panoramas for geography lessons
It all gets even better if you go to the Panoramas dk home page and start to explore. Try the drop down menu in the top right and prepare to be amazed by some of the potential. As a taster, have a look at this image of a weapon search in Rio de Janiero

One of my favourite sites, Digitally Distributed Environments, is at the forefront of this kind of technology. Dr Andy Smith has just published a 3D panorama of a suburban area. This is a brilliant settlement resource:

link to post I link to panorama

Panoramas inside Google Earth
Andy Smith of Digitally Distributed Environments has recently posted about a 3D panorama viewer for Google Earth that his team is developing.

Essentially the viewer allows you to fly into the 3D image which hovers above the actual location. There is a video that demonstrates the concept on the Digital Urban site and the viewer should be ready soon. It’s amazing stuff and I’m really hoping that I can get it working in my classroom, especially as a Digital Urban Flickr group has been set up to host panoramic images. Until now virtual fieldwork has been kind of uninspiring. How about one of Brick Lane Andy?

The new product is not designed to compete directly with Google Earth and isn’t really a consumer product, but a platform to publish GIS data. It is powered by ArcGIS Server and should be regarded as a series of globes with worldwide data on a range of topics. The globes will be called ArcGIS Online Services and encompass a range of themes, for example worldwide streets, terrain and physiography and more. The new virtual globe will be free, though you’d the full Arc GIS product to create new content. It remains to be seen whether ArcGIS Explorer will be a useful classroom tool, though ESRI do actively promote the use of their products in schools.
According to the podcast, ArcGIS Explorer is on the point of being rolled out. Link to download site

click to enlarge

This is a view of my house:

The site is fast and very easy to use, and sharing placemarks is very easy. I see this being used a lot in the classroom, where Google Earth is not available, or where the resolution is inadequate. Stefan Geens has posted a very helpful summary of the merits of Live Local / Virtual Earth 3D.

click to enlarge

Also on Ogle Earth a mention for the Google Earth airlines site. The BIG news here for teachers is that the site has a free movie capture program for Google Earth under development, MovieBuilder 4GE. I know that it doesn’t currently work for GE 4, because I’ve just had a go at testing it. It might be OK for V3 though. Please let me know if you get it working. When this application is finally sorted out, it could be an indispensible teaching tool. There’s also a sample of code to allow you to run Google Earth directly from inside Internet Explorer 6 via a plug-in. I’ll be testing this shortly (maybe!)

One of the submitted designs

Look out for SketchUp. Recently acquired by Google, this software is ideal for adding 3D models to Google Earth. A free license is available for teachers, and there’s a lot of scope for cross-curriculular work with ICT and Design Technology.