Google Earth Ireland - Recently Updated Pages

Welcome to the World...

ricardoo3 — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:08:13 CDT

Hi, my name is Richard Webb and I am currently working on a dissertation which aims to provide examples of the latest developments and benefits Google Earth is providing specifically in the context of Irish geographic teaching. My main interest is in virtual fieldwork, which offers opportunities for students and educators to highlight areas of interest on GE and combine it with text, still and moving images. Content is growing every week so hopefully you will get involved by downloading interesting lessons, layers and attachments for Google Earth. In return for my efforts I would appreciate if you would complete the short and anonymous online survey here.

Video Tutorials on Google Earth	Virtual Fieldwork Lessons
Using Google Earth in Word / Publisher	Download layers and lessons for Google Earth
LINKS You have to start somewhere You mean to say you don't have Google Earth installed on your computer! Well no time like the present. Get it here. A Finger on the Pulse Jamie Buchanan-Dunlop is director of inomad and operates Digital Explorer in the UK as well as being a grass roots Geography teacher. He first wetted my appetite for virtual fieldwork at a course he led at the RGS in London. His fantastic blog gives a personal account on the good, bad and ugly of all things relating to technology in the geography classroom. On the topic of ugly, check out what he has to say on one of my deepest frustrations and ongoing battles: the blocking power of multimedia devices in schools: Why are schools so afraid of web 2.0? The Guardian online also had its say on the issue: http://education.guardian.co.uk/elearning/story/0,,2074232,00.html He has a lot to offer and hopefully he will visit Ireland in the near future to provide some inspiration to the web 2.0 nation! Where did you get those gloves? People are always asking if that is me with the lit up gloves in the picture above. No, maybe soon it will be but at present I should respect these folks! What an amazing invention and something you could try with the students. 2 LEDs, 2 ping ball balls and a projector and eh presto watch the demo video here: http://atlasgloves.org/demo or visit the website. I don't have time to make gloves! Well try this instead. For the price about 30 Euro you can have a 3D connexion Space Navigator. It uses sensors to allow total freedom of movement within Google Earth. Say goodbye to the pesky mouse. You can purchase the navigator here www.amazon.co.uk .The demo video below is class and will put you right in the mood to own this little piece of kit. Make sure you have the volume up. I want to be educated on general Google Earth Stuff Well fear not... here is another site on wetpaint that will take care of your all round Google Earth needs. Learn about future developments and download/discuss interesting images and layers at: http://googleearthblog.wetpaint.com/page/News Are you a Geography Geek? Well, at the moment, I suppose I am judging by the time spend building this site up. Anyway, if you feel the need to expand your knowledge then check out Geograhy Geek which charts IT developments and resources in Geography teaching. Don't believe what they say... Here is a handy site to measure your true Internet upload and download speed. It is pretty common for providers to sell you x amount when in reality you are getting ...click here to find out. This site is oozing with geography ideas Noel Jenkins site focuses on ICT and GIS in Geography classrooms. The official education portal of the Department of Education and Science in Ireland. Managed and developed by the National Centre for Technology in Education.	BLOG 18/04/08 TUTORIALS ARRIVE! Great stuff has been happening the last couple of days. I have worked out how to record the desktop on the computer so that you can listen and watch Google Earth video tutorials. This is a major step forward and I hope you enjoy my efforts. The first tutorial focuses on adding placemarks with photos/video and can be found below. This video was featured on teachertube and in four days was watched 2000 times! PART 1 ADDING PLACEMARKS USING GPS PART 2 ADDING IMAGES TO PLACEMARKS PART 3 ADDING VIDEO TO PLACEMARKS 09/04/08 UPLOADING VIDEO So Teacher Tube finally allowed us to upload a video. They say upload is unlimited but don't get to excited, anymore than 15mb and it is likely to crash! Instead you have to reduce the quality of videos you make. There is an excellent free converter you can get here. I would recommend selecting mp4 and best quality to get a 100mb film down to 7mb. If your video is more than 5 mins start breaking it up into parts. This is quite common and can be done very simply using Windows Movie Maker. Anyway, here is the result below. The 3 minute movie focuses on urban regeneration and contested Space in Belfast. Remember you can do all this yourself by setting up a tour. See the virtual fieldwork page and video tutorial page for more information. Here is the version with text and music on Youtube And, as Teachertube can't deal with large files, here is it without tet and music... NEW VIRTUAL TOUR! Here is another attempt at creating a video tour in Google Earth, this time using the course of the River Liffey as it meanders through Dublin. My latest headache is the video server teacher tube. Basically they are awful but on the plus side schools can access the content. The quality of upload is so poor I would not subject anyone to my videos on teacher tube at present. If you are in a school in Ireland and want to watch this tour the best thing is to view it on Google Earth here. If you can watch you tube then lucky you! Click on the video below. I have worked out teacher tube is an American server so if you upload out of US time it seems to work better. Why is something so simple so hard. If I could get some finance I would build my own media provider and shake up the NCTE. It is slowly sucking the life out of anyone with an interest in ICT in Ireland. Their lastest trick was to block google and yahoo images a stable of any teacher who wanta to make displays more interesting. They claim there is a virus in the system by it ain't harming me or anyone else round the world. I think we would have heard about it. 08/04/08 DARFUR CRISIS ON GOOGLE EARTH Here is a link to a super layer from the United Nations Outreach Programme. It weaves together satellite maps, photos, videos and eyewitness accounts to give viewers a close-up look at the refugee crises in Iraq, Chad, Columbia and Darfur in Sudan. Download to Google Earth here 18/03/08 JUST LOOK AT WHAT GOOGLE EARTH CAN DO! I came across this tonight. The first video is a flight over the Swiss Alps. The second is Noel Jenkins (from Juicy Geography) attempt to copy it using Google Earth. Surely this is the one if the finest examples of the power and realism of the software. You will have to stop one video now and again to get them in sequence but that in itself is part of the fun. However, if you want someone to do it for you then I know a nice Spanish man click here 14/03/08 GOING PRO! Good news today. Received two free copies of Google Earth Pro worth $800 in light of the work I am doing in promoting GE. This means I can record movies on GE to show my work on this site. It also means a whole lot of other stuff but that is for another day. 10/03/08 The earlier problems regarding my website access through schools have been fixed. The NCTE were surprisingly helpful and my thanks goes to them. Tomorrow I will attempt my first case study of virtual fieldwork using the pupils from St. Michael's Special Needs School in Dublin (my school). The full lesson can be viewed on the virtual fieldwork page here. It is aimed at primary level and the subject is 'creating a virtual tour of Brazil'. My GPS arrived at the weekend so advanced virtual fieldwork is on the way. Keep an eye out for that over Easter. 29/02/08 CONTOL FREAKS! First contact with NCTE today. An informal phone call as I realised while showing a colleague my site that none of the attachments can be download by schools. The dangers of being bored by a Google Earth file are too great it appears. They were nice on the phone mind you and I await a call from the superior on Monday but this does not exactly enamour teachers to create content in Ireland. While waiting for the NTCE to decide how they will deal with the 'real' world you can read what Jerome Morrissey, director of the NCTE had to say on the matter last year. From what I gather he is resigned in a positive way to web 2.0 in schools but still believes they can control the content by selecting relevant material. At the end of the day this is impossible. They are proud of the fact they have sanctioned 27 million websites, but what about the 7 billion web-pages they intend to control? Even if this was possible they are still intent on blocking priceless shareware sites. What they need to look at are ways of blocking key word searches on sites such as youtube as they do at present on search engines. Blocked sites can be annoying but restrictions are lifted within 24 hours, so at least the control is not totally restrictive as I am finding at present. 27/02/08 AD FREE! Well tonight was a good night for the site. I got rid of the ads thanks to wikipaint recognising ad free in education. I have added some more to the GE layer and word pages and got an email from Amazon saying the GPS is in the post. Watch this space! 25/02/08 BIG BROTHER At present I am in a process of communication with The National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE) to try and change their short-term attitudes to web 2.0 and sites such as youtube and google videos. Why do they not realise the value media-sharing sites and web 2.0 can give in engaging children with other communities around the world and in providing up to date and hugely relevant lesson material for educators? I for one cannot post virtual fieldwork properly without the use of youtube to en-bed video on GE. Instead we must use teachertube that Jamie points out is slow and contains a constant stream of inappropriate advertising. Are they saying children cannot access just as much junk elsewhere by blocking certain web 2.0 sites. We have waited long enough to get broadband into schools so why can't we access it before it all goes out of date and we are left behind on ICT matters even more.

Combining GE in Word/Publisher

ricardoo3 — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:15:42 CDT

This page will outline how Google Earth can be utilised in Microsoft word/publisher so that teachers can create and enhance lesson handouts while pupils can bring a whole new dimension to their geography investigations and projects. I have included some of my own work using various techniques that can be downloaded by clicking on the examples below. A basic 6 step tutorial can be found below with a guide to the attachments. A video tutorial is in the pipeline on this subject soon.

Attachment 1	Attachment 2
Attachment 3	Attachment 4

TOP TIP: I recommend Microsoft Publisher as it makes it alot easier to move multiple images around a page. Word can be incredible frustrating when trying to do this.

There are 2 ways to get a Google Earth image onto a Word/Publisher document.
1. In GE go to file, save, save picture. OR to save cropping and editing the picture in word you can use the snipping
tool (windows vista users only) to select the area you want to save as a jpeg. This tool is basically an advanced version of the screen-shot function and will save you loads of time.
2. Now you have the GE earth image saved as a jpeg it is time to import it into word. insert, picture, from file.
3. Make sure you have picture and drawing tools turned on (go to tools and tick)
4. To get word to recognise the picture so that you can move it around and edit it easily turn the picture 90 degrees then back again using the picture tools.
5. resize, crop and change contrast if necessary.
6. Use the drawing tool to combine images to text boxes, photos and scanned images all adding to the visual appeal of the document.
Okay that is basically it. Good luck and don't be afraid to post your results here!
TOP TIP: Have just realised that using Microsoft Publisher allows you to move pictures around more easily. They go where you want them to go. The tools are the same as word so I would highly recommend it.

Attachment 1: This is probably my most ambitious attempt at google earth in word. I first scanned a map, then coloured each section using paint. Then I added the map using the (add) image overlay tab in GE. You then have to position the map over the desired area, in this case Dublin before selecting the transparency of the overlay using the bar on the middle left of GE. All in all this took forever, but like anything the next attempt will be much quicker.

Attachment 2: Here I have combined various maps of Dundalk from 1650 to 1940's to show how the original town has expanded. The axis of the first street layout has been clearly marked on the image taken from Google Earth meaning viewers are able to compare a wide range of past and present data.

Attachment 3: This work was carried out for a project on the Wide Streets Commissioners for Dr. Brady during my second year. I used the drawing tools in Word to highlight the proposed plans of the commissioners and then compared how there work is viewed today using Google Earth some 250 years later.

Attachment 4: Marino in Dublin was the first Garden Suburb in Ireland. For this plate I used my own photos and showed the locations on Google Earth with a short commentary.

Download Google Earth layers and lessons

ricardoo3 — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 08:25:58 CDT

Here are my favouite layers and lesson ideas that you can use in conjunction with Google Earth. You may need to save the kml layer to your desktop before opening it from Google Earth. Please help us develop this section by discussing teaching experiences using the layers and lessons, as well as adding your own ideas.

The Weather Watch as students realise they can look at weather maps covering anywhere in the world! Attachment 1: Europe Attachment 2: Global but infrared Attachment 3: The weather channel satellites on GE	Geographic Super Layer This SuperLayer allows access to the thousands of images contributed to Geograph of the UK and Ireland. The intent is to have a picture for every quarter mile of land. Attachment 1: Geograph
Earthquakes With this download you can watch real time earthquakes from around the globe and measure their size and magnitude. Add to that learning material developed by Noel Jenkins based around students developing a safer San Francisco City using Google Earth, Google Maps, video and the internet. A really worthwhile effort. Attachment 1: USGS Real Time Earthquake Viewer Link to Noel Jenkins Earthquake Lesson	Volcanoes come alive! Well you can't have one without the other so here is the volcano layer. Info is supplied by the Global Volcanism Programme (sounds scary!) and they include details and a photo for each one. Attachment 1: Volcanoes

Virtual Fieldwork

ricardoo3 — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 07:46:13 CDT

This page highlights lessons using virtual fieldwork on Google Earth.

Here is the first and most basic virtual fieldwork lesson I have tried out with students using Google Earth. The class have been studying Brazil so I got them to create a virtual tour which consisted of 3 basic steps. 1. find locations of interest, 2. add information they had prepared on each place, 3. add a photo using basic html. The full 10 step lesson is below. You can download it here if you want to print it as an example. The virtual tour we created is located here and will open on Google Earth when clicked.

TOP TIPS! Change the setting for touring on Google Earth before opening KMZ files. Go to Options, touring and slow it all down! Also, make sure the open balloon option is ticked so that you can see the full placemark information.

Virtual Fieldtrip of Brazil

You have been learning all about Brazil in Senior 6 and today I want you to add that knowledge and interest you have into a short virtual fieldtrip using Google Earth. Once we have completed the work I will put the tour on my website ‘googleearthireland.com’ so that interested schools and teachers can look at the information you have created. We will work at the same speed so that I can show you each step on the projector before you complete it.

Here is the work for today.

1. Getting to know Google Earth on the large projector screen.
2. Next, on your own PC you will each be given one place you have learned about during your class project on Brazil to find on Google Earth.
They are listed below.
Christ the Redeemer 1, The Favelas 2, The Maracana 3, The Rainforest 4, Street Children 5, Copacabana beach 6
3. Once you have found the place you then have to add a place mark. To do this:
- click on the yellow pin at the top of the GE screen.
- give the placemark a title.
- change the placemark to a different icon by clicking on the pin.
- Change the icon to the correct number (see your place above)
4. Type in the information you have prepared into the placemark description box.
5. Now you need to get a photo to go with the information.
- find a picture using Google images
- save the image to the desktop
- right click image and select open with Internet explorer
- In the description box on Google Earth type in <img src=”
- Then copy and paste the file path you see at the top of the picture in Internet explorer.
- then add “> at the end of the image path Check your picture is added to the placemark by clicking on it..
6 . Set the view you want to show of the placemark then right click and select ‘snapshot view’. This will safe your view for the tour later.
7. Now you have created your placemark we need to get them all onto one computer so that we can run a tour.
8. Using the memory stick save you placemark
- right click on placemark in the ‘places’ folder on the right hand side.
- save to memory stick.
9. We will now work as a team to change the speed and effects of the tour.
10. Presentation to class of work completed. Well done! k

Here is an example of one of the placemarks created.

The Pupils enjoy the fruits of their labours...

Video Tutorials on Google Earth

ricardoo3 — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 04:49:34 CDT

Below is a 3 part video showing you how to add gps, photos and video to placemarks in Google Earth. I hope you enjoy them!

PART 1

ADDING GPS PLACEMARKS IN GOOGLE EARTH

PART 2 ADDING IMAGES TO GOOGLE EARTH

PART 3 ADDING VIDEO TO GOOGLE EARTH

Please complete the survey

ricardoo3 — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:24:40 CDT

Previous Blog entries

ricardoo3 — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:40:04 CDT

25/02/08

At present I am in a process of communication with The National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE) to try and change their short-term attitudes to web 2.0 and sites such as youtube and google videos. Why do they not realise the value media-sharing sites and web 2.0 can give in engaging children with other communities around the world and in providing up to date and hugely relevant lesson material for educators? I for one cannot post virtual fieldwork properly without the use of youtube to en-bed video on GE. Instead we must use teachertube that Jamie points out is slow and contains a constant stream of inappropriate advertising. Are they saying children cannot access just as much junk elsewhere by blocking certain web 2.0 sites. We have waited long enough to get broadband into schools so why can't we access it before it all goes out of date and we are left behind on ICT matters even more.
Watch this space!