Google Geo Teachers Institutes announced for London and Dublin, June 2012

Great news that the Google Geo Teachers Institute will be coming to England and Ireland this summer. The two day professional development events are free and are designed to help teachers get the most out of Google’s suite of Geo tools including Google Earth, Google Maps and SketchUp.

Dates for the events are June 13-14 in Dublin and June 20-21 in London. Both events will be held at the Google offices in those cities.

Teachers can apply online (closing date for applications is 30 April) and find out more in the recent Google Lat Long blog post.

At Digital Explorer, we’ve loved using Google Earth on our expeditions from the Antarctic to Morocco. Also have a look at our blog post 40+ ideas on using Google Earth and Maps in the classroom and our range of manuals to support the use of Google Earth and Maps in the classroom and beyond.

Look forward to seeing you at the events this summer.

We must protect not only what we understand

Marine protection is immensely important. Human society depends on the seas and the life in them being healthy for the fishing industry and so much more.

We are only beginning to understand these links and so we must protect not only what we understand.

I commend this plan for striking a good balance and note the important fact that the government now has a legal duty to protect our seas.

Interesting comment thrown up by Richard Black’s article on the latest bid to extend the marine protected areas around the UK from less than 1% to about 20%.

100 potential Marine Conservation Zones have been mapped out around the UK and will be officially designated as such, or not, within a year or so.

There is much work to do – but it can, and will, be done.

There is much more to oceans than fish.

There must be value before there is momentum to ‘protect,’ yet as the concerned member of the public mentions above, ‘we must protect not only what we understand.’

This is the challenge! Get out and about and explore the oceans!

New ocean floor data in Google Oceans

From the Google Lat Long blog – exciting developments…

Only a tiny fraction of our oceans have ever been explored. As a matter of fact, we know more about the surfaces of Mars and the Moon than we do about our own ocean floor. So in honor of World Oceans Day, we collaborated with Columbia University to add more ocean seafloor terrain to Google Earth than has ever been available before. With the addition of Columbia’s Global Multi-Resolution Topography (GMRT) synthesis data, you can explore half the ocean area that has ever been mapped, an area larger than North America.

Expedition Websites (Content pt 1)

Content is king. Without good content, all the other effort you put into your website will be a waste of time and you will lose visitors. There are two types of content: static and dynamic. Static content describes the content that you usually type once and doesn’t change, such as information about your project and team. Dynamic content describes the updates that you send during the expedition, often in the form of a blog. A common technical distinction is that static content is contained within pages and dynamic content is contained within (blog posts). (more…)

Expedition Websites (Basics)

There is an unspoken rule that every expedition must have a website, in some ways akin to the current phenomenon that nothing actually happens unless it is posted on Facebook. However, underlying this accepted norm is something that reaches into what 21st Century exploration is all about.

If exploration is the process of discovering new knowledge about our planet and its people, should we not be in the process of training local researchers to do the job for us, gradually relegating these overseas to nostalgia. What gives the current model legitimacy?

I would argue that it is the transformative power of the journey that results in so many of those involved in exploration and expeditions becoming passionate advocates and activists for environments and issues the world over, that is crucial. Expeditions return to the UK wild-eyed and passionate, capable of exciting, inspiring and sharing their experiences and discoveries. (more…)

Google Earth climate change map unveiled

The Google Earth layer prepared for the FCO and Met Office is featured on Channel 4 News. It is the most complex Google Earth layer that Digital Explorer has created to date and we are very proud that it has got such exposure.

We look forward to the layer being used in classrooms across the world to inspire young people to make a difference and seize the opportunity to develop green enterprise and technologies.

The layer can be downloaded from the FCO website.

Google Earth Expedition Gallery #5 – Shimshal Expedition

This is the fifth entry in a series of expedition based Google Earth tours from Digital Explorer.

Download the Google Earth tour – Road to Shimshal 2006

You will need Google Earth to view the tour. If you don’t have Google Earth, you can download it for free:

Contact Digital Explorer, if you would like to make a Google Earth tour for your expedition or fieldwork.

GIS session at the RGS

(more…)

40+ ideas on using Google Earth and Maps in the classroom

These are some teaching ideas to accompany the Digital Explorer presentations at the Playful Learning Zone at BETT this year. Come and see us to find out more.

First things first, if you don’t have Google Earth, download it for your own computer and then be sure to pester the IT office to download it for your school. See the Digital Explorer research if you need to make a case to senior management. To use Google Maps fully you will need to have a Google account, sign up if you haven’t already.

Virtual Atlas
(more…)

BETT Google Earth and Google Maps presentation

Here’s a copy of the presentation to accompany the talks at the Playful Learning Zone at this year’s BETT show.

This year, we talked about how to progress with using Google Earth and Google Maps in the classroom all the way from using them as virtual atlases to using them as a base for local area projects and recording school trips and projects.

For a range of teaching ideas across the curriculum see the post 40+ ideas on using Google Earth and Maps in the classroom.