Google launched their KML in Research Competition today with a host of prizes, fame and fortune at stake. KML is the programming language used in Google Earth, and the judges are seeking examples of research where KML is used.
Entries will be judged on their usability, educational value, visual appeal and efficiency.
For more details and information on how to enter visit the Google For Educators pages.
Found this photograph in a file. The local government in Yunnan Province, China, changed the name of the town of Gyalthang to Shangri-la to encourage tourism. So that’s that debate put to rest! Any other mythical places reinvented as tourist destinations?
The website for the Offscreen Student Expedition 2008 site won the Y Design Award for Best Community site. Congratulations to the team - Chris, Ciara, Colin and John - and it’s great to see their hard work pay off.
It also shows how important good design is in breaking down barriers between different cultures.
The Offscreen Student Expedition 2008 was a collaboration between Digital Explorer and the Offscreen Education Programme and was supported by HSBC, the British Council, the Said Foundation and Gulf Air.
From the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), sounds like an amazing experience…
Gap Experience Scholarships available for young geographers
Could any of your current A2 students or recent school leavers benefit from an overseas gap experience before university but would need additional support, mentoring and financial assistance to be able to do it?
Learning & Leading is providing 18 gap scholarships for young people who, through challenging circumstances or lack of opportunity, would not normally benefit from such experiences.
Applications are open for two rounds:
1. Taking a Gap experience between January 2009 & autumn 2009
2. Taking a Gap experience between summer 2009 & autumn 2010Closing date for both rounds is 3 October 2008.
Full details are available on www.rgs.org/learning&leading or by contacting the Learning & Leading project coordinator: landl@rgs.org
It’s now possible to have all the functionality of Google Earth but within your internet browser (e.g. Firefox and Internet Explorer), using a new plugin. It works in a similar way to downloading Flash to watch video online. Most of us do this without really realising it.
This opens up the possibilities for creating educational web-based games using Google Earth as the 3D world to explore.
Have a go at playing the Monster Milktruck game (this is me above enjoying the view from Westminster Bridge). Google has also listed other examples online.
Google have released really useful tools for bringing the sky, moon and mars to the classroom.
You can also view the sky layer in Google Earth…
The Google Educators site has some ideas about using Google Sky in the classroom.
A very inspiring day on Friday at the Google offices in London talking about the future of Google’s geo-applications to education (Google Earth, Google Maps and Google Sky).
It was a very informative and thought-provoking day with a reallly good group. Noel Jenkins, of Juicy Geography fame, spoke about his fantastic work on using Google Earth as a basis for developing in-depth enquiries (diamond trade, siting wind-farms, scenario-planning for San Francisco, etc.). Richard Treves from Southampton University, spoke amongst other things about the need for good design in Google Earth (more at his Google Earth Design blog). Also there were Ollie Bray, a great proponent of web 2.0 in Scotland, Martin Law from Teaching and Learning Scotland, Steve Bruce, Head of Education and Outdoor Learning at the Royal Geographical Society, Ed Parsons, Geo-spatial Technologist for Google and Tina Ornduff, from the Google Geo-Education team in California (a big thank you to her for organising the day).
Both Noel and Ollie have already blogged about the day, but both the day and their blogs have reminded me of several developments in new Google tools for education that I will mention in separate posts.