Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

Last week I got to spend 3 full days learning all about Palm(R) handhelds and the wonders of one to one computing. Very cool and the possibilities continue to mount.

I scheduled my flights to insure I was able to spend a full day in San Francisco. So Saturday was my day to enjoy the city by the bay.

Being a small town boy and never having been to San Fran, I wanted to make sure I was prepared for the day and get the most out my time. So early preparations began with many tours using Google Earth.  I created a folder of all the major sites that included, transportation, hotels, sights, geocaches and more. Next I downloaded the BART schedule to my Palm® TX so I knew exactly when and where to catch the train. I also downloaded several geocaches into my device as well as a tourism application for San Francisco.

Arriving on Saturday morning at the corner of Powell St. and Market, I hoped on a cable car and headed for the Fisherman’s Wharf. I walked around a bit and decided to go after my first geocache.  I headed away from the water and was quickly walking in a residential area. I knew the cache was supposed to be in a garden so something was wrong. Pulled out my TX and connected wirelessly to someone’s router and retrieved the information. I had entered in a wrong coordinate so I changed it and was on my way. Found the cache and explored a nearby park.

Then I walked towards Pier 41 and 39 and got a cruise of the Bay. After the cruise I looked for my second cache. Smallest cache I’ve ever found. Using my map, I got the bus up to Coit Tower and later connected to Lombard Street.

When back downtown and send a few emails from Union Square. Got my train back to the hotel and the shuttle to airport.

I’ve posted before about using technology for travel, it truly did allow me to plan and enjoy my day.  I only made one mistake. My flight left at 22:15 which for some stupid reason I told myself that was 11:15pm. They had already taken my luggage off the plane but kindly put it back as I realized my error.  Can I convert my Palm handheld to recognize the 24 hour clock or do I have to figure that out on my own?

Using Skype, I dropped a quick compliment tonight for Jeff Utecht on using his screencast for a workshop I did. What ensued was a lenghthy exchange of ideas and for me a personal tour of the city of Shanghai where Jeff resides. Using Google Earth, he and I shared a little bit about both of our worlds. Early into the tour, I happened upon one of the schools Jeff works at and then he kindly sent me a couple of .kml files to provide some context to his world. I knew nothing about Shanghai and still don’t know much but he was able to point out some key landmarks and provide a nice overview of his city. For about an hour, he willingly offered some insights into his life and city and answered all my questions.

This to me typifies why connections are so critical. Is this information available online? Mostly, but having a personal tour guide was much more relevant and engaging. The awareness I now have will no doubt lead me to more interest in his city. Was it the extreme distance between us that made it so engaging? Partly, but also Jeff and I share many of the same beliefs and ideas when it comes to education. We certainly connect on many levels. After reading his blog for over a year, conversation flowed easily. Jeff, what the heck are those blue rectangles north of your school on the coast?

Learning is certainly easier with a friend.

[tags]googleearth,china,connections[/tags]

I’d rank Tim Lauer and Quentin D’Souza as the biggest educational advocates for Google Earth but I’m right behind them.

I recently got a brand new Dell Computer. It’s loaded up with a great video card and beautiful screen. (It also has red LED lights that have caused odd looks and good natured teasing during meetings).

I found some great tips on the Google Earth blog on how to take advantage of a good video card when using Google Earth. So I made the adjustments listed on the site. Basically using all the high quality settings possible since by default some of these are turned off or at a lower level.

It made quite a difference. I created this video of my drive to work. I’ve made videos before within Google Earth Pro but this looks much better. Youtube’s compression is not indicative of the real output. Which reminds me, if you’re reading this in your RSS reader you won’t see the video.
[youtube]k4SPkhTTwLQ[/youtube]

I’m sure I’ll be making more of these.

[tags]googleearth,dellxps[/tags]

This is just plain good fun.  Spell with Flickr was fun but this is really cool. Type any name or phrase and geogreeting finds buildings that will spell your phrase

The page itself actually finds shows the building locations as it builds your name.  Tim Lauer will love this.

A total washout for a weekend thwarted my usual plans for golf. However, I still watched golf, read about golf and talked about it. I even made my wife watch “The Greatest Game Ever Played”

I routinely tour a few courses on Google Earth every weekend. I did golf last week and using the measuring tool was able to track my tee shot on 18. I have a friend who tracks his jogging route, another who figured out how far it was around a slough on his farm and another who calculated the area of his acreage. These are just a few things done with the measuring tool which could be utilized even more within our classrooms.

When our school division looked at creating a standard image for our computers I requested Google Earth be on it. Beside the legitimate issue about bandwidth (which we really haven’t addressed)someone mentioned the they thought of Google Earth as a toy. It is a great deal of fun no doubt. There are constantly new hacks and ideas for using it. But as far as being only a toy, not a chance. Bringing context to stories, world events and history is critical for understanding. If we want students to learn about life in context, Google Earth is the best tool for learning about place….and the length of your tee shots.

I heard John Kuglin last year at FETC and although Google Earth wasn’t available then, he was demonstrating some other satellite technology and sparked my interest and love of geography. This year, John spent his session demonstrating Google Earth. While there wasn’t much there I didn’t already know, I was enjoying the “oohs and aaaws” of the several hundred attendees many of whom had never seen or heard of Google Earth.

I liked the title of his session: Smart Stories Smart Locations. The word “stories” and “conversations” may well have been the most used words at the conference which is fine by me. John not only showcased the amazing power and features of Google Earth but laid out an invitation to use it to tell stories. It might not seem like a natural fit but it really does have that potential. John continually pointed out the ability to discover tools and features not listed in any manual and that much of the potential of Google Earth is yet to be discovered but will be discovered by those willing to hack.

Today I discovered a video podcast by the School of Geography in Southampton University. They have already produced 9 episodes which are great little tutorials on using Google Earth. You can subscribe to it through itunes.

Technorati Tag: FETC2006