Day 3 at VSTE was concentrated on getting better (I fell ill Tuesday morning), and concentrating on my own presentations.

The Photoshop class went well. One guy brought his PC. But he supposedly uses both a Mac and PC. For the first time in doing this (3-4 years), I used the presentation laptop. Participants downloaded the photos from here, and we edited and had some fun. In the photo above, we’re bringing 747s and In and Out Burger to Richmond.

I soon left, went back to the hotel, and checked-out. It was a good stay… nice hotel, the Hilton at Virginia Beach. I then returned to the conference center, grabbed lunch, and went upstairs to present on Success with the Read/Write Web.

This for me was a great experience… I never felt I held an audience so well before–everyone seemed to have a genuine interest in what we were sharing, and had genuine enthusiasm. We got some great questions, and so many folks were so kind to come up afterwards with kind comments. I feel fortunate I’ve been able to do some of the things we have done in Goochland… others want this too.

Tom DeWeerd distributed our RSS/Email brochures, and the latest edition of TechTimes to participants. I hope to publish the podcasts I made of my sessions by the end of the week through TechTimesLive.

The article mentioned in a recent blog comment is from Teachers magazine.

http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm /articles/2006/12/01/03classtech.h18.html

What’s missed in the article is the impact blogging can have on students. And it can happen in an educational setting, don’t teachers need to blog to understand it’s power, impact, and reach?

I was too busy today to remember all the details… I’m writing this on Tuesday morning before our presentation upstairs, enjoying a great grainy-mustard-smeared pretzel. Good snack…

Yesterday there was a theme I found in the sessions that focused upon the “Web 2.0″ experience. You may have heard the phrase, “The buck stops here.” And that is what many Virginia educators are discovering as they try and branch out to do some interesting things.

A had a gentleman come up to me after my Google Earth session that told me I had inspired him to do podcasts with his kids… how neat. I created quite a buzz after that Earth session–there was a lot of excitement about the product.

I visited Talaiver and Talaiver for their session on Sketch Up, the companion app to Earth. I definitely see this being a big trend–it will be hot at NECC and likely next year at VSTE as more educators want to integrate the use of this powerful, free software.

But what about the blogs and podcasts? “We’re not allowed… that won’t fly… what do you suggest that isn’t locked down?”

Some school divisions evidently have gone to the extreme, and banned everything to do with online communications. And the message from the luminaries, Prensky among them, is that… NO! Let the kids write, communicate, collaborate.

Safety is an issue. But it’s also an overreaction. Kids can hurt one another with sharp pencils. But we still hand them out, because we feel it’s an important enough tool to learn with, and the risk is worth it. Look how companies are changing now–they’re taking risks too–and are doing some incredible things!

At VSTE 2007’s first day, I participated in three sessions.

1. Student Blogging by Kimberly Berry. Kimberly is my colleague in Goochland and shared her experiences blogging with seventh graders at Goochland Middle School. The presentation was among the first of the conference, and audience members revealed some concern for student blogging: security, control, and what I saw–a fear about what kids might write. One guy told me his concern was that students could use the blogging platform to communicate about gang violence. The obvious answer to that is… maybe not to give blogs to these kids. But then again–are we adequately preparing kids for the future if we are afraid of letting them use communications tools to learn? This is a tough issue that will likely take me a longer time to digest and come to grips with. More philosophizing required.
2. Whospace? by Cammarano, Horney, and Locher. These three did a good job at showing some Web 2.0 technologies and how they’re exploring them in their school divisions. Their resources are found online at pbwiki. I liked this session as it challenged some assumptions I have. One of the presenters suggested we use MySpace in the classroom. I asked him “Have you done this?” No. They had not. In fact, it was blocked at their schools. It was a touchy subject. Some folks spoke up. “As a parent, I don’t want you introducing this to my kid.” The show ended with a shabby introduction to Second Life. They described it as a game. I don’t treat it as a game, I disagree with this label. It’s an online environment. And I currently question its use in schools… I think this environment has potential, but I am not quite sure it’s there yet. They said as much, but it felt like a tack-on at the end of an otherwise interesting presentation.
3. Keynote with Marc Prensky. You can read some of Mr. Prensky’s writings online. I hope to get his book. He was entertaining, a good speaker, and I enjoyed his message. Some of the practical means to which he suggests we change need flushing out, but he admitted as much it’s not easy.

On Monday, February 26, 2007, John will be presenting on GoogleEarth at the 21st annual VSTE Conference in Virginia Beach.

External Links

The following links support GoogleEarth and GoogleSketchUp in education:

• Download Google Earth
• Download Google SketchUp
• SketchUp Pro for Education
• GoogleEarth in Education Ideas
• Google SketchUp 6 Videos (new features)
• Google SketchUp 5 Videos (the basics)
• Google SketchUp 3D Warehouse
• Google for Educators – Earth
• Keyhole BBS Community for Google Earth
• The Google Earth Blog (unofficial)
• Google Earth Lessons (QT Videos)
• Teaching GeoScience with Google Earth
• Modeling 3D Textured Buildings
• Google Earth Education Community
• Google Sightseeing
• SketchUp Training – Go2School
• 5th Grade Lesson on Perimeter

How-To

Placemarks: One interesting thing you can do with GE is to embed placemarks that include links, styled text, and pictures.

1. Add a placemark (yellow thumb tack).
2. Edit details about the placemark.
3. In the description, you can include basic HTML tags to style text for color, bold, italic, insert links, and embed pictures when they have been saved elsewhere on the Web.
4. Choose a custom icon.
5. Click the icon to display styled text.
6. Choose File > Save Place As… to save a KMZ file.

Don’t want to bother moving a graphic to the Web? No problem! KMZ files can hold graphics! Use the img tag in HTML to point to a local graphics file. In Windows, it would be referenced from the C:\ drive. On a Mac, reference it from the root (/). When you save the place, the graphic becomes embedded.

Tools You can make measurements in miles using the path tool in GE.

Paths Paths are a great way to mark a route. You can raise paths above the surface, and color them. You can even add descriptions, which can include graphics and styled text.

You can also animate in GoogleEarth, or “travel.” Create a folder of “places,” then click the “Play” button. GE takes you from one place to another. To change the perspective (N/S/E/W direction, viewpoint), set the view point in the placemark’s information (Get Info > View > Snapshot Current View).

You can also animate along a path. Draw a path, save it, and press “play.” GE follows the path you drew in all its 3D glory.

Featured Content

Want more? GE features special content in the form of links, overlays, and more. Let’s start with the excellent Rumsey Historical Map Collection. Turn it on, under “Featured Content” in the Layers area.

What better way to study colonial times?

The “Geographic Web” area combines embedded links to the Wikipedia and great digital images.

Among the other collections are links from National Geographic Magazine.

3D

GE now features three-dimensional content in the form of terrain and buildings. Now with Google Sketchup, you can add your own 3D content, or load content from the 3D Warehouse into GEarth.