This post, like my other recent posts, is based on a session from the Virginia Google Apps for Education Summit held the weekend of March 8-9, 2014. This particular post is a commentary on a session by Tim Stahmer, from Fairfax County Public Schools. The title of his session was Building Google Earth Tours the Easy Way. But, before we can get to that information, you have to be familiar with Google Tours. A Google Earth Tour is a presentation which plays in Google Earth. That is, the viewer "flies" around from one spot to another--either self guided, or by allowing it to play by itself. The tour can be paused at any time so the viewer can click on a particular location and view the information in the pop-up box about that location. Information may include a brief description, images, videos, links, etc. The viewer can also zoom in, switch to "street level view" change the angle--you know, all the cool stuff Google Earth is so good at.
I'd suggest that when you finish reading this post you go to Google Lit Trips, find a work of literature you are familiar with, and take a tour.
At the elementary level I clicked on the title Make Way for Ducklings. A webpage appeared in which there was hypertext in the upper right which said “View in Your Browser” - I clicked on it and viewed it in Google Chrome. When I wanted a tour for A Walk Down Cannery Row I first had to fill out a survey. Then, I was taken to this site, and, from a link in the upper right side of the page, I downloaded a kmz file which, when clicked, opened in Google Earth. If you don't have Google Earth on your computer, you'll need to download it first. Once it opened, I hovered my mouse over a folder--and a label popped up which said “play” When I clicked on it, the tour began.
I’m writing this in the CHS Media Center, and as Mrs. Merritt clicked on Chasing Lincoln’s Killer in Internet Explorer a window popped up allowing her to save or open the file, so the behavior might vary depending on your browser, but you ought to be able to figure it out.
I haven’t been able to find anywhere where Google has a sortable archive of tours--if you are aware of one, please send Larry the link. However, I wanted to see if I could find a tour based on medieval Europe. So, I just did an advanced search on medieval Europe and came up with a tour of locations relevant to the crusades. To do an advanced search for tours at google.com click on "settings" (or the "tools" icon) chose "advanced search", then choose "file type KMZ")
Here are a few sites that have links to various Google Earth Tours:
These two sites provide information on using Google Earth, such as lessons and how to use the controls. Both also have a variety of tours:
Next week we'll continue this discussion with information on how to build your own Google Earth Tour.
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