Today was the first day of the Penrose conference on Google Earth for geoscience educators.It's been terrific so far. Here are some of the highlights from the first day.
Declan DePaor talked about how he'd like to see fewer hacks to Google Earth and more integration of those hacks into the product. He'd like to see Google Earth Underground, to be able to "see" under the surface of the earth. This is akin to the fantastic Google Body Browser where one can peel away the skin and muscles and such to see what is inside a human body.
John Bailey gave a background of how the conference got off the ground, that the planning started over 15 months ago (apparently that is short by GSA Penrose standards), plus he emphasized how involved Google Earth has been within the geologic community and vice versa. He mentioned that this conference was enthusiastically received and there were over 120 people who wanted to come but only about 70 slots. This Penrose is sponsored by NSF, Google, Oxford University Press and GigaPan. Bailey wants to encourage breakout sessions during lunchtime this week, for like-minded individuals to talk and collaborate.
Mano Marks is Google's Senior Developer Advocate and he gave the keynote. Here are his slides. He gave his highlights of 2010 in Google Earth. Main points: Google Fusion Tables...you can upload up to 100 MB of tabular data and do easy mapping, do simple spatial queries, customized shapes. Fusion Tables can be incorporated into Google Maps API and there is a Fusion Tables API. Marks talked about Google Earth Elevation Profiler (I blogged about it because I thought it was so cool) and trees and historical imagery.He talked about Google Maps API and Google Street View (which I think is a grand R&D scheme that Google undertook to help develop their auto-pilot car, but what do I know?!). Finally, Marks spoke briefly about this Google Earth Engine that I seem to hear about every day in emails. I guess I will hear more about Earth Engine in later talks but what Marks said is that Google is opening their infrastructure so that users can run their own imagery using user-supplied algorithms.
Tina Orndorff is Google's Geo Education person. Her role is to encourage the use of Google products in K through 16 education. She talked about a number of initiatives she and Google are doing to integrate creative uses of technology in education, to foster problem-solving skills, creativity, and increase skills needed for the future.
Barbara Tewksbury of Hamilton College gave a talk on her use of Google Earth in teaching and research. She uses the draped imagery over DEM in her structural geology classes to show students strike and dip concepts, folds, over-turned beds and monoclines. Her lessons are in the On the Cutting Edge web site. Her research using Google Earth focused on the high resolution aerial photography found in Egypt. She showed a number of locations in Egypt where she and colleagues are using Google Earth as a first swipe at mapping hard to access locations of Eocene carbonate structures. She showed many examples of these "bubble wrap" structures and then her attempts to try and find these locations in the field. It was very difficult given the flatness of the terrain. The upshot is that she and her colleagues can use Google Earth to share KMLs with each other but can also disseminate KMLs to the public and other researchers to show findings and field exposures.
Paul Karabinos of Williams College spoke about using geologic maps, cross sections and SketchUp to show students structural geology concepts. He uses SketchUp Pro and LayOut to create the maps.
Declan DePaor came back up to talk about the application of Google Earth to education. He mentinoed that Al Gore called for a virtual globe back in 1998 in this speech.
I believe we need a "Digital Earth". A multi-resolution, three-dimensional representation of the planet, into which we can embed vast quantities of geo-referenced data.
We are not there yet but getting closer and closer. DePaor asked for us to come up with some ideas that we thought students and professors should see in Google Earth by 2013/14/15. I'm not going to list those here. I hope to see DePaor's notes from that discussion.
Here are some of the day's tweets using the hastag #GEPenrose:
2011-01-04 23:34:21 RT @manomarks: The State of Google Geo2010 and beyond, my slides from #GEPenrose: http://goo.gl/Nv8mu Now Paul Karabinos of Williams College Using GE w/ geologic maps and cross-sections. And Sketch Up #GEPenrose Links to some of the great #geology #teaching locations I just mentioned http://bit.ly/gScNSy #GEPenrose Barb Tewksbury now showing gr8 geology teaching examples dip and strike in arid regions where u can c bedrock #GEPenrose Tewksbury: Google Earth: Digital PlayDoh #GEPenrose Up next: Barbara Tewksbury,structural geologist of Hamilton College, on using GE in teaching geologic mapping. #GEPenrose Soaking in Californian sun outside at lunch #GEPenrose. My head is already full After 1st session... At GooglePlex for #GEPenrose - only half a day has passed, and I am SATURATED!Fusion Tables, elevation profiles.. can't..process..it..all Watching video Why Geography Matters by Google Earth http://youtu.be/PPGuhJe6Qao #GEPenrose RT @cbdawson: How about gigapans? (virtual geology) RT @pffli Google Earth #Streetview will allow user-uploadable panoramas [@manomarks... RT @manomarks: The State of Google Geo2010 and beyond, my slides from #GEPenrose: http://goo.gl/Nv8mu RT @manomarks: The State of Google Geo2010 and beyond, my slides from #GEPenrose: http://goo.gl/Nv8mu The Googlers are using Google Presentations in Chrome. Go figure. #GEPenrose
@presveva RT @ManoMarks: The State of Google Geo 2010 and beyond, my slides from #GEPenrose: http://goo.gl/Nv8mu
2011-01-04 22:41:48
@meg_stewart Now Paul Karabinos of Williams College Using GE w/ geologic maps and cross-sections. And Sketch Up #GEPenrose
2011-01-04 22:19:05
@Trevesy Links to some of the great #geology #teaching locations I just mentioned http://bit.ly/gScNSy #GEPenrose
2011-01-04 22:13:26
@Trevesy Barb Tewksbury now showing gr8 geology teaching examples dip and strike in arid regions where u can c bedrock #GEPenrose
2011-01-04 22:06:35
@meg_stewart Tewksbury: Google Earth: Digital PlayDoh #GEPenrose
2011-01-04 22:05:06
@meg_stewart Up next: Barbara Tewksbury,structural geologist of Hamilton College, on using GE in teaching geologic mapping. #GEPenrose
2011-01-04 21:46:38
@Trevesy Soaking in Californian sun outside at lunch #GEPenrose. My head is already full After 1st session...
2011-01-04 21:19:29
@guertin At GooglePlex for #GEPenrose - only half a day has passed, and I am SATURATED! Fusion Tables, elevation profiles.. can't..process..it..all
2011-01-04 20:46:13
@meg_stewart Watching video Why Geography Matters by Google Earth #GEPenrose
2011-01-04 20:31:52
@GeologyDave RT @cbdawson: How about gigapans? (virtual geology) RT @pffli Google Earth #Streetview will allow user-uploadable panoramas [@manomarks at#GEPenrose]
2011-01-04 20:28:53
@kamaujeremiah RT @ManoMarks: The State of Google Geo 2010 and beyond, my slides from #GEPenrose: http://goo.gl/Nv8mu
2011-01-04 20:26:39
@bFlood RT @ManoMarks: The State of Google Geo 2010 and beyond, my slides from #GEPenrose: http://goo.gl/Nv8mu
2011-01-04 20:25:22
@meg_stewart The Googlers are using Google Presentations in Chrome. Go figure. #GEPenrose
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