New Paper: How to make an Excellent Google Earth tour

We (myself and Artemis Skarlatidou) have just submitted a paper to a cartographic journal about a successful experiment we did on users' understanding of Google Earth Tours.  The work produced two rules of thumb to consider when making Google Earth tours so I thought I'd blog about it.  Note that the title of this post isn't how to make a 'cool' Google Earth tour that grabs users' attention, this is about how to use them as an effective communication tool.

Why should I care about Google Earth tours?
Before we get to the two best practices its useful to think about the media we're discussing.  Is it worth using?  My answer to that is that Google Earth tours are common on the web and the wider generic group of Google Earth like animations (Atlas tours) are everywhere!  e.g.:
- TV (e.g. weather forecasts)
- The web (e.g. National Geographic)
- Mobile satnav apps

As an example of Atlas tours in satnav apps, both Google Maps and Apple Maps in driving directions mode will zoom into tricky road junctions when you approach them but then zoom out when you are on a straight road section to show you the wider view.

So you should consider creating a Google Earth tour (or Atlas tour if you prefer) as a way to tell your spatial story.

Best practice 1: use high paths
If you are producing a tour with two or more low points, you get to choose how the camera moves between the two low views.  Users' mental map of the study area will be better when your tour following a 'Rocket' path(1) where there is a mid point where you can see the start and end of your tour. This video explains the point and tells you how to achieve it technically in Google Earth:




Best practice 2: use of speed
We haven't explicitly proved it but an animation speed of 1 second for any camera motion is a good rule of thumb(2).  If the tour is more visually complex, you may want to slow the speed down.  Reasons to take more time:
- You are flying through a complex 3D cityscape
- There are lots of elements on screen (points, lines, areas) that you want users to understand

As an example, these are some of the experimental Google Earth tours; only the 'low, fast' condition really troubled the users in the experiment.



Conclusion:
Atlas tours are very common as they are an effective media to communicate a spatial story or data.  Google Earth is one of a suite of software that can be used to produce Atlas tours, I think the principles described here will apply whatever software is used.

I read all the studies I could find in 2011 and produced an earlier paper which discussed these and 17 other best practices for producing Google Earth tours.  This is the shorter blog version of the paper.


Notes
1] In the paper, this is called the high path.  Less memorable but more professional sounding.

2] our experiment ran at speeds slower than this and user's had little problem building up a mental map of the study area.

Thoughts after CAGTI16 (Geo Teachers Institute) part 1

So this time last week I was helping lead the Californian Geo Teachers Institute.  John Bailey had filled his hall to capacity with some amazing teachers (example blog post), educational technologists, librarians...  I thought I'd jot down some thoughts.

Maps are for everyone:  Firstly, its interesting to note the difference between Geo in the USA and in the UK - here, geography is a core school subject so if you put on a GTI you'd mostly attract geography teachers.  STEM teachers would mostly stay away - I predict they'd say 'maps are for geographers'.  In the States, geography is far less strong at school level so a range of teachers from many subjects showed up to learn what Google Geo tools could do for them.  Geo tools are now so easy to use that they can be used across subjects and it would be good if this could done in the UK too.

What Google Earth is for:



So true...

Map Design:  I did a session on map design for teachers.  As part of this I produced a worksheet that takes you through creating some of the basics of good map design via Google My Maps.   Important design points worth making about my maps:

• Google My Maps now allows you to select the base map.  Subtle and pale is good as the worksheet example illustrates.
• I find My Maps to be simpler to use than ArcGIS online
• You can choose a rainbow range to style your data.  I can't think of a reason you would EVER want to use this and, each time you do, a puppy dies - Kenneth Field rants about rainbow maps as well.  

I'll save discussion of tour tips, my thoughts on expeditions and the future of Google's Geo tools for a second post.

EarthQuiz quick review

I came across EarthQuiz done by some colleagues running the Geode.net project.

Its a really nice idea, find some streetview (or other geotagged photo or satellite image from Google maps) and ask a geology question related to it.  For extra fun, you then have to guess where in the world the photo is from (bottom left map in the image above).

Good use of VR in teaching:  The nice teaching point is the geological question, you have to mostly navigate around in streetview to hunt for clues to solve the geological problem.  This is a good use of VR, if you accept my argument that this is a simple form of Virtual Reality.  The 360 degree vision is actually important to solving the problem whereas in a lot of cases, the VR is only there for show.

Where I'd take it:  What would be really nice would be if it developed into a resource where you had a number of streetview points that you navigated to via a Geological map.  You'd then have to solve a more complex geological problem.  However, I think that would involve taking custom streetview images in order to generate the required material so not a small project.

A more detailed write up.

Ten new Google Geo tools for the Classroom

Googler John Bailey (Program Manger for Geo Edu) recently did a talk for Google Education on Air on Google's Geo tools:



Being able to tilt the view over a crater in the Moon bought to mind a teacher quote in one of my sessions last year

"you just made me fall in love with Geography again"

I had to tear myself away...  Anyway, I thought I'd point you at my favorite ten new* examples of tools/content that John showcased:

1] 7:10m Distance: measure distance tool in Google Maps

2] 7:40m Area: that it also measures area in Google Maps

3] 8:27m Carousel: geolocated photos in Google Maps taken by users uploaded to google by users

4] 9:20m Tilt: how to tilt to see 3D Google Earth like pictures using tilt button bottom left Pisa location used: 10:05 Globe View: zoom out to globe view which will rotate which click and dragged

6] 11:08m Mars and Moon View: zoom out to full extent and now you rotate around the globe when clicking and dragging and can access mars and the moon.

7] 11:19m Two Map system: compare and contrast maps using geteach.com 

8] 38:25m Streetview historical imagery: see street view before and after the Japanese tsunami on Google Maps (location near the site with historic street view available).

9] 43:42m Tour Builder

10] 47:28m Time Lapse using Google Earth Engine. 48:25 Great moment showing Peruvian river meander dynamically.

*Actually some of them are new-ish rather than new

San Francisco Earthquake Exercise Part II

Two years ago I posted some enhancements to an earthquake exercise by Noel Jenkins of Juicy Geography.  Since then, I've worked the practical up further

• Practical Doc (self assessment questions and answers, explicit instructions)
• KMZ file (it says it's on Blackboard in the documentation)
• Google Earth Tour Builder tour of earthquakes in San Francisco

It was part of a recent first level course for Geographers here at Southampton University.


New Features:

• Teaches students about earthquake amplification and liquefaction using YouTube videos
• Uses Google Earth Tour Builder
• Uses a 'clipping' technique for just showing a sub section of a YouTube video (howto)
• Gets students to create 3 locations and then choose one of the three and justify it in the description box.

It's published under a CC edit but share alike license so please go ahead and use it. 

Google Earth Tour Builder HowTo

Following my recent review of Google Earth Tour Builder I showcased it at the AGU conference before Christmas.  Google have published some text instructions but I thought a video tutorial would be worthwhile.


Richard Byrne also has a video tutorial, he discusses using multiple photos/videos for each place (functionality which I'm a bit 'meh' about) but doesn't go into the detail about tilted or plan locations.

'Back to School: Google Earth for Teachers

screen shot of new content in GEFT

Back in May I released an 'open course' devoted to helping Geography school teachers use Google Earth as a GIS in their teaching: Google Earth for Teachers (GEFT).  The 'core' content was 6 up to date videos.  Following feedback from teachers using it over the summer I've made some changes:

• It now has its own domain 'GEforTeachers.com' (update 5th Nov 2013: which redirects you to a Moodle site)
• You no longer have to register to access, just choose 'guest' middle of the way down on the left at the entry page.
• I've added an 'Advanced' section with tools and tutorials for those who are beyond introductory level.

I'd love to hear what you think of it!