Google Earth - Voice Thread Mashup
With the release of Google Earth 4.2, a new arsenal of cool tools have emerged. The most visible and notable probably is Google Sky and it's ability to fly out in space and see some terrific imagery of celestial objects. To be honest, I haven't played with Google Sky that much. I'm currently more interested in Terra Firma.Over the last few years, mashing up Google Earth with United Streaming and other video services has allowed us to link to related videos that, when clicked from within a place mark, would open a browser window directly to the video. I've often wondered if there was a way to directly embed a You Tube/Google Video/Teacher Tube video into a place mark that could be played from within Google Earth. You alway have been able to embed a static image but it always kept me wanting a little more.Enter Google Earth 4.2. Now those videos can indeed be played from within a GE place mark. There's even a new You Tube layer that totally rocks. But, as I try to push the envelope, I kept thinking of other possibilities.Let's take a step back...This week and last week, I introduced Animoto and Voice Thread to my 8th grade digital media class. What fun and exciting new tools for students to find their creative side. For a short project, I had them find 6 pictures from FlickrStorm (thanks David Jakes for that one) with which they could tell a story, any story that they wanted. They loaded them to Voice Thread, added some narration, and voila, instant story. While some of the end products were random and silly, a few students managed to build fairly cohesive and linear stories. Keep in mind that I like to throw kids into a new tool without a life vest (they are digital natives after all), give them a parameter or two, and see what they come up with. Afterwards, I have them reflect on the tool and how they could use it for other projects. I did this with bubbl.us and now the kids are constantly using it to brainstorm and plan out projects. So, this method works for me as a scaffolding process. Here are a couple Voice Thread examples.<object height="600" width="800"><param value="http://voicethread.com/book.swf?b=8221" name="movie"><param value="transparent" name="wmode">
</object>and this one...<object height="600" width="800"><param value="http://voicethread.com/book.swf?b=8214" name="movie"><param value="transparent" name="wmode">
</object>OK, now back to the here and now. As I was thinking about doing embedded video with the new version of Google Earth, it dawned on me that perhaps I could embed a Voice Thread project into a place mark. I quickly added a place mark and in the description pane, I pasted the embed code for both Voice Thread and Animoto projects. It worked beautifully! Try it yourself, it is remarkably simple to do. Below is a short tutorial video to show you the process of embedding Voice Thread into Google Earth. The audio get slightly choppy, probably due to GE running.The implications for this, at least for my students, is that they don't necessarily have to use stock or canned video from You Tube (and others) to enrich a GE presentation tour. They can create their own with their own pictures (or Creative Commons images) and narration using their own voice! Wow! Wow! Wow! Side note: this has been more of a Ah! moment for me as a teacher than the slew of "Hey, look at me live on the Internet" tools that literally have been changing on a daily basis this week. Don't get me wrong, I too have a fever, and it can only be cured by more Ustream... or is that cowbell (for you SNL/BOC fans). But having creative tools like Google Earth, Animoto, and Voice Thread, kids get to create something right now on topics they are interested in.Case and point: I spoke with our Language Arts teacher about what they are reading in class. She mentioned Whirligig by Paul Fleischman. Great book that centers on geography, specifically the four corners of the continental U.S. I thought it would be a great Google Lit tour with links, pictures, and now videos embedded into their tours. I really thought the kids would think that it would be REALLY cool. Boy, was I wrong. The groans and moans that emanated from those 13 year olds was striking. They didn't have ownership in the book. Frankly, some of the kids didn't like the book. Plus, they just completed a very long writing assignment about the book so I think they were just burned out on it.So, within 5 minutes, we did a 180 and took a different direction, still using Google Earth, but centering on topics that were of immediate interest to them. For homework, I had them think of a theme or topic that could be referenced geographically and with multiple locations. I'm really curious as to what they will come up with in the morning.This project probably will end up being a personal story using Google Earth, Voice Thread and possibly Animoto as a splash video. Storyboarding will definitely come first so that their stories are sound. We also have the (free) Google Earth Pro license that includes the Movie Maker tool. I'm not sure how that will work with embedded video but I'll take a stab at it and see how it goes. I may also have the kids use CamStudio to record their GE tour and then they'll post them to their blog or You Tube or Teacher Tube or Google Video or all of the above.So, this is what's making me smile this week (other than the fact that my birthday is this Saturday, the 13th and my wife is taking me somewhere that remains unknown to me).What is making YOU smile this week?
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</object>and this one...<object height="600" width="800"><param value="http://voicethread.com/book.swf?b=8214" name="movie"><param value="transparent" name="wmode">
</object>OK, now back to the here and now. As I was thinking about doing embedded video with the new version of Google Earth, it dawned on me that perhaps I could embed a Voice Thread project into a place mark. I quickly added a place mark and in the description pane, I pasted the embed code for both Voice Thread and Animoto projects. It worked beautifully! Try it yourself, it is remarkably simple to do. Below is a short tutorial video to show you the process of embedding Voice Thread into Google Earth. The audio get slightly choppy, probably due to GE running.The implications for this, at least for my students, is that they don't necessarily have to use stock or canned video from You Tube (and others) to enrich a GE presentation tour. They can create their own with their own pictures (or Creative Commons images) and narration using their own voice! Wow! Wow! Wow! Side note: this has been more of a Ah! moment for me as a teacher than the slew of "Hey, look at me live on the Internet" tools that literally have been changing on a daily basis this week. Don't get me wrong, I too have a fever, and it can only be cured by more Ustream... or is that cowbell (for you SNL/BOC fans). But having creative tools like Google Earth, Animoto, and Voice Thread, kids get to create something right now on topics they are interested in.Case and point: I spoke with our Language Arts teacher about what they are reading in class. She mentioned Whirligig by Paul Fleischman. Great book that centers on geography, specifically the four corners of the continental U.S. I thought it would be a great Google Lit tour with links, pictures, and now videos embedded into their tours. I really thought the kids would think that it would be REALLY cool. Boy, was I wrong. The groans and moans that emanated from those 13 year olds was striking. They didn't have ownership in the book. Frankly, some of the kids didn't like the book. Plus, they just completed a very long writing assignment about the book so I think they were just burned out on it.So, within 5 minutes, we did a 180 and took a different direction, still using Google Earth, but centering on topics that were of immediate interest to them. For homework, I had them think of a theme or topic that could be referenced geographically and with multiple locations. I'm really curious as to what they will come up with in the morning.This project probably will end up being a personal story using Google Earth, Voice Thread and possibly Animoto as a splash video. Storyboarding will definitely come first so that their stories are sound. We also have the (free) Google Earth Pro license that includes the Movie Maker tool. I'm not sure how that will work with embedded video but I'll take a stab at it and see how it goes. I may also have the kids use CamStudio to record their GE tour and then they'll post them to their blog or You Tube or Teacher Tube or Google Video or all of the above.So, this is what's making me smile this week (other than the fact that my birthday is this Saturday, the 13th and my wife is taking me somewhere that remains unknown to me).What is making YOU smile this week?
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
