Featured 3-27-2014: AirPano

Created by a team of Russian photo enthusiasts, AirPano is a not-for-profit project focused on high-resolution spherical panoramas shot from a bird’s eye view.

 

AirPano claims to be the largest resource in the world (by geographical coverage, number of aerial photographs, and artistic and technical quality of the images) featuring high-resolution aerial 360° panoramic photographs.

 

During next two years, AirPano plans to create aerial photo panoramas and virtual tours of more of the most significant places in the world. They currently have nearly 2000 aerial panoramas showing over 200 famous locations, including the North Pole, Antarctica, the Mariana Trench, and even the view of the Earth from the stratosphere. New virtual tours are published every week.

 

 

A spherical panorama can give you and your students a sense of being on location, where you can turn completely around and have a closer look at every detail. This can be especially effective when viewed on a large screen such as an interactive whiteboard. You can zoom in closer and examine objects of interest, or "fly" to a new location by simply moving your hand.

 

AirPano offers most panoramas in several different resolutions to accommodate the viewer’s internet connection speed and computer hardware. There are even panoramas suitable for mobile devices.

 

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Featured: 2-17-2014 myHistro

Create stories that are displayed on maps and geo-located interactive timelines with myHistro.

 

You can watch and read thousands of user-created timelines at myHistro or create your own dynamic timeline mashup with text, video, and images.

 

 

Combine maps and timelines seamlessly into unique presentations, convert any public timeline into a pdf file, or export it into Google Earth format (kml) for offline storage. Completed timelines can be embedded into blogs and websites for sharing.   

 

Features of myHistro:

• Archive with several hundred historical timelines to choose from.
• Collaboration tools, ideal for class activities.
• Secure content management.

Three privacy levels to choose from let you decide what others will see. You can keep your timeline private, make it public, or keep it between you and those you choose.

 

  

 View a slide presentation: myHistro Basic Guidelines For Teachers

 

There is an official free myHistro application for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch with simplified functionality. In this version you can create new accounts, add new stories, add new events, and manage existing stories and events.

 

Currently myHistro supports YouTube videos and pictures in JPEG and PNG formats. It does not require Flash.

 

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Featured: 1-22-2014 StrataLogica

StrataLogica brings maps, globes, atlases, and charts to life in an environment where teachers and students can "actively engage with our multi-layered world and easily share content and collaborate in ways never before imagined."

 

Recently redesigned with one-of-a-kind content creation and collaborative features, web-based, and powered by Google Earth, StrataLogica is designed for use on computers, projectors, and interactive whiteboards. It has been used by thousands and has been well-reviewed by both educators and students. 

 

StrataLogica for the iPad is a free app where students can learning about our world with a tap or pinch of their fingers. Version 2.0 brings powerful features for creating content, collaborating, and sharing from the desktop to the iPad.

 

StrataLogica for the iPad features: 

• Tools (marker, symbols, text labels and pushpins) to add your own content onto geography, history, and earth science layers.
• Save and share custom views or presentations with school or district students or colleagues.
• Share content with anyone in the world via Twitter, Facebook, or e-mail.
• Teachers can initiate dynamic collaborative projects with students.
• Access e-book atlases and related student activities.

StrataLogica delivers a unique educational experience. Even without a school account, you can experience a sampling of StrataLogica's interactive layers for free.

 

 See a video overview of StrataLogica for iPad

 

The web version of StrataLogica is supported on all major browsers and operating systems. To view maps in 3D you need the Google Earth Plugin. The StrataLogica app is free and is compatible with iPads using iOS 6.0 or later.

 

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Featured: 7-1-2013 MapStory

MapStory is a free online tool to organize many sorts of knowledge about the world spatially and temporally.

Anyone can become a 'Storyteller' who can create, share, and collaborate on MapStory and ultimately improve understanding of global dynamics, worldwide, over the course of history.

You can browse MapStory or search by keyword. Narrow your search by type (MapStories, StoryLayers, StoryTellers), section, where, when, or who.

Teachers and students are able to create their own MapStories and publish them on the web. MapStories may be about history, important recent/current events, or any number of other subjects.

 Watch What is a MapStory?

The aim of MapStory is to make history, geography, and many other academic subjects more meaningful to your students and their parents. MapStory wants to "empower you to succeed in inspiring the next generations of our global society."

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COD - 8/15/2012 - Old Maps Online [Social Studies]

Old Maps Online is a user-friendly gateway to historical maps in libraries around the world. Old Maps Online is for anyone interested in old maps and what they can tell us about the past.

Old Maps Online aggregates information about digital map images from different libraries and host institutions in a universal search interface. You won’t need to know where a map is held to be able to locate it. Find maps held by different institutions showing the same geographical area so you can better decide which is most relevant to your needs.

Search Old Maps Online by typing a place-name or by clicking in the map window, and narrow the results by date. The search results provide a direct link to the map image on the host institution's website.

Old Maps Online is a free, open-access search portal with no need for downloading, registering, or subscribing.

OldMapsOnline is a collaboration between The Great Britain Historical GIS Project and Klokan Technologies GmbH, Switzerland. It succeeds a project lead by the Moravian Library in the Czech Republic between 2008-11. The portal is based on the MapRank Search technology originally developed for the Kartenportal project in Switzerland. 

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COD - 2/8/2012 - NatGeoEd.org [Social Studies]

The NatGeoEd.org beta site offers an expanded and updated library of National Geographic’s popular education content with a wide range of free educational resources that bring geography, science, and social studies to life for both teachers and students.

NatGeoEd.org includes a new feature called Audience View that allows visitors to see versions of materials aimed specifically at teachers, informal educators, families, students, or kids. Different versions include changes in look-and-feel, organization, and text. When you search for content, you can filter by audience to go directly to the most appropriate version.

National Geographic’s exemplary media and expert resources are integrated into NatGeoEd.org to provide you with engaging instructional materials. The available multimedia includes photos, videos, illustrations, diagrams, and cartoons. A new feature called a resource carousel provides all the media you need right at your fingertips.

Interactive maps with thematic data layers and customizable black-and-white outline maps are among the new mapping tools at NatGeoEd.org. FieldScope is a web-based mapping, analysis, and collaboration platform designed to engage students as citizen scientists investigating real-world issues.

A new search tool allows you to search by keyword and see results for NatGeoEd.org, for all of National Geographic, or for our Thinkfinity partners. You can filter results by grade and age, type of resource, and subject. To make it easier to use it flexibly and in a variety of ways, content on the new site is modular.

Note: At this time, NatGeoEd.org is still under development, so you can see only some of the planned features and content.

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Free Smithsonian Environment Webinar

You may be interested in the Smithsonian’s "Shout" free webinar series about the environment, scheduled to begin next Tuesday and Wednesday (Feb. 7-8) with "Water Questions: When We Want to Learn More."

The webinar will feature seven sessions led by Smithsonian experts from both the arts and the sciences, giving participants a global view of the issues associated with a critical natural resource: water. Participants will have the opportunity to interact with Smithsonian experts and other participants.

The series offers K-12 educators multi-dimensional resources to expand their curriculum, as well as comprehensive teacher lesson-planning materials and hands-on activities.

The webinars are open to those who want to learn how teachers are making this topic more engaging for their students or anyone interested in environmental issues.

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COD - 1/24/2012 - Social Studies for Kids [Social studies]

Social Studies for Kids is a resource for students and teachers of social studies covering history, geography, economics, cultures, current events, holidays, religions, languages, archaeology, and more.

The Social Studies for Kids site includes

• A forum on social studies topics.
• Fun facts such as Paul Revere never finished his ride.
• Glossaries for both US and world history.
• A free weekly newsletter.

The home page features Current Events topics, This Week in History, and a Geography item.

The author of Social Studies for Kids is David White, the former About.com Guide for Social Studies for Kids.

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Catch of The Day - Animaps - 9/27/2011

Animaps extends the My Maps feature of Google Maps by letting you create maps with markers that move, images and text that pop up on cue, and lines and shapes that change over virtual time.

An Animap is displayed like a video. Viewers can play, pause, rewind, fast-forward, slow, or speed up the action.

See an example of an Animap

Animaps can be designated as Public or Private. Public maps will be searchable using the internal Animaps search function and also by normal Google searches. Private maps cannot and are available only through a sharable link.

You can sign in using your Facebook account, or create and register a new account with Animaps.

Note: Animaps will not work with Internet Explorer versions before IE9. The site has been tested in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

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Catch of the Day - Show.me.uk - 5/24/2011

The Show.me.uk website is packed with games and resources from the UK's museums and galleries.

The Teachers section of Show.me.uk is designed to help you quickly and easily access relevant content. All content is targeted at Key Stages 1 and 2 (ages 5-11). Interactives and resources are organized by topic and listed in a scrollable menu. These topics include:

• Art and Design
• Science and Technology
• Prehistory
• Ancient Civilizations
• Anglo Saxons, Vikings, Romans, Tudors, and Victorians
• 20th Century Britain
• Natural World
• Dinosaurs
• More

You can receive a regular email newsletter from Show.me.uk updating the educational news from museums and galleries.

Show.me.uk is a free-to-use site produced by Culture24, the latest news, exhibition reviews, links, event listings, and education resources from thousands of UK museums, galleries, archives and libraries.

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Catch of the Day - QuizGeo - 4/26/2011

With QuizGeo, users can create and play geography-based quizzes using Google Maps.

Create your own quizzes by adding points or areas to the map as questions. Search for quizzes created by other QuizGeo users based on quiz names.

QuizGeo quizzes can "include anything from locating all of the countries in the world to locating all of the playground equipment at your local park or school." You place the questions on the map so you can choose how large of an area your quiz will include.

QuizGeo is currently in beta, but more features and options are promised.

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Catch of the Day - Better World Flux - 4/20/2011

Better World Flux is an interactive tool for visualizing information about what really contributes to the quality of life. Choose indicators like happiness, life expectancy, and years of schooling to be displayed in a colorful, meaningful, flowing Flux.

Better World Flux makes it possible to visually communicates world data related to standards of living and quality of life for many countries and and illustrates how this has changed over a period of up to 50 years.

Better World Flux is a device for telling a story and sharing it. This tool is available to the global community to use, regardless of their areas of concern, to understand and promote the UN Millennium Development Goals, as well as to reflect on what really matters in life.

You could use Better World Flux to:

• build a composite of what you think matters in life by selecting indicators and find the ideal country to live in based on your preferences
• track the progress of countries and the world over the years and find interesting trends and patterns, see which countries are most in need
• save and share your most compelling visualization and discover what others are sharing

Watch a video overview of Better World Flux

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Catch of the Day - Dimensions - 3/18/2011

Dimensions from the BBC overlays significant places, events, and things onto a satellite view of any location you choose.

The Dimensions overlays can give students a sense of the size and scope of things when related to more familiar surroundings. For example you could overlay the Great Wall of China on the northeast United States and see that it extends all the way from Missouri in the central US to Nova Scotia in eastern Canada.

You can choose things to overlay in the following categories:

• The War on Terror
• Space
• Depths
• Ancient Worlds
• Environmental Disasters
• Festivals and Spectacles
• The Industrial Age
• WWII-Battle of Britain
• Cities in History

Some Dimensions overlays can be transformed into walks, further enhancing the appreciation of the physical distances involved.

Dimensions is part of a BBC effort to find new ways to communicate history. Dimensions originated with a series of workshops and research in the summer of 2009, into what new forms of digital media could bring to the field.

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Catch of the Day - Historvius - 2/24/2011

Historvius provides easy access to a map-based directory of historic sites and destinations, "from the most famous national treasures to the oft-forgotten hidden gems."

Run by history enthusiasts with a passion for the web, Historvius is a community-based site that trys to make it quick and easy to locate historic sites around the world.

The flexible search function allows users to search the Historvius database by exploring the map, selecting a location, choosing an historic period, or by a keyword or phrase. Users can filter search results to drill-down to their exact objectives.

You can even upload your favorite historic sites to Historvius. No registration is required and you can include as much or as little information as you choose.

Historvius originated from a wish to make information about historic sites more accessible to those planning a trip. The goal of Historvius is to give usersall the key information about a location in one place.

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Catch of the Day - Gapminder - 10/20/2010

The intent of Gapminder is to be a "fact tank" promoting a fact-based world view.

Gapminder wants to make data more accessible and easier to use for quick visual analysis. It is their belief that education at almost all levels lacks adequate tools to do this.

The For Teachers section is for educators who want to use Gapminder in their classrooms. Here you'll find shortcuts to tools and guides for integrating Gapminder in your lessons.

Gapminder is currently working on ...

• Keeping their tools and statistical content up-to-date and making time series freely available in Gapminder World and Gapminder Countries.
• Producing videos, Flash presentations, and PDF charts showing major global development trends with animated statistics in colorful graphics.

Download and install the Gapminder Desktop application and you can use Gapminder World with all its indicators from your computer, even when you have no Internet access.



Watch the video "200 years that changed the world" with Hans Rosling, founder of Gapminder.

Gapminder is a non-profit Internet initiative that promotes sustainable global development and the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Gapminder was founded in Stockholm, Sweden, in February 2005.

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