Sketching The 3D World
If you haven’t used Google SketchUp yet, you should give version 7 a try. They have made the latest version even easier to use. Create 3D models of cars, spaceships, buildings, or even your own inventions using the intuitive program. As a first time user, it wasn’t long before I was ignoring the start-up tips and exploring the tools for myself. Compared to other graphical editing programs such as AutoCAD and ProE, which have an abundance of features that often require some form of training to use, Sketchup’s design is simple, powerful and doesn’t use an abundance of resources to run on your computer. For your first time, try making a 3D model of your house simply by importing a 2D picture of it and tracing the outline. You can even take images from Google Earth using the same method, make a 3D model of it, then export them back into Google Earth.
Aside from Sketchup being a useful tool for the average computer user, it has also been used for educational purposes. Using a downloadable ad-on to Sketchup called Sketchyphysics2, Mexico State University students created a 3D model of a Chile Cleaner. The model gave the engineers an outline of what needed to be built and developed a virtual walk through of the design so many of the problems could be worked out before construction. This video shows the capabilities of the software.
Every year Google runs an International Model your Campus competition. Using Sketchup, students from various disciplines get together and model their university’s campus. These models are then uploaded into Google Earth for anyone to see. Although Carleton University’s campus is large, it would not be impossible to design in 3D using the latest version of Sketchup. It would be a fun and engaging opportunity for design, architecture, computer science and other students who are interested in designing. Similar projects were submitted to Google’s case studies page.
Although Sketchup is already at it’s 7th version, we still have yet to see the extent of it’s capabilities as more and more people discover it. With user’s as young as 5 years old who are creating relatively complex models, it would be no suprise to find Sketchup on every computer in the near future. As Google states, “we think that SketchUp has a place in every classroom, dorm room and student laptop in the world. After all – we live in 3D. Why shouldn’t we start thinking and teaching that way?”
We will write more posts in the future on some ideas and examples of how you might incorporate Sketchup into your course. Take a look at the case studies submitted by SketchUp users whose work is representative of SketchUp in Higher Education.
Mind Mapping
One of the best ways to visual display complex ideas is Mind mapping. This allows you to generate structure and classify ideas that are linked together by a central key concept.
Mind maps have been used by educators as an aid in learning, studying, brainstorming, problem solving, decision making, organizing and writing. New mind mapping tools allow you to create, manage and share mind maps online and access them anytime, from anywhere.
Get the Headlines from All Over the Map: Newseum
A tool or toy for Journalism students? While arguably it still may need some tweaking to make it a little faster and smoother, the Today’s Front Pages interactive feature of Newseum allows you to see the front page headlines of 581 newspapers in 56 countries. While it does not list Canada as a main destination in the top toolbar, simply click North America and scroll upwards to see Canadian newspaper headlines from across the country.
[via Very Short List]
WikipediaVision – Wikipedia and Google Earth mashup
Via Infodoodads, I found this great site called WikipediaVision. Whenever someone edits English Wikipedia pages, a new notifiction pops up letting you know which page it was, who edited it, and of course where that person it located. Sitting there for a few minutes and watching the notifications, it’s amazing to see just how often Wikipedia gets updated.
It’s really a fascinating worldwide phenomenon, that so many people on Wikipedia have all joined into the creation of knowledge.
Still totally uncomfortable with Wikipedia in the educational arena? An interesting factoid: A study by Nature magazine has shown that the user-generated encylopedia Wikipedia is just as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica. My opinion is that while there may be instances of bias and inaccurate information in some articles, it is usually flagged by the strong community of participants. Also, most articles have references at the bottom to other sources. While Wikipedia is not appropriate as a reference for a paper, it’s a great place to get started and get a good jumping off point to good sources about a topic.
World traveller
In yesterday’s staff meeting we talked about using Google Earth and plotting journeys that characters take in classic literature. We figured that it might be a good way for learners to better visualize and conceptualize the story.
Certainly being to see the voyage that Odysseus took in Homer’s Odyssey adds a new dimension and would make a usual reference point at key parts of the story. We figured any novel, short story or article where travel and/or geographical location plays an important role would benefit from being mapped using Google Earth.
But it turns out someone already this idea: GoogleLitTrips. Oh well… Check it out.
I wonder if anyone has used Google Earth to illustrate animal migrations?
