Brahmaputra Lesson Plan Update

Screen Shot of Tour. Click to Play, NB: Uses Audio

Over the last week or so I've been updating a lesson plan I published last year to use the new tour facility in GEarth. The above is an audio tour to show what the lesson plan is about.

New Materials: Download from my personal website under 'Brahmaputra Flooding....'. Features include:

• NEW Delivered via tours making use much simpler for the teacher
• Helpful notes on how to use GEarth for Newbie teachers
  
• Ideas for extension exercises for students
• Links human and physical geography considering effects of global warming
  

In the materials I've produced tours which use pauses rather than audio, the idea is that the teacher plays the tour and when it pauses describes/discusses with the class what is shown on screen - rather like a powerpoint where slide transistions are replaced by GEarth flights. I used the new material for a global warming conference to a 6th form I did in December and it worked extremely well.

Design Notes on the Lesson Files:

• I added the 'press play to continue' screen overlay because I thought the user needed more visual feedback that the tour had paused/was playing.
  
• I turn elements on and off in my tours more than most people seem to. I think its good practise to annotate tours to help guide the user's eye to where they should be looking.
• I think the use of GEarth tours with pauses replaces the need for PowerPoint in this instance. Obviously it only works for certain situations but I know ESRI are developing even more tools to make other Virtual Globes more useful in presentations (you'll be able to import PowerPoint slides into their Virtual Globe)

Update 16:13, 12 Aug 09: Edited to include Frank's comments