“Free site dedicated to help teachers educate and engage students using Google Geo Tools”

The above has been my mission statement for about ten years now. I should probably change ‘site’ to ‘sites’, but will worry about that later. As I am finally getting around to backing up some old project files, I noticed two things. One, my files are an absolute mess. Two, I have used a lot of Google Geo Tools over this decade; primarily oscillating between Maps API, Google Earth, and more recently Earth Engine. A friend once asked if I could put everything in one place. Looking at my files today suggest this will be highly unlikely. I try to use this blog to showcase work I think other students and teachers will be interested in. That stated, I don’t have an index of post for Google’s Geo Tools. Therefore, below are my favorite posts and projects organized around Google Geo Tools.

Google Earth

The one that started it all. As some people know, I am a big fan of kml and Google Earth; often calling it my gateway technology.  With the web version of Google Earth, the future of this technology remains as current today as it was a decade ago.

Blog Posts

Explore, Create, Share with Google Earth Creation Tools: Overview of what is easy and possible with content creation tools. (Contains many of my current Google Earth Projects) https://geteach.com/blog/2019/12/01/explore-create-share-with-google-earth-creation-tools/

An Inclusive Earth: Include more student in more languages using Google Earth on Web. https://geteach.com/blog/2019/03/15/an-inclusive-earth/

Custom HTML Info Boxes: Google Earth Quiz Tutorial: Advanced tutorial for creating custom HTML info boxes for Google Earth on Web. https://geteach.com/blog/2020/01/03/custom-html-info-boxes-google-earth-quiz-tutorial/

thanksgiving-fun-with-kml: Learn basic kml coding using ground overlays (oldy but goody). https://geteach.com/blog/2016/11/21/thanksgiving-fun-with-kml/

RIP-Earth-API-Plugin: Not many people know, but geteach.com used to run off a Google Earth API. Here is a post memorializing what used to be possible via this plugin. Great older videos in this one! https://geteach.com/blog/2017/01/08/rip-earth-api-plugin/

Old Side Projects | Archive

Philippines- Typhoon Haiyan (geteach.com Deprecated Earth API )

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Google Maps API

My primary page, geteach.com, is built using this platform. Originally created to just share maps with my students, the site now shares maps with thousands of students.

Blog Posts

geteach.com – layers: Quick overview of all the layers in geteach.com circa 2016. Several additional layers have been added over the past three years. https://geteach.com/blog/2016/12/17/geteach-com-layers/

#12MapComparisonsOfChristmas: Some of the many comparisons students can make with geteach.com. https://geteach.com/blog/2016/12/21/12mapcomparisonsofchristmas/

Authoritative Bias of Maps: While not strictly a Maps API post, it is my first lesson of the year with a lot of maps fun. https://geteach.com/blog/2018/08/01/authoritative-bias-of-maps/

Old Side Projects | Archive

Round Rock ISD mini-geteach (Class Project 2016): https://geteach.com/westwood/rrisd/RRISD.html

Sense of Place Westwood High School (Class Project 2016, before Tour Creator:) click icons on map https://geteach.com/westwood/westwoodplace/

Regional Issues Project 2015 (Click red markers on Map): https://geteach.com/share/casestudy/2015.html

Homage to Maps Engine/Maps Gallery: Many people don’t remember that Google had an amazing curated library of datasets that could be imported into geteach.com or opened within the gallery. That is before Google Deprecated the cool stuff. Some of the technology is still used with My Maps and I think Google Earth’s content creation. Those asset/map IDs look familiar;).

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Google Earth Engine

Earth Engine took awhile to grow on me. Mainly because I kept having to recreate so much with the combination of deprecating and new technologies. That, and I have a day job teaching high school. However, over the past year I’ve taken a couple of weekends to create a few projects.

Blog Posts

First(ish) Google Earth Engine Attempt: Reflection of my first true Earth Engine App visualizing 60 years of climate data. https://geteach.com/blog/2019/06/30/firstish-google-earth-engine-attempt/

Side Projects

Currently, I am putting all my Earth Engine Experiments (3 for now) here if people would like to use them in the classroom. https://geteach.com/engine/

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