geteach.com/blog

GeTeach.com Geo 4 Good 2021

TL;DR: Here is a GitHub Repository for those who just want to see Earth’s Changing Oceans html, CSS, and JavaScript. (Link) Or make a copy of the demonstrated Google Earth Project. (Link)

It is always great to share Google Earth Project ideas at Geo for Good Summits. This year’s presentation utilized Earth Web’s new tile features along with folders. I originally wanted to create a post on how the demonstrated Google Earth Project was created, but I thought it would be better to create a simple project that uses the same basic ideas and structure.

The simple story created in this post is Austin and Las Vegas’ urban growth 2000 – 2020. This post will be a guide starting from creating and exporting map tiles using Google Earth Engine through the creation of an Earth Project using these tiles. Being completely unaware of people’s knowledge and skills, the lack of real time meaningful feedback, and the use of multiple platforms creates many challenges for this post. My hope is that the videos and code snippets help, but feel free to reach out. You can find me on Twitter @geteach.

Lastly, the typical disclaimer. I am a high school geography teacher and not a professional developer. Hopefully this tinkering adds value to whatever you are trying to create.

---

Table of Contents

• I. Environment / Setting
• II. Setup Google Cloud Storage to House Map Tiles
• III. Create and Export Map Data Using Earth Engine
• IV. Create Google Earth Project and Folder Structure
• V. Programmatically Control Earth Project Folders and Features (The Secret Sauce)
• VI. Create Introduction Splash Screen (Set the Presentation)
• VII. Create 1st Panel within Austin Folder
• VIII. Create 2nd Panel within Las Vegas Folder
• IX. Tutorial GitHub Repository

---

I. Environment / Setting

1. Google Chrome
2. Google Cloud Storage
3. Earth Engine – Code Editor
4. Image Viewer – Any should work (IrfanView – Windows)
5. VS Code
6. All Tutorial Files used are in this GitHub Repository
7. Patience

---

II. Setup Google Cloud Storage to House Map Tiles

1. Create a bucket for the project
2. Create paths to store Map tiles and other assets
   • Austin/2000
   • Austin/2020
   • LV/2000
   • LV/2020

---

III. Create and Export Map Data Using Earth Engine

---

IV. Create Google Earth Project and Folder Structure

1. Create New Google Earth Project
2. Create full screen splash introduction placeholder
3. Create Folders for…
   • Austin
     • Austin 2000
     • Austin 2020
   • Las Vegas
     • Las Vegas 2000
     • Las Vegas 2020
4. Add Tiled Maps
5. To get folder/feature IDs – Export Project as kml

---

V. Programmatically Control Earth Project Folders and Features (The Secret Sauce)

1. Export KML
2. Create hidden div for links
3. Create JavaScript loop to show/hide features

---

VI. Create Introduction Splash Screen (Set the Presentation)

1. Add image, title and description to introduction screen
2. Set the “CLICK TO EXPLORE” button
3. Copy/paste HTML into Google Earth Project

---

VII. Create 1^st Panel within Austin Folder

1. Edit Carousel, Text
2. Set Features to hide/show

---

3. Set “Flyto” function for Austin Panel

---

VIII. Create 2^nd Panel within Las Vegas Folder

1. Edit Carousel, Text
2. Set Features to hide/show
3. Set “Flyto” function for Las Vegas Panel

---

IX. Tutorial GitHub Repository

READ MORE

GeTeach.com UI Refresh

Swipe Right: New UI / Swipe Left: Old UI

It has been about five years since geteach.com’s last UI refresh. There are several issues that have been resolved. Watching students use the site in my classroom has brought on many of these changes, but some are just me wanting to tinker around. The most significant changes center around students using touch screens on their 11.6” Chromebooks.

Other changes have to do with scrolling of panels and creating a vertical split screen mode for modern, relatively large, smarty phones and/or tablets. As always, I am a one teacher shop that can only test on the devices that teachers can afford. So hopefully the new design works for your students. If not, the old version will be hosted here for the time being. https://geteach.com/back2020.html

Swipe above image: New larger and on-hover highlighted buttons

Swipe above image: “Select Map” menu has been reworked to better fit smaller screens

Swipe above image: Close Streetview icon added to panel’s header

Swipe above image: Added scrollbars to each panel to accommodate smaller screen sizes

Swipe above image: The importance of scroll bars. Allowing students to work with varying window sizes

“Layers” automatically toggles on after clicking a map set

New vertical view option which might not help a lot in landscape on a computer, but…

..pretty handy in portrait mode on my Note 8 (image above) and/or a tablet in portrait mode

**Phone viewport must be wider than 385px**

READ MORE

Spice up Google Earth Projects with Custom HTML

One of the most requested features I get asked about is adding narration or audio to Google Earth Projects. Recently, I was fortunate to participate in a Google for Good 2020 session were Jordon Mears and I discussed how to approach adding audio to Google Earth Projects via Earth’s custom HMTL option. (Click here to watch full presentation – Free on-demand)

Thanks for those who watched the session. However, as an educator, I understand the need to offer a non-serial version and examples of our 15-minute conversation.

Resources:

Code Editor: Visual Studio Code (Code editor from session) https://code.visualstudio.com/

Hosted MP3 file:  https://storage.googleapis.com/geteachkml4/Sound_Effects_Applause.mp3

HTML Templates: https://github.com/geteach/geteachGeology/tree/master/eGEW

Google Earth Project Example Link (Feel free to make a copy)

Step 1: Start simple

For me, when working with HTML and Google Earth, starting with the most basic snippet, then working up, saves hours of development time.

Our inquiry begins with…Can HTML audio tag work in Google Earth Web?

Finding the simplest code example often starts with Google search, “html Audio.”  These searches often lead me to school. https://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_audio.asp

From here, I will take their “Try it Yourself” snippet and replace their mp3 with one of my own.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>

<audio controls>
  <source src="https://storage.googleapis.com/geteachkml4/Sound_Effects_Applause.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">
Your browser does not support the audio element.
</audio>

</body>
</html>

Copy and Paste the modified code into Google Earth Web and hear it work.

Step 2: Spice it up!

Now that we know the html audio tag works, we can spice up the style of the page with a little more HTML, CSS, and simple JavaScript. You can always create your own, but if you don’t have the time, feel free to use a template from this GitHub repository (https://github.com/geteach/geteachGeology/tree/master/eGEW). The snippet below is using the oneImageAudio.html example found in repository.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
        <meta charset="UTF-8">
        <title>Simple Audio with One Image</title>
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto:100,200,300,400,500|Roboto+Slab|Material+Icons" type="text/css" />
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://code.getmdl.io/1.3.0/material.blue_grey-blue.min.css" />
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://geteach.com/gti/drp/scripts/egew.css" type="text/css" />
    </head>
    <body>
        <div id="container">
            <main class="panelMain">
                <div class="mediaContain">
                    <div class="slideshow-container">
<!--First media in Carousel--Best Image Aspect Ratio 3:2 Replace Image Source (src) bellow-->
                        <div class="mySlides fade">
                            <img class="image"src="https://storage.googleapis.com/geteachkml4/seafloorage/seafloor480.jpg">
                            <div class="captionDiv">
                                <div class="caption" >Replace Caption</div>
                            </div>
                        </div>
                    </div>
                </div>
                <div class="content" id="content">
<!--Replace title text between div-->
                    <div class="title">
                        Replace title
                    </div>
<!--Replace mp3 source (src="youraudio.mp3")-->
                    <audio id="audioI" style="display:none" >
                        <source src="https://storage.googleapis.com/geteachkml4/Sound_Effects_Applause.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">
                            Your browser does not support the audio tag.
                    </audio>
                    <span class="mdl-chip mdl-chip--contact audioPlay" style="width:85px;margin-left: 8px;">
                        <span class="mdl-chip__contact mdl-color-text--white" style="margin-right: 5px;"id="playIcon">
                            <i class="material-icons">play_arrow</i>
                        </span>
                        <span class="mdl-chip__text" id="playButton">Play</span>
                    </span>
<!--Replace text for description--Every <p> needs to have a class="text"--Any html works-->
                    <div class="description">
                        <p class="text">Replace description...If you need a new paragraph the class="text"</p>
                    </div>
                </div>
<!--Best image height for footer is 24px with a max-width of 145px-->
<!--If you don't want the footer is it best to delete the html within the logoLeft/LogoRight Div-->
                <div class="footer">
                    <div class="logoLeft">
                        <a href="https://twitter.com/geteach" target="_blank">
                            <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/geteachkml4/logogeteachtemp.png" >
                        </a>
                    </div>
                    <div class="logoRight" style="display:none">
                    </div>
                </div>
            </main>
        </div>
    </body>
    <script src="https://geteach.com/gti/drp/scripts/egew0521.js"></script>
    <script defer src="https://code.getmdl.io/1.3.0/material.min.js"></script>
</html>

There are several HTML files in the repository for you to use, modify, or recreate.  You can reach me @geteach on twitter if you need help exploring, creating, or sharing this Earth.

Read more about my Google Geo fun here: Decade of Google Geo EDU (https://geteach.com/blog/2020/01/26/decade-of-google-geo-edu/)

Or read some other Google Geo post here: https://geteach.com/blog

READ MORE

GeTeach’s Spring Cleaning – 2020

GeTeach.com had a little spring cleaning this past week. The CIA World Factbook, along with UN’s Human Development Index, data was updated. As always, this biggest change looks to be Net Migration for Syria (Human Geography -> Demographics). Five years ago, there was a large negative flow out of Syria; now there is a relatively large inflow.

There are now over 190 map layers in geteach.com. New layers include percentage of Improved Sanitation (Human Geography -> Society), percent of population working in Agriculture/Mining, Industry, and Service (Human Geography -> Economy), and updated Population Density map (Human Geography -> Population Density), and Median Age (Human Geography -> Demographics).

In addition to new data, most of the thematic maps have new color gradients. Therefore, the maps, along with the legends, should be easier to process with new, more “modern”, colors.

The most immediate impact on my classes will be the addition of population pyramids located with Median Age, Total Dependency Ratio, Youth Dependency Ratio, and Elderly Dependency Ratio within the Demographic dataset.

These 2018 population pyramids are being served from a CIA Factbook host, so hopefully the agency does not change there urls, but having population pyramids in the site is a dream come true for my own teaching and learning; considering much of the course I teach is based on the unequal distribution of goods, services, and people across Earth’s service.

Another change worth mentioning is the inclusion of a small source/credit tag under legends. Geteach.com has always had a source/credit in the description box associated with each layer, but I was never comfortable with users have to click the “I” icon at the top right of each canvas to see the source of the map or data.

There are also numerous spacing changes with the styling. I doubt anyone will notice the 3-pixel margin shifts, but as a self-described pixel snob these items were truly bugging me. It is similar to painting a house or bedroom. The painter knows all their mistakes; even though it is never noticeable to any guest.

Well back to my real job…I hope teachers and students continue to enjoy at least one of the over 18,000 correlations; developing a deeper understanding of people’s relationships with their world and each other.

If you are new to geteach.com, here is a four-minute overview video of many of the functions already built into the site.

https://geteach.com

READ MORE