Moving at the Speed of Creativity - Discovery Education and Google Earth

Discovery Education and Google Earth

Published by Wesley Fryer in digitalstorytelling, geography on April 7th, 2006

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Thanks to Miguel for alerting me to the “Google Earth to Get Discovery Video” article in yesterday’s Washington Post. (I am incidentally impressed that the news article already includes a cross-link to Miguel’s blog!) According to the article:

Over the next few weeks, Google’s program [Google Earth] will begin including a globe icon, linking users to a series of two- to four-minute videos from Discovery’s archives. Initially, the locations will be limited to 10 U.S. national parks including Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore and Dinosaur, but international sites will be added soon.

Google Earth is amazingly powerful and free. We are going to see a literal explosion of content and tools that connect text and media to geographic locations in the months to come, thanks to this product and the creative ingenuity of passionate developers, entrepreneurs, and users worldwide.

There’s never been a better day in earth history to be a communicator, or a geographer!

The KML files which Google Earth uses are text files that can be created by anyone. Discovery Education is now THE main player in the educational streaming video market, and they are going to extend their reach and the access enjoyed by others to their content through Google Earth. Fairly brilliant and likely successful content distribution and income generating strategy. The ability to geo-tag media content of any type (including videos) is something that will be catching on more, especially as cell phones become more powerful camcorders and web browsers.

For more links related to Google Earth, check out my Google Earth social bookmarks: http://del.icio.us/wfryer/googleEarth.

Our family is planning a trip to Yellowstone this summer. If we want, it is likely we will not only be able to access geo-tagged videos from Yellowstone via Google Earth and Discovery in advance, during, and after our trip– but also likely that we can CREATE geo-tagged video that can be shared with a global audience, via KML files / Google Earth and other sources like Semapedia. We might use web-based video sharing tools like EyeSpot, especially if they incorporate geo-tagging.

Don’t miss the last 2 paragraphs of the article either. Video content from Discovery’s channels will soon be streaming to your computer, and the cell phone in your pocket:

Separately, Discovery announced that it will launch its first broadband channels, Discovery Channel Beyond and Travel Channel Beyond, on April 15. The broadband channels offer outtakes and bloopers from selected Discovery shows and other related content online. The channels are to be supported entirely by advertising and are free. The company is talking with U.S. mobile phone service providers about supplying a broadcast feed for wireless devices. It already does so in other parts of the world. Broadband channels for TLC, Animal Planet and Discovery Health Channel will follow.

It’s a rapidly changing world, folks. Our schools need to get off the dirt road, the shoulder of the interstate, or wherever they are in slow motion and move onto the autobahn of educational creativity. Things are moving fast out here.