Tactile Google Earth
Mel of Moodle Girl Fame posted this link on her blog as she reflected on the recent uLearn08 Conference.
Essentially this is a tactile approach to Google earth. Watch the video here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLconRxEyzc
I like google earth, its a great tool that suits visual learner well. This approach makes it a very good tool for our kinesthetic learners too. I suspect that a smartboard with google earth would also yield similar results too. Particularly since the smartboard is touch sensitive rather than requiring a pen.
Increasingly we are seeing the need for the tactile interface in many situations. I feel that this is the more natural of interfaces, it is certainly one of the primary method exploration we have all used since our earliest years. The use of gestures to manipulate objects is also very natural. Too enlarge an object grab it and stretch, to close it push it aside.
Developments like these will make integrating technologies much easier as the speed of uptake will be quicker and the move from being literate to fluent faster.
The company that produced this video is - http://www.ubiqwindow.jp/ENG/english.htm
Nice Find Mel, thanks for posting it.
October 18th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Exactly like the Edusim project. The project site is at http://edusim3d.com
==
[Reply]
October 18th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
A good point and one I am surprised I missed as I subscribe to their blog feed. Thanks for that. Edusim is a fascinating project and one worth watching
A
[Reply]
October 19th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Hi Andrew,
It was great to meet you in person at ULearn08, I had been following your edorigami blog for a while (but not leaving comments). Keep up the great work and hope we meet up again sometime in the future!
Mel (aka Moodlegirl)
[Reply]
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Ya, google earth is cool! And I found my house in google earth!!
[Reply]