This morning I posted about Google Maps and some of the interesting discoveries made by users of the tool in the past. I just made one of my own. I was exploring the town of Pasir Ris in Singapore and discovered a strange white blotch near the intersection of Pasir Ris Drive 1 and Pasir Ris Drive 4.

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What is this?

What can it be? A massive liquid paper spill? A horrendous bird dropping?

Google Earth and its browser based cousin Google Maps fascinate. This morning I read that a possible meteorite crater has been discovered in western New South Wales. The report in the Sydney Morning Herald tells the story of opal miner Mike Fry and how he spotted the crater via Google Earth. Mr Fry had been using Google Earth to explore terrain for possible opal mining sites. The site requires further geological investigation to confirm it is the result of an meteorite impact. The western rim of the site is visible. The eastern rim has been significantly eroded and is no longer visible.

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Earlier this year another potential impact crater was discovered in Western Australia by Dr Arthur Hickman, a government geologist with the Geological Survey of Western Australia.

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If you are interested in similar discoveries and meteorite craters around the globe this Google Earth Hacks site, Craters [scroll down], and this Google Maps site, Meteor Craters may interest you.

It fascinates that both of these geological ‘discoveries’ were made whilst seated in front of a computer display.

Have you ever made a ‘discovery’ while exploring Google Earth or Google Maps. Some time back I was exploring some of the towns where my wife and I had lived while we were living in Singapore. To my surprise I ‘discovered’ that a group of trees that were located in a park that was adjacent to our estate spelt out the name of the town, Pasir Ris. We had walked through and around the park many times yet we never realised that the trees had been so planted.

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In the classroom I like to use Google Earth to support the teaching of history. It is particularly useful when teaching students the history of the Persian Wars. Sites for battles such as Marathon, Salamis, Thermopylae and Artemisium are all accessible. Of course the terrain and coastlines have altered to some extent yet the maps provide an invaluable viusal for the students and it makes the events all the more tangible.

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Battle of Marathon site. Athenian soldiers are buried in this mound.

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Both the Battle of Thermopylae and the naval battle of Artemisium were fought in this region.

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The Battle of Salamis was fought in the narrows between the island of Salamis and the coastline of ancient Attica

So, have you made any “discoveries” using Google Earth? What do you think are some of the more interesting locations visible via Google Earth? How do you use Google Earth in the classroom?

Just corrected some links on this blog to these resources…

Web 2.0 Workshop Resources
Technology guides and support documents
Web 2.0 links

Will Richardson has written a nostalgic piece on print media, journalism and the relentless march of new media. I commented on his post and I felt, “What the heck?” and I have repeated my comments here.

I will miss the print editions of my favourite newspapers. I will not miss the local rag. Melancholy will be the order of the day in the likely event that the print editions of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian become extinct.

I enjoy sitting down to read the newspaper. It is tactile. Tangible. Turning a page determines what I will read and which photographs I will view. It is quite linear and ordered and requires little or no thinking and/or decision making on my part. I can get ‘lost’ in a broadsheet paper. The moment takes me “away”. Reading the stories, the readers’ letters, the political cartoons and the comics follows a progression that is seemingly innate.

In comparison reading the same newspaper online is nowhere near as pleasant. Which link to follow? Which section to scan? Where is the editorial? Where are the political cartoons? I cannot get lost in the moment. Too many distractions online and on the computer. I must concede that links to earlier letters to the editor and related information are indeed useful.

New media is here to stay of course. Perhaps limited print runs of newspapers will be continued for diehards such as myself.

I find reading the real newspaper to be relaxing and an effective way to de-stress. It is so good sharing the Saturday morning newspaper and its supplements with my wife as we lounge together in the living room with a cup of coffee and some breakfast.

Just received an email alert that the Australian eduBloggers wiki had been updated. I clicked on the link to check out the latest listings and noticed that my entry still referred to my blog as TeachTech. Thought I better update the name of my blog on the wiki.

I edited the page, changed the name from TeachTech to Watershed and updated the link to these resources for teachers. I saved the changes. Two edits in all.

Screen shot of portion of email alert text

Not long afterwards an email alert came through advising of the changes to the wiki. That alert goes out to all subscribers.

Well, the email alert indicated that I had made thirteen changes throughout the wiki. I had only made two. It did not show the updated link in the advice either. This is weird. The indicated changes in the email were identical to the replaced text. If anyone knows what happened I am all ears. Is it an Apple Macintosh Safari browser thing?