Embedding Google Earth files into a website

This thursday I had the privilege of attending the iEARN2010 conference. The organizer and co-lead of iEARN Canada is a colleague of mine Jim Carleton. He encouraged me to come and see what it was all about. I was of course, thoroughly impressed. The energy in the building was amazing. It reminded me of Educon, where educators and students were all together learning from each other. Those are pretty much the only two conferences i've attended to date with that energy.

Anyways, Peter Skillen (@peterskillen) and Brenda Sherry (@brendasherry) were running stations in the Minds On Media area. I've played on Google Earth before, but never really explored its full capabilities in education. I decided to lurk around Peters Google Earth lessons and pick up some tips. By the end I was presented with the challenge of finding a way to embed folders into a website, allowing an easy way to share with many.

It's taken me 3 days (not straight) to figure it out. I might be slower than most, but I get there eventually! :) Here we go.

1. In Google Earth create your folder of places or tour.

2. Export your folder as a .kmz file.

3. Upload your .kmz file onto your website. In my case I simply created a google site (free, took 3 minutes), added a "file cabinet" page and uploaded the file. Make sure you know the url link for your resource. In my case it was: https://sites.google.com/site/jaccalder/my/SCDSBSecondarySchools.kmz

4. Go to this page to set up the gadget and grab the code (you insert your url and fine tune settings)

5. Go to your webpage or blog and enter in the embed html code from the gadget.

This Google tutorial has great information and step by step directions.

See my previous post for an example. I simply created a Google Earth folder with the locations of all the Simcoe County District School Board schools and adult learning centres. I can see the potential for this if I had taken the time to include photos, videos, etc.