Seven League Boots

Soooo…. I put off until the very last night to enter my Google nomination. I admit it: I’m a terrible crasto. But the issue for me was: what could I say that everyone else wasn’t already saying? By definition, the new uses for fat data pipes are just too hard to predict. I could only think of one or two things.

One might be: every music venue gets its own live hi-def internet TV channel if it wants one. Although it’s not completely clear to me how that results in revenue, unless you can convince the couch potatoes that it’s even more fun to be there in meatspace (which it really is, when the mojo is working). But I tendered a different idea, which I’ll reprint here (slightly reworded for this format).

Google Earth Adventure Asheville

Fast fiber internet service creates so many possibilities, it’s hard to think about them all. I’d like to suggest one.

We all hear that geographical knowledge is tough for American students. But… why? I’ve spent hours playing about with Google Earth; I consider it an amazing teaching tool and great fun. It has even more potential.

Imagine a sort of park, located in (why not?) Asheville, North Carolina. Google Earth Adventure offers activities involving both physical and visual experiences in geography and science, great for teaching and a tourist draw as well.

1.) A huge climbing net structure like those found at amusement parks:
Pedley Nets
Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA has an especially impressive one which I once climbed.

Under each net section is a screen upon which a media projector displays Google Earth, so that those climbing on the net feel as if it were hung far in the sky. It’s controlled via touch screen or remote, so that a teacher can do a guided lesson, or anyone climbing the net can control it. Asheville’s own Elumenati are well equipped to create such visual systems.

2.) A climbing wall surrounded by screens so that one can see the view from K2, the Troll Wall or Half Dome. I’ve tried “climbing” in Google Earth. Harder than it looks!

3.)Using high-quality VR goggles, students don a parachute harness and hang above a large inflated trackball, running and leaping from city to city, across rivers and canyons, racing others to various destinations.

4.) Using goggles or screens, immersive Google Earth flight simulators fly students across the Earth, through space, under the sea, or even inside the Earth, viewing 3D data about plate tectonics, following 3D caves, rock and fossil layers, oil deposits. Controls stations are set up like aircraft, spaceship cockpits, even bicycles.

Why Asheville? Asheville is like Google. It’s full of ideas.

I don’t know if it’s a workable idea. But it would be fun.