The time-lapse video above gives some indication of the frenetic pace I’ve been hitting this week. Several months ago I agree to once again do my Google Earth workshops for the SCETV Technology Conference. Had I known how hectic these past two weeks were going to be even without the conference, I might have reconsidered. However, despite PASS testing, 135th day counts, and other pressing needs in Spartanburg Five, I headed on down for the Wednesday – Friday sessions.

As I had done last year, I’m presenting two different sessions. The first is a basic introduction to Google Earth. The teachers get some time just to become familiar with the program’s controls and navigation, and I give them some suggestions for using it in their classrooms. The second session is more in-depth. I cover ways that Google Earth can be used to create highly interactive lessons buy using embedded media. I tend to get lots of oohs and ahs with that session because there is some really cool stuff you can do.

Wednesday we had a luncheon and were joined by several representatives from Discovery Education. Phillipe Cousteau, grandson of Jaques Cousteau, was our keynote speaker. In the evening the Discovery Educators Network (DEN) STAR members had a dinner at the SCETV studios, and we were again joined by Phillipe Cousteau. He spoke about some of his current environmental education endeavors.

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Tuesday I had to make one of my occasional trips down to Columbia for a meeting.  The meeting was being held in an unusual location, and there were traffic detours all around the school.  That meant that I saw more of Columbia neighborhoods than I normally see on one of these visits.  Seeing the abandoned railway that runs through Columbia and some of the older neighborhoods, I was reminded of a Facebook discovery I’d made – a fan page entitled Hidden Columbia.  When I got back from my meeting I decided to look at it more closely, and found a treasure trove.

Hidden Columbia is a production of WOLO News, the local ABC affiliate, and airs every other Tuesday on their 11:00 pm newscast.  Reporter Anderson Burns seeks out the obscure and unusual around the city.  Sometimes this is some local oddity, or it may be a bit of history that has been covered over with development.  Here’s a story about hidden tunnels around Columbia…

…and another about “Underground Columbia,” a development that was supposed to be like Underground Atlanta, but was never really realized…

The videos can be seen on the Facebook fan page.  Unfortunately, they are ONLY available on Facebook, as far as I can tell. The station’s website is a pathetic jumble of slick advertisements with shiny buttons that point to Facebook and Twitter, but there is no content there. So, if you’re not on Facebook, you can’t view the videos. (Unless you know a sneaky little bit of code and can embed the videos, like I did here.)

Facebook problems aside, Burns has explored some fascinating locations.   Because of his reporter status, he’s been granted permission to visit some places that are off-limits to the general public.  But, he makes clear in his reports which areas are publicly accessible and which are posted.  I hope that revealing the location of these treasures doesn’t cause problems from those that might trespass and cause damage.

I’ve only had time to view a few of the videos, but now I’m tempted to find one of these the next time I’m down that way.  I’ve got to be in Columbia several days in March, so I think I’ll watch more of these, and possibly plot them on Google Earth.  It would be something interesting to do while I’m not in workshops.

This week SCETV is holding its summer technology workshops. Normally I’m so busy building new schools and putting in computers that I can’t take part in the summer workshops. This summer, however, I decided I would try to make it. I figured that during summer there would be better participation than there might during the school year.

Last spring I did three sessions each day, which meant that I had no down time nor opportunity to visit any other sessions. This time I cut one of my presentations, so I would only be doing two workshops each day – Basic Google Earth and Creating Interactive Lessons with Google Earth. I had also been asked to conduct a geocaching activity one of the afternoons. (more…)

Once, many years ago, I made the statement that while other cities like Austin and New Orleans had cool Riverwalk areas, Columbia had built a penitentiary on it’s riverfront. Fortunately, in the past couple of decades since that statement attitudes have changed, and both Greenville and Columbia have recognized the importance of their waterways and the potential for tourism. While in Columbia this past week I was able to spend an afternoon at the Columbia Riverfront Park, and it was quite a pleasant outing.

The park is located at the site of the Columbia Waterworks, and incorporates historical elements of the waterworks, the Columbia Canal, and the Congaree River. One enters the main portion of the part at the Waterworks entrance, with a path that leads past the portions of the water treatment plant that are still in operation. (more…)

For the past three days I’ve been in Columbia doing workshops SCETV.  As I’ve done for the past three years, I’ve offered training at various levels in Google Earth.  It was a busy three days, and I didn’t have much time to blog during that time.  Still, it was a good experience.  SCETV always puts on a good training session.

The first day I got up at 4:30 and drove on down so I would be ready for my first session at 8:30, which was an Introduction to Google Earth.  The room they had me in was absolutely fantastic – open with views out toward the Columbia skyline.  There was a central screen flanked by four large LCD TV’s, and seating was very comfortable Herman Miller Aeleron chairs.  The IFRA Newsplex is used by the USC School of Journalism for training, and it’s quite a room.

The sessions went well. As mentioned, the first one was an introduction, and the second was on creating interactive lessons with Google Earth. The third one was on geotagging, and it was held in a very dark conference room in another building. Not only were the attendees about to fall asleep, but so was I.

After the sessions on the first day I went to the Columbia Riverside Park and took lots of photos (post and photos to follow), then to Riverside New Orleans Grill for dinner, then I collapsed at the hotel.

On Wednesday I had been asked to fill in for someone who was doing a session on creating virtual field trips in Google Earth. It turns out that the person who was originally scheduled to do the workshop had downloaded one of my handouts, and was planning to use that. I tried to wing it, but I’m not so sure I did it justice. The other two workshops went very well, though.

Second day dinner was with my friend Dwight and family, then another collapse.

Day three, more of the same. For the final session on geotagging I had 13 people signed up, but only 3 showed up. We did a nice little self-guided study, and it worked out OK. They got lots of individual attention.

I’m thinking that the geotagging workshop may be a bit esoteric, and I’ll probably drop it from my repertoire. The other two got lots of positive feedback. As I had anticipated, the participants were astounded with the ability to embed multimedia components into Google Earth placemarks. There were lots of oohs and aahs.

That was followed by the long drive back up I-26, with a brief diversion to see if the Tip Top Lookout Tower was still standing, which it wasn’t.