翻译《ELI7019 - 关于谷歌地球你要知道的七件事》
7 things you should know about...
Google Earth
关于谷歌地球你要知道的七件事
Scenario
场景说明
As part of a course on U.S. history, Alexander is writing a paper about the Lewis and Clark expedition, focusing on a critical decision. When the party arrived at a fork in the river in June 1805, the crew believed the north fork was the proper route; Captains Lewis and Clark thought the south course would get them to the Pacific Ocean. Alexander looks at the area on Google Earth, which helps him understand the geography of this part of Montana.
作为美国历史课程的一部分，亚历山大正在写一篇关于刘易斯和克拉克远征的论文，侧重于怎么做出重大决定。一八零五年六月，一行人抵达河岔，全体成员都相信河岔北部才是正确的选择，刘易斯、克拉克队长认为往南走会带他们走到太平洋。亚历山大在谷歌地球上查看该地区，这能帮助他理解蒙大拿这部分地区的地势。
Alexander decides to supplement his paper with a visualization from Google Earth. He has a complete set of Lewis and Clark's maps, in JPEG format, from their journey. He carefully overlays their maps onto the images in Google Earth, adding placemarks for important milestones. Once he has the journey superimposed on the satellite images, Alexander creates a screencast of himself navigating across the country toward the coast, following the route that the explorers took. His screencast narration touches on the events and circumstances that led to the decision at the fork near what is now the town of Great Falls. The images help explain the quandary the party found themselves in, as well as how they came to know they made the correct choice of the southern fork. Alexander also shows where the north fork would have taken the explorers and includes a hypothetical scenario about the difficulties the group would have encountered had they gone that way.
亚历山大决定把谷歌地球中的直观显示补充进论文。他有一套完整的刘易斯和克拉克远征地图，JPEG 格式的。他小心地把地图覆盖到谷歌地球上，为重大事件添加地标。一旦把行程与卫星地图叠加完成，亚历山大就创建了一份屏幕演示，演示跟随当年探索者的路线，朝着海岸穿越各州。他的屏幕演示略微提及现在大瀑布城附近的河岔导致作出决定的事件和环境。该图像有助于解释团队发现自己所处的困境，以及他们是如何开始了解到做出向南走的正确决定的。亚历山大还显示出，探险队如果走北边会遭遇的困难。
When he gives his presentation, Alexander uses Google Earth to show the class the areas he is talking about, zooming in and out to let students see the river and the expedition's course. The class is particularly interested in areas along the journey for which Google Earth represents the topography in 3D. The application also allows Alexander to click through to Internet resources that further explain many of the locations in his presentation.
亚历山大讲课的时候，使用谷歌地球展示谈到的地区，缩放地球，让学生看到河流和远征路线。谷歌地球展示出行程经过地区的三维地形，整个班级都对此格外感兴趣。该应用程序允许亚历山大点击获得互联网资源，进一步解释所呈现地点。
What is it?
这是什么？
Google Earth is an interactive mapping application that allows users to navigate (or "fly") the entire globe, scanning satellite imagery with overlays of roads, buildings, geographic features, and numerous other location-specific data points. Users can add their own points of interest and share them with others, chart routes, plot areas, calculate distances, and overlay separate images onto the application. Google Earth connects to the Internet, making online resources available in connection with particular places. For example, flying to Soldier Field in Chicago shows that location and also links to online maps of the area, comments about the field, and the results of a Web search for the name of the field. For some locations, the application creates 3D representations, both of topography, as for the Grand Canyon and many mountainous areas, and for buildings in some metropolitan areas. Users can show or hide available layers in any combination. Someone working out a road trip, for instance, might show roads, lodging, and restaurants but not shopping or airports. Using the scale and the measurement tools, this user could plot mileages, find places to eat and stay overnight along the way, and link to Web sites to contact those establishments.
谷歌地球是交互式地图应用程序，可以让用户浏览（或者说，“飞遍”）整个地球，浏览的卫星地图，覆盖有道路、建筑、地理特征以及众多其他特定位置数据点。用户可以添加他们自己的兴趣点，并与他人分享，可以在应用程序中画出路线，标出地区、计算距离、覆盖特定图像。谷歌地球连接到互联网，获取与特定地点有关的网上资源。比如，飞到芝加哥军人球场，会看到这个地方、连接到该地区网上地图的链接、有关该球场的评价，以及在网上搜索球场名称的结果。对于一些地方，应用程序建有三维图像以及地形，比如大峡谷和许多山地都是的，某些大城市还建有三维建筑。用户可以显示或隐藏任一图层。比如，有人计划公路旅行，需要显示公路、住宿和餐馆，但是不需要显示商店机场。使用比例尺和测量工具，用户可以标出里程，找到路上食宿的地点，链接到网站，联系这些商家。
Who's doing it?
谁在用它？
Google Earth has become a favorite for people needing to easily show locations, such as a mining company giving a presentation about current or potential sites. Many educators use Google Earth to help students understand subjects ranging from sciences to liberal arts. Geologists can take students - virtually - to an area being studied and show them the topography and surrounding areas, quickly zooming out and flying to other locations. Other scientists overlay images of subject material, such as layers of rock, relating the material to images of the real world. Liberal arts faculty show locations of current events and link to resources about those events, or give tours of historical locations. Some administrators have also found the application valuable for developing student recruitment materials, such as interactive maps and demonstrations of campus.
谷歌地球已成为人们的最爱，因为人们需要轻松显示位置，比如矿业公司需要展示当前或潜在的采矿地点。许多教育者利用谷歌地球帮助学生理解从科学到文科诸多课题。地理学家可以把学生带到——基本如此——正在研究的地区，向他们展示地形和周边环境，快速缩小然后飞到其他地点。其他科学家覆盖课题材料图像，比如岩层，与真实世界图像有关的材料。文科教师展示当前事件发生地点，并链接到事件相关资源，或者参观历史地点。一些管理人员也发现了该应用程序鼓励学生补充素材的价值，比如交互式地图和校园演示。
How does it work?
它是如何工作的？
Google Earth can be downloaded and installed for free. Users fly to locations around the world by entering addresses, names of landmarks or features, or latitude and longitude coordinates.
谷歌地球可以免费下载安装。用户通过输入地址、地标或特征名称、经纬度坐标，飞抵全球任何一处地点。
Alternatively, users can search within a specified region for keywords. For example, you could search for "pizza" in "New Haven" and see on an interactive map all the locations that meet those criteria. Zooming in and out determines the number and kind of features or locations displayed as the resolution changes. As you zoom closer to a residential area, for instance, smaller streets and their names begin to appear. Locations on the map are clickable, opening a pop-up window with information about that place, links to related resources, photos, or other information. Users can change the orientation of the compass points of the map and adjust the aspect such that the map is shown at any angle - from directly above to horizontal. For areas rendered in 3D, adjusting the aspect gives the impression of moving through a real space. Users can add placemarks, which are clickable indicators of particular locations, and create structures using SketchUp, a 3D design application that integrates into Google Earth. Structures created with SketchUp can be exported to other users and tagged for organization.
另外，用户可以用关键词搜索特定地区。比如，你可以搜索“纽黑文市”的“比萨饼”，就会在一幅交互地图上看到满足这一要求的所有地点。放大缩小地图，随着分辨率的改变，显示地点和特征的数量和种类也发生变化。比如，当你拉近住宅区，会显示出更小的街道及其名称。地图上的各个地点都可以点击，点击后弹出一个泡泡窗口，里面有关于这个位置的信息、连接到相关资源的链接、照片，以及其他信息。用户可以更改地图方向，调整方位，地图可以从任何角度加以显示——甚至从水平处观看。在三维渲染的地区，调整方位有在真实空间穿行的感觉。用户可以添加地标，即特定地点的可点击指示物，使用SketchUp创建建筑， SketchUp 是一款集成进谷歌地球的三维设计应用程序。用SketchUp 创建的建筑可以导出给其他用户，用来标记机构。
Why is it significant?
为什么重要？
With Google Earth, colleges and universities can - without additional resources - leverage Google's integration of vast amounts of data in an easy-to-use interface. Being able to fly students from the Great Pyramid of Khufu to the Eiffel Tower to the Sydney Opera House can bring a wide range of subject matter alive. The tool's visual immediacy could prove enormously beneficial, for example, for a survey of various styles of architecture. Individually, students can use Google Earth to investigate places they are studying. Because it is interactive, the application encourages users to keep using it - to fly to new places, places they used to live or hope to live one day, scenes of events in the news, or parts of the world they may never visit in person.
利用谷歌地球，由于谷歌把海量数据整合进一个易于使用的界面，高校可以——无需额外资源——轻松使用这些海量数据。可以让学生从胡夫金字塔飞到埃菲尔铁塔再到悉尼歌剧院，能带来广泛的鲜活课题。这款工具的视觉效果可以带来极大好处，比如，可以用来调查不同风格的建筑。学生可以使用谷歌地球自行调查他们研究的地方。因为谷歌地球是交互式的，所以鼓励用户多用他——飞到新地方，观看他们曾经生活过的地方，打算某天要去生活的地方，新闻活动现场，或者世界上他们可能永远无法亲临的某处。
More than just a map, however, Google Earth lets users create and share personal resources. Browsing and exploring distant locales augmented with contributions from other users presents a compelling opportunity for discovery and learning. Contributing anecdotes, stories, and histories will allow users to communicate in a context of geography.
然而，谷歌地球不仅仅是一个地图，他还让用户创建、分享个人资源。浏览、探索遥远的地方，那些其他用户增加了详细说明的地方，为探索学习提供了很好的机会。用户提供轶事、故事、历史资料，使得用户可以通过地理背景进行交流。
What are the downsides?
有什么不足？
Because Google Earth displays images based on satellite data, users see a snapshot in time. If a building is added to the landscape - or torn down - those changes won't immediately be reflected in the application. Moreover, satellite imagery is not available at the same resolution for all locations. For some cities, you can zoom in close enough to see people walking on sidewalks; for other places, the resolution might only show buildings or blurry cars. Higher-resolution imagery is often available in many parts of the United States, resulting in a perception among some that Google Earth exhibits a U.S. bias, an impression exacerbated by the fact that currently most of the 3D buildings are in U.S. cities. Other concerns stem from its being an application owned by a commercial enterprise, which makes some academics uneasy about relying on it. Google Earth also uses a considerable amount of memory and bandwidth and requires substantial graphics capabilities. On older computers or those with slow connections, the experience of using the application can be frustrating and may cause slowdowns for other applications. In addition, some have expressed concern that Google Earth creates risks to personal safety, given that it offers anyone access to images - sometimes at a very high resolution - of their residences or offices and surrounding areas.
由于谷歌地球显示的图像都是卫星数据，用户看到的是某一时刻的快照。某地区新建或拆毁建筑，这些变化不会立即体现到应用程序当中。此外，各地的卫星图像分辨率不尽相同。在某些城市，你可以拉近足以看到人行道上的行人，另外一些地方，分辨率可能只能显示建筑物和模糊不清的汽车。较高分辨率图像往往出现在美国许多地方，让人误以为谷歌地球侧重于美国，让这一印象进一步加剧的是，当前大多数三维建筑都存在于美国城市。由于它是商业企业所拥有的应用程序，由此引发其他一些担心，一些学者为依赖它而感到不安。谷歌地球使用大量内存和带宽，需要大量图形处理能力。旧计算机、低速连接，在用这款程序的时候，会感觉很失败，会拖慢其他程序。另外，有些人担心谷歌地球会增加个人安全风险，因为谷歌地球能让任何人看到他们的住宅、办公室以及周围地区的图像——有时候还是高分辨率的。
Where is it going?
用在什么地方？
Google Earth will become more sophisticated, with additional tools and increasing coverage of high-resolution imagery. The number of places that offer 3D imagery is also likely to expand. The dramatic views and capabilities of the program have spawned communities of users who develop content - placemark collections on particular topics, 3D structures - that is available to others. Acting as the technical infrastructure, Google Earth allows users to share personal histories. Geographic notations can be found on many topics for many different places, and by integrating with other existing applications, Google Earth is positioned to become a spatially based collection of facts and knowledge.
随着附加工具和高分辨率地区的增多，谷歌地球会变得更加复杂。提供三维图像的地区数量也会增多。程序令人侧目的视角和功能，已经培养出用户社区，用户纷纷提供内容——关于特定主题的地标集合，三维建筑等——供他人使用。作为技术架构，谷歌地球允许用户分享个人经历。在许多不同地方都可以找到很多主题的地理标记，并与其他现有应用整合在一起，谷歌地球的定位已变成收集事实和知识的地方。
Educators have started a number of blogs, user groups, and forums where they share ideas and experiences using Google Earth in the classroom, as well as post exercises they have created that use the application. As tools emerge to export content from Google Earth to other applications, such as video files, instructors will be able to give students assignments to create projects using the application and share those projects with others.
教育工作者开始在为数众多的网志、用户组、论坛上分享在教室使用谷歌地球的主意和经验，同时张贴他们为使用谷歌地球而设计的练习。由于有工具可以把谷歌地球内容——比如视频文件——导出到其他应用，教师可以安排学生使用谷歌地球创建项目，并与其他人分享项目。
What are the implications for teaching and learning?
对教育学习的影响？
Google Earth is another in a growing list of applications that can move ideas from the pages of a book into the imaginations of students. The experience of flying over Tripoli and then Brussels and comparing how the two cities are designed is immediate and compelling. Students today expect technology to be part of education, and Google Earth is a way for institutions to provide that component in a tool that students find familiar and comfortable. It provides educators a means to assess and bolster students' visual literacy skills, and, to the extent that it gives students a peek into virtually any corner of the world, Google Earth can help them develop a context for spatial and cultural differences around the world.
Google Earth
谷歌地球
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October 2006
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