The best free cultural & educational media on the web
The best free cultural & educational media on the web
≡ Category: Google, Literature | ≅ Leave a Comment
For three years, English teacher Jerome Burg has been using Google Earth to teach literature. Each “Lit Trip” involves mapping the movements of characters over a plot’s timeline and providing excerpts, pictures, and links at each location. I found a lit trip for one of my favorite novels, Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, which involves a lot of movement across [...]
≡ Category: Google, History | ≅ Leave a Comment
Google Earth’s historical imagery feature now includes aerial footage of the aftermath of World War II, allowing users to comprehend the extent of post-war destruction by comparing photos of cities as they are today to those of bombed out cities immediately after the war.
Here’s Warsaw in 1935, devastated in 1943, and restored today. You can [...]
≡ Category: Google, History | ≅ 2 Comments
On Friday, I mentioned that you can now visit the Roman ruins at Pompeii, Stonehenge and Versailles via Google Street View. What I didn’t realize is that this looks to be part of a larger initiative, a larger attempt to provide digital tours of important world heritage sites. According to this UNESCO announcement, 19 historical [...]
≡ Category: Google, History | ≅ Leave a Comment
The story of Pompeii is well known. Back in 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted and covered the neighboring Roman city with 60 feet of ash over the course of two days. The city was wiped out and then entombed for centuries, until archaeologists started unearthing the ruins in the 18th and 19th centuries, offering the [...]
≡ Category: Google, Law | ≅ 2 Comments
A quick fyi: Starting today, you can find online legal opinions from the Supreme Court, as well as federal and state courts, thanks to Google Scholar. When you visit Google Scholar, click on the ”Legal opinions and journals” radio button, and then begin your query. If you type ”separate but equal,” Scholar with present you with famous Supreme [...]
≡ Category: Google, e-books | ≅ Leave a Comment
The US Justice Department officially weighed in today on the Google Books settlement with publishers and authors. On the plus side for Google, the government wants to see the project continue because it has clear social benefits. On the downside, the DOJ has concerns about antitrust and copyright issues, and it’s looking for the deal [...]
≡ Category: Google, e-books | ≅ Leave a Comment
A quick heads up: Lifehacker is highlighting today some new software (Windows only) that will let you download free access/public domain texts from Google Book Search and then turn them into neat PDF files. To get tips on how to use the software created by a third party, not Google, head on over to Lifehacker. I [...]
≡ Category: Google, e-books | ≅ 1 Comment
Critics of Google Book Search (and its class-action settlement with publishers) are popping up everywhere. European governments have voiced their displeasure. The US Justice Department has placed the settlement under review. Amazon is protesting. Yahoo and Microsoft have piled on too. And now you can add academics to the list. Writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Geoffrey [...]
≡ Category: Google, Science | ≅ Leave a Comment
Google Earth has somewhat outgrown its name. These days, Google’s satellite program (download it here) gives you more than a unique view of our planet Earth. It also offers a nice tour of Mars (and the Moon). The Mars tour is guided by a familiar voice — the voice of Ira Flatow, who hosts the well [...]
≡ Category: Google, e-books | ≅ Leave a Comment
New from the Google Books Blog:
Try doing a search for [Hamlet] on Google Books. The first few results you’ll get are “Full View” books — which means you can read the full text. And, because the book is in the public domain, you can also download a copy of Hamlet in PDF form.
Starting today, you’ll be [...]
≡ Category: Google, Wikipedia | ≅ 3 Comments
Back in December 2007, I made a bet against Google Knol, the search giant’s answer to Wikipedia. In a fairly involved piece, I listed three reasons why Knol wouldn’t upend Wikipedia. Now fast forward 18+ months: Tech Crunch has reported that Knol’s traffic is trending down. It peaked in February at around 320,000 visitors per [...]
≡ Category: Audio Books, Books, Google | ≅ 1 Comment
Chris Anderson, the author of Free: The Future of a Radical Price (download a free audio file of the book here) is making the rounds, promoting his new book. Of course, it was only natural that Anderson (also the author of The Long Tail and editor-in-chief of Wired) should pay a visit to Google, a company that [...]
≡ Category: Comedy, Google | ≅ Leave a Comment
He appears in the well-known Mac v. PC commercials, on The Daily Show and occasionally on This American Life. John Hodgman is kind of everywhere these days, and now, promoting his new book, More Information Than You Require, he hits the stage at Google and gives the crowd an offbeat hour talk.
Related Content:
The British Slant [...]
≡ Category: Amazon Kindle, Google, e-books | ≅ 10 Comments
According to Steven Johnson’s piece in The Wall Street Journal, the “breakthrough success of Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader, and the maturation of the Google Book Search service” could “make 2009 the most significant year in the evolution of the book since Gutenberg hammered out his original Bible.” Johnson goes on to explain why e-book readers (like [...]
≡ Category: Google, YouTube | ≅ 1 Comment
On Thursday, we announced the launch of YouTube EDU. Now, as promised, it’s time to give you some more details about the new university video hub.
I had a chance to chat with Obadiah Greenberg, a key Googler behind the launch. And he gave me some insight into the genesis of the project. As you can imagine, YouTube EDU [...]
≡ Category: Google, YouTube | ≅ 11 Comments
Here’s a little breaking news: Today, Google has launched YouTube EDU, which centralizes the content from over 100 universities and colleges (get list here). This robust collection gives you access to lectures by professors and world-renowned thought leaders, new research and campus tours. At the moment, you can access over 200 full courses from leading universities, including MIT, [...]
≡ Category: Google, History | ≅ Leave a Comment
In November, Google launched a 3D tour of Ancient Rome, circa 320 AD. The tour, produced with the help of the Rome Reborn project at the University of Virginia, features over 6,000 buildings, some rendered in fine detail, and it includes some interiors as well. The Coliseum, the Roman Forum, the Basilica Julia, the Temple of Vesta — they’re [...]
≡ Category: Google, YouTube | ≅ 1 Comment
It’s another good day for the open education movement. As part of an experiment, YouTube has partnered with a select number of universities (Stanford, UC Berkeley, Duke, and UCLA) to make lectures, courses and other videos available for free download. This gives educators and lifelong learners the freedom to watch educational videos offline, whenever and wherever they want, including [...]
≡ Category: Google | ≅ 1 Comment
Given that water covers roughly 70% of our planet, it makes sense that Google Earth should take the oceans into account. Thanks to a partnership with the California Academy of Sciences, Google Earth now offers, according to the company blog, detailed maps of the ocean floor “so you can actually drop below the surface and explore [...]
≡ Category: Books, Google, Harvard, Web/Tech | ≅ 1 Comment
In the latest edition of The New York Review of Books, Robert Darnton, a prominent French historian who now runs Harvard’s Library system, puts out a tantalizing idea: “Google can make the Enlightenment dream come true.” Having settled its lawsuit with publishers and authors, Google is now steaming ahead with its effort to digitize millions [...]
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