KMLFactbook: a presentation from NECC that will change the way you think about using stats and maps in the classroom

Watching an NECC session from Elluminate Live as a virtual participant.

The subject is KMLFactbook, which as far as I can tell could make all of those demographic and statistical charts in your old history textbooks completely obsolete.

The trick?

KMLFactbook merges the online CIA World Factbook with Google Earth.

What does this mean for you?

You and your students will be able to project data directly into Google Earth; create new map layers; and then export the data to online spreadsheets and other web-based presentation apps.

Here's an example: You want to know the relative GDP for all of the countries in Western Europe. Just click 'Western Europe' and 'GDP' in the CIA World Factbook and the data will immediately manifest as a layer in Google Earth.

You can even take your own data and slap it right onto Google Earth via KMLFactbook. Or try out applications bringing in data from Wolf/Alpha.

I'm immediately going to make a layer of world soccer stats.