In my class assembly on Thursday I am going to talk to my children about the missing adventurer Steve Fossett and how with the use of technology I have managed to help look for him. Even though I am some 5000 miles away from where his plane is meant to have been flying, with the use of technology I, we can help.
I sat down and following a post in my Google Reader I went to Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and after registering, searched for Steve’s plane or the wreckage of it using Google Earth. Anyone can register and help look – you are given a HIT, a Human Intelligence Task – in this instance to review a small satellite image for any clues to his whereabouts. You are also given a precise set of coordinates, I put these into the “Fly-To” in Google Earth and took a look at the exact location. Brand new, up to date satellite imagery needs to be opened via a KML file and then it is a matter of scouring the small area as part of your task.
Once you have taken a look go back to the Amazon site and complete the HIT by checking the appropriate choice. It took me about 15 minutes to look at about 10 distinct areas almost 1 square kilometer of searching.
This is a human story that has a history – as Jim Gray, when lost at sea, was also searched for unfortunately without the right outcome. I hope that something good comes from this deployment of human and technological effort. There is obviously hundreds of square kilometers to search, but if everyone does a little bit perhaps there still may be a positive outcome.
Image: ‘Spirit Freedom‘
www.flickr.com/photos/15572047@N00/324409978
I love the fact that you have used a real life and applicable situation integrated with current technology in your classroom. The one thing I have learned from being in a classroom that if students have a real life situation that technology is being put into place with they tend to grasp and understand it more thoroughly.