I’ve finished work on my podcast page at Juicy Geography. The first two episodes are ready to download and there are QuickTime versions as well. Feedback is welcomed. A third episode is in preparation.
Although my resources have always been made freely available, (and the podcasts are no exception), they represent a huge personal expense in new computer and video equipment and software, as well as bandwidth costs.) I’m hoping that teachers using the films in class will donate towards the costs involved.
I’ve got a GCSE lesson period 1 tomorrow, it’s Ofsted time and I’m fairly sure I’ll get a visit. We’ve started a short topic on the urban rural fringe - it didn’t go down so well today but I’ve had a quick think and have come up with an idea…
I’m going to harness the power of ICT to get the kids analysing the land use around Taunton’s urban rural fringe. We’ll use OS maps in conjunction with Live Search maps / Google Earth to identify different land uses in the urban rual fringe, and complete a little table with suggestions for possible conflicts.
Next we’ll go the the Taunton Deane Council site and look at a major application for a 900 home development that was submitted by the developers yesterday. After discussing the merits of the application, locating it on a map and reading some of the reports from council officers, I’ll get the students to use the online comment form. That means their views will be considered by the Council, and they’ll get an acknowledgement. Pressing the submit button will be an act of citizenship and an example of “real geography - real outcomes”!
Here’s the PPT presentation I used in my talk at Huish Episcopi School on 16th November.
A quick mention for this application that lets you re-create a very simple cartographic journey. It costs about £5.00. Simply show it one of the (limited) range of stock maps or create one of your own. Then add your journey. Road Trip Effect animates the journey as a Quick Time Movie.Here’s an instant example, based on a map from Wikipedia
I’m creating a collection of short Geography pod movies to be used as teaching materials or revision. I’m still playing around with formats and file sizes and thinking about the best way to publish them. Here’s a test sample:
[post edited 24/11/07 pod movie moved]
I met with traveling Australian teacher and GIS evangelist Malcolm McInnery at the Royal Geographical Society this week. We were joined by Judy Mansell from the RGS and David Rayner, the newly appointed National Subject Lead for Geography who is responsible for introducing the revised KS3 curriculum in schools.
Malcolm is traveling to Hong Kong, Canada the USA and the UK to research spatial technology and spatial literacy in schools, with a view to continuing the work that he has been doing to raise awareness of GIS in Australia. His thought provoking questions left us reflecting on why the implementation of GIS in UK schools is still patchy, often depending on an enthusiastic individual teacher, rather than being firmly embedded in the curriculum. Given the rapid expansion of GIS in industry and public services, and the associated demand for spatial literacy skills in students, as well the entitlement arising from the new National Curriculum, it is certainly time to reflect on the role that spatial technologies should have in the classroom.
Is there a problem with spatial literacy?
source
Malcolm describes our discussion on his Spatial Worlds blog. One of the main points arising for me was the reaffirmation of my conviction that the best use of GIS stems from students being involved in the collection of data rather than just working with existing data sets. Projects can and should be aimed at real world decision making. Council departments should become used to dealing with enquiries following the latest revealing discoveries from local students. My local crime enquiry is somewhat dated now but is the kind of thing I’m suggesting. Equally there is plenty of scope for students to share data and ideas across national and international boundaries. As schools take on a more international dimension (see previous post) the sharing of geographical information could become more prevalent. My Visualizing a Safer City lesson, where students locate a new hospital in San Francisco was commented on by local residents. This gave the work much more credibility. It would be great for a class in the USA to do the same activity for a new building in my home town.
I look forward to following the rest of Malcolm’s travels via his blog.
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