Monthly Archive for September, 2008

A Neo-Geography Curriculum for KS3

Published
by
Noel Jenkins
on September 30, 2008
in Google Earth, Google Earth lessons, Google Maps, Neogeography and Teaching resources
. 5 Comments

“Can we do neo-geography this lesson?” asked a student today. Well no because it was supposed to be History. Nevertheless I’ve decided that I’d like my Year 7 students to be able to create an original map by the end of the term using Google Earth/Maps. The kind of map I envisage could include for example:

Hazards on way to school
Land-use in a rural area
Micro-climate study
Affective mapping of local area
Geo-located poems photos or artwork
Geo-located story
Guide for local visitors
A parkour / BMX / skate map
A “know-where” hang out map
A best dog walking route

For example:

 map link

Thinking about the skill progression required to elevate younger students into fully qualified neo-geographers would go something like this: (some of the steps require just a few minutes to consolidate, others would need a lesson or two) Google Earth / Maps required!

  1. Find a place / use postcode look-up / search box
  2. Create a placemark / select appropriate icon
  3. Measure distance using ruler – e.g from home to school
  4. Create a path e.g from home to school
  5. Collaborate with others e.g. save placemarks / paths to a shared folder / collaboration tool in My Maps
  6. Organise the Places folder
  7. Use layers to add information to the map e.g roads / Wikipedia / Panoramio / 3d buildings / real-time data e.g weather / earthquakes
  8. Be able to turn terrain on and off and adjust exaggeration
  9. Take a photo with a phone / digital camera and upload to Flickr (issues in some schools – need for parent’s permission?)
  10. Add photos to a place mark (from Flickr  etc) using img tag (from Flickr)  <img src=” replace this text with the link to the photo “>  and use You Tube embed code to add video
  11. Create multimedia tours / be able to adjust tour settings
  12. Add polygons to represent land use / data etc. Be able to adjust colour and opacity
  13. Be able to import data from GPS (optional)
  14. Create simple geo-located graphs using Google Spreadsheets or even easier, Rich Chart Live (see this post)
  15. Complete a decision-making exercise using multiple data sources e.g my San Francisco lesson
  16. Understand relative advantages / disadvantages of different mapping systems for example by using Where’s The Path?
  17. Create a Google account (with parent’s permission) and be familiar with My Maps
  18. Create an original map as a final assignment. More able students could create Sketch Up models / use GE Graph / create overlays to demonstrate advanced neo-geography skills.

The core geographical concepts are based on location, scale and place. Students should be able to collect field data and create a map for a real audience. The learning sequence offers the opportunity for some highly personalised, participatory geography. The best outcomes would see students sharing their work on a blog or some other public community. Any thoughts?

A New Management Plan for Stonehenge … again

Published
by
Noel Jenkins
on September 20, 2008
in Google Earth, Google Earth lessons and Teaching resources
. 1 Comment

The Ordnance Survey’s brilliant, and free publication for schools, Mapping News contains an article that I wrote about my Google Earth Stonehenge decison-making exercise.

The introductory video is here:

and you if don’t get a chance to catch up with Mapping News, the article can be downloaded directly from here. One error – I am not an Education Consultant, as the article claims!

iPhone Apps for the geography classroom

Published
by
Noel Jenkins
on September 19, 2008
in GPS, ICT and mobile
. 2 Comments

I can’t actually afford an iPhone however if / when I eventually acquire one, the first application I’ll install is Johan Nordberg’s Seismometer.

Seismometer records vibrations using iPhone’s built in accelerometer to “measure movements in two axes, calculate the resulting energy and draw the results on a rolling logarithmic scale.” There are many favourable reviews on the iTunes store and at 59p it’s somewhat cheaper than the classroom alternative.
In fact Seismometer would be perfect to use with my Shaker Maker – do it yourself earthquake table.

Other iPhone Apps that I’d like to try out include:

Earthscape:

Earthscape is a virtual globe, though resolution outside the US is fairly poor. It’s currently available as a free download. (iTunes link)

GPS Kit

GPS kit looks like an indispensible application to make the best use of the phones GPS. (iTunes link) It costs a few pounds though. I guess I just want to be able to replicate as many features of my Garmin Etrex as possible.

Aside from the three geography-related applications, I suppose I’d get some kind of Twitter client since my current phone is rubbish for that kind of thing. I also love the idea of the free WordPress application to be able to add and edit posts on my blogs rather more spontaneously than at present.

Neo-geography in the classroom

Published
by
Noel Jenkins
on September 18, 2008
in Google Earth, Google Earth lessons, Google Maps, ICT, Neogeography, Student work and Teaching resources
. 2 Comments

I’m exploring some ideas for a Neo-geography element to the geographical curriculum and created a new category for blog posts on the topic as I share my experiences from the classroom over the forthcoming months.

Neogeography at school

Neogeography at school

This week I deliberately used the term Neo-geography with my Year 7 class (11 years old). Over the course of two lessons we compared the merits of Google Earth/Maps and traditional Ordnance Survey paper maps.

Ed Parsons has commented on a recent BBC story highlighting the fears of the British Cartographic Society over “damage to future generations of map readers because this skill is not being taught in schools and people are simply handling geographical data” (err pardon – National Curriculum anyone?) Ed’s point that “one could argue for the need of a “new” cartography which adopts rather than ignores the capabilities of screen based maps to portray information dynamically” is a theme that is reinforced by the inspiring Richard Treves who I recently met at the Geo Education Summit at Google (and who drew my attention to Ed’s post)

Rising to the BCS’s bait, the students had little difficulty in identifying the merits of the two different approaches to mapping, indeed they showed rather more consideration of the issue than the Ordnance Survey reporting of the debate.  With no prompting at all, the students identified the principal advantages of Google Earth/Maps as:

1) Finding places quickly

2) Zooming in and out!

3) Display of geotagged photos (with GMaps Street View being a particular delight!) and 3D buildings

4) Display of real time information such as the weather

5) Free to use (though requiring a computer and the internet)

The Ordnance Survey map on the other hand offered the merits of reliability, light weight, plenty of detail, a key and cheaper running costs. The students were perfectly able to identify the user groups for the two different approaches to mapping. Ironically the Ordnance Survey advert featuring the mountain biker unintentionally reinforces the advantages of a Google Map – at least in one respect!

The students were delighted to learn that they were present on possibly the first outing of the  neo-geography word in a school classroom, and had little difficulty in appreciating the need for a term that describes the extraordinary potential of tools such as Google Earth to find out about, map and describe their world. The resolution of my school in Google Earth is sufficiently good that I can sit a student under a skylight in my room and locate them with a placemark accurate to centimeters. They gasped when they measured the distance from school to home – in centimetres, and enthusiastically collaborated on a map of their routes to school:

Routes to school

Routes to school

I’m not entirely sure that this activity was “damaging the future map readers”. Indeed they are really looking forward to recieving their Free Maps for School, thanks to the generosity of the OS. It would be great if we could have a copy of the local area as a KML overlay as well. In the meantime this site will have to do.

Free digital resources for geography teaching

Published
by
Noel Jenkins
on September 17, 2008
in Asides
. Closed

Multi-talented Head of Geography and software developer Rick Cope is producing a series of free digital teaching resources on behalf of GeoPacks. The first one, on coasts is available now. Visit GeoPacks, register your details, click the free resources tab and download away. There will be a new resource available every month. It’s a fairly safe bet that these will be very popular!

10 ways to Google-up your GCSE coursework

Published
by
Noel Jenkins
on September 15, 2008
in Asides
. 3 Comments

I’ve written a Juicy Geography article for my GCSE students to encourage them to make a little more use of Google Earth and Maps in their coursework projects.

The ideas are very simple – maybe could be useful to some teachers?

Google Geo Education Summit

Published
by
Noel Jenkins
on September 13, 2008
in Asides, Google Earth, Google Earth lessons and Google Maps
. Closed

I spent a day with Google in London yesterday. Ollie Bray has already blogged the meeting which saves me the effort, as the sun is out and I’m off to the beach.

The Google education team are committed to supporting and encouraging teachers to make better use of their software. One of the the most exciting proposals was to extend the Google Teacher Academy to the UK. The Geo Education site will also grow in the future, possibly emulating the Earth Gallery?  Jamie Buchan Dunlop of Digital Explorer described his brilliant efforts to train UK teachers in practical applications of Google Earth to fieldwork, and imagined some exiting futures for the software. Richard Treves from Southampton University contributed a really thought-provoking presentation that reinforced the need for a basic set of teaching principles and finished with his manifesto for a New Cartography, quoting Ed Parsons who was present. Unfortunately my Mac refused to connect to the projector, somewhat reducing the impact of my  presentation, which basically covered the Juicy Geography agenda.

Some exciting times ahead as Google explore how best to support teachers. The new API for Google Earth that Frank Taylor mentions here, extends the possibility of a range of  educational web-based Google Earth applications.

Milk Truck

I can’t imagine the geography classroom without the Milk Truck!