Here’s a quick mention of Thematic Mapping blog in which Bjørn Sandvik describes a number of data visualization techniques using Google Earth. Since I’m teaching about the Green Revolution tomorrow, I wanted to find a suitable animation to impress the class. A Google search led me to Bjorn’s blog and a kml file on the human population explosion that was perfect for my needs. The file can be found on this page, and is illustrated in the video:
I’m sure that many other geographers will find the population animation (and many of the other resources at Thematic Mapping) very useful.
Another discovery on Thematic Mapping, was Matt Giger’s EarthBrowser site tracker. I love EarthBrowser and was interested in this embeddable version. I tried it out but found that it currently seems to prevent Safari from scrolling properly.
I need to teach the Aral Sea to a GCSE class tomorrow. Aware of schemes to save part of the Aral, I used the Time Slider feature in Google Earth 5 to check the imagery for the area. Amazingly, the  whole ecological catastrophe is covered by the imagery database. I made a brief  video to illustrate:
Google Earth isn’t just an essential resource for teaching the Aral Sea issue, it’s a powerful political tool and students should be aware of this. Governments are becoming increasingly accountable in the face of unequivocal evidence from the Google database which has revealed slum clearance in Zimbabwe and genocide in Darfur. The Aral Sea crisis was kept secret for many years, and while Google Earth reveals the astonishing rate of evaporation, it is interesting to note that the current image (if it is indeed the most recent) does appear to show a slight reversal of fortunes.
Finally, could it be that Street View is coming to the UK in March?  I’ve heard a rumour
A 60 second public geography film that is the first in a planned series, showing the impact of Olympic decision-making on a small business located on the Isle of Portland.
A demonstration of Go Animate. It’s a really great application for making cartoons and simple animation. I wrote a short script and recorded a voice over first. I then added backgrounds from my photos and finally the characters. It’s a little fiddly, mainly because of the lack of a timeline editor to assist with matching up the soundtrack with the animation. This would be a great additional feature.
Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It’s free and fun!
I’m currently writing a resource on Polish migration in the UK. The photos were taken in Cullompton, Devon. Thanks to Laura and Eddie Grundy for assisting with the voice over.
The idea was to use Pixton to create a comic strip explaining the Common Agricultural Policy. I guess I could have got Hannah to print her work out, so that I could splatter some red ink comments liberally over the spelling errors but I really wasn’t inclined to do so – it’s a super piece of work; witty, imaginative and explaining the details of the CAP remarkably accurately, at least as well as any GCSE textbook.
Remixing instead of marking: I loved the homework so much that I wanted to use it as a teaching resource. I remixed it very gently, correcting some of the spelling mistakes and removing a duplicate frame. The finished result should be useful to several students that missed the exciting lesson on farming politics to play in the recent snow; indeed by publishing the cartoon on Juicy Geography, Hannah’s work could possibly benefit a much wider audience.
I think this exercise is a great illustration of the argument proposed by Harold Jarche and George Siemens (who I discovered via Theo Kuechel’s post on re-usability), that the best education content should be hackable (re-mixable and re-useable) The CAP itself is a constantly evolving news story, that rapidly dates textbooks. In the future, Hannah’s work can be remixed by students to reflect changes in the policy.
www.Revisited is my reference list of Web 2.0 tools for Geographers that I’ve used, or am investigating. It’s a personal list, similar to many others. I know that some have found it useful, so here’s the latest update.
I don’t own a pocket video camera, relying instead on a combination of a very old digital compact camera, a web cam (which has now been stolen) and the built in iSight video on my Macbook to record classroom goings-on. I am totally sold on the idea of students making videos, indeed its an essential teaching strategy that can result in very deep learning indeed. Equally, using a conventional video camera with a tripod and fiddly controls, followed by hours of editing large files can be quite demotivating.
The advent of pocket video cameras such as the Flip means that video is a much more accessible teaching tool. The specifications of simple one button recording, direct usb connection and instant editing with onboard software all sound very appealing. My Head lent me her personal Flip this week giving me an opportunity to evaluate it’s usefulness and practicality..
The Flip
For the first test I gave the camera to a student, with instructions to film the important parts of the lesson. I chose an individual who usually finds learning quite frustrating. The experiment worked very well – the only instruction I gave was to “press the red button and point it at anyone who speaks”. I was very impressed with the results – the student made a brilliant job of recording the important detail, and even began adding a narration. In fact the footage will make a good teaching resource, and has provided me with some useful feedback on some of my more irritating classroom mannerisms!
Friday, being a snow day, was an opportunity to test the camera in a fieldtrip scenario. Heading into the Blackdown Hills for the morning, I made the following short film:
I think the resulting footage is quite acceptable for use in the classroom. The light was low, it was cold and snowy, but the camera performed very well. It was easy to carry in one hand while snowboarding. Although there are editing facilities in the Flip software, on this occasion I dropped the footage into iMovie for a quick edit.
I’m definitely hoping that eventually we can budget for a class set of Flips at school. I’d be tempted to get the HD version for my personal use, but the Mino version I used is perfect for students to create and edit their own films.
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