GIS » DigGeog

Posterous vs Virtual Cities

GIS, Google Earth, ICT, INSET, mobile, Neogeography, Student work, Teaching resources Comments Off

Oct 152011

This is a presentation I gave at the Somerset Geographers conference. I’m exploring how to incorporate social networking into my GCSE teaching, while encouraging the learners to make the best use of online resources.

Posterous versus virtual cities

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Accompanying this presentation was a video by Oasis:

and a Google Earth file incorporating Gavin’s unofficial OS maps overlay (not to be used in Google Earth!)

Thanks to the students whose work is featured in this presentation.

English Indices of Deprivation 2010

GIS, Teaching resources Comments Off

Sep 172011

I re-discovered the excellent Guardian Datablog during the reporting of the summer riots. I was particularly interested in the correlation between the addresses of rioters and poverty as measured by the IMD.

The Indices of Deprivation attempt to measure a broad concept of ‘multiple deprivation’, made up of several distinct dimensions, or domains, of deprivation. The data is based on 38 separate indicators across seven domains: Income, Employment, Health and Disability, Education Skills and Training, Barriers to Housing and Other Services, Crime and Living Environment. source

In terms of classroom practicalities, the most convenient way of accessing the data seems to be to follow the link to the data source Click on Visualize and Map to view in full screen. It should be possible to use the data in Google Earth. There is a KML network link but I haven’t been able to make it work yet. Has anyone been successful?

Bella Gaia

3D visualization, GIS, Teaching resources, World Wind Comments Off

Aug 122009

Information Aesthetics mentions an audio-visual work called Bella Gaia, directed by Kenji Williams that animates satellite imagery and spatial data. The production makes use of NASA’s World Wind virtual globe and might be useful as an introduction to a lesson on remote sensing.

GIS in the classroom – a collaboration of ideas

GIS, Teaching resources 2 Responses »

May 072009

I’ve created a Google Docs presentation to generate some ideas for using GIS in the classroom. Please get in touch if you’d like to help out. You’ll need to create a Google account first. I’m looking for ideas for both primary and secondary classrooms. Inspiration of course comes from Tom Barrett’s ‘Interesting Ways to..’ series of presentations, while more generic ideas are being collated in Tony Cassidy’s 101 creatively simple ways to teach Geography.

Visualizing A Safer City 2009

GIS, Google Earth, Google Earth lessons, Student work, Teaching resources Comments Off

Apr 112009

My Year 8 class have been working on the Google Earth hazard planning activity: San Francisco: visualizing a safer city. I’ve added some of my own feedback to their placemarks, as the activity isn’t quite finished yet.

Basically, the idea of the activity is to locate a safe site for a new hospital, leveraging the full potential of Google Earth Layers, Street View and some custom overlays of various types of data.

Download the student’s work as a Google Earth file here. Then add the necessary Google Earth overlays to check the validity of their claims!

There’s a poll to choose the best piece of work. Feel free to vote or leave a comment.

Note to class – the comments are moderated, and one of you isn’t allowed to win anyway

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Shrinking (and recovering) Aral Sea in Google Earth 5

GIS, Google Earth, video 3 Responses »

Feb 252009

I need to teach the Aral Sea to a GCSE class tomorrow. Aware of schemes to save part of the Aral,Â I used the Time Slider feature in Google Earth 5 to check the imagery for the area. Amazingly, the Â whole ecological catastrophe is covered by the imagery database.Â I made a brief Â video to illustrate:

Shrinking Aral Sea from Noel Jenkins on Vimeo.

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 thatÂ Street View is coming to the UK in March? Â I’ve heard a rumour