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.
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.
Arch-collaborator Tom Barrett has initiated a Google Docs presentation on classroom uses for pocket video cameras, such as the Flip. It’s rapidly developed into a really useful collection of ideas.
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Tom welcomes further additions – his contact details are found on the last slide.
I thought Daniel Raven-Ellison’s Urban Earth project  was the most single most inspiring new geographical resource for teachers this year. In homage, I decided to (re)present my neighbourhood:
Brilliant – the classroom implications of this should be fairly clear! For those unsure of the procedure – just create a placemark and paste the embed code from the video into the description box.
Don’t miss an essential resource for teaching settlement. Dan Raven-Ellison’s latest project, Urban Earth, is a simple, yet inspired concept: to walk across major cities, stopping every 8 steps to take a photograph.
Urban Earth
The outcome of an Urban Earth walk is a mesmerizing time-lapse film composed of thousands of still images. There’s no soundtrack to divert attention from the journey.
The archive of Urban Earth adventures is bound to grow over time as others take up the initiative. At the moment the project comprises films from London, Mexico City and Mumbai.
Urban Earth films can be viewed and downloaded in very high quality from the blip.tv page.
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