Digital Geography

Ten ideas for using BBC Class Clips in the classroom

Noel Jenkins — Mon, 31 May 2010 18:01:49 +0000

I’ve been tangentially involved with BBC Class Clips for some time. I thought I’d share some ideas for using short clips in the classroom as I’m preparing a short INSET presentation.

1. Write a short critical response â€“ in You Tube style, or following more formal guidelines.

2. Play â€œstop the video.â€ Give students three questions in advance and get them to pause the video when the question has been answered.

3. Turn the sound off, so that students can write their own voiceover. This could be recorded using Audacity.

4. Pause the video: guess what happens next?

5. Remake the video using Flip videos (could be done in puppet or stop motion style).

6. Embed the video in a PowerPoint or blog post.

7. Give students a selection of clips, they have to choose the clip that best represents the theme.

8. Sum up the video in 3 words / 3 sentences / 3 paragraphs.

9. Use the video as source material for completing a writing frame.

10. Get students to write down 5 words associated with the video. Save to a shared folder and analyze the contents with Wordle

And a naughty bonus, just because you can…
Geo-locate the video (BBC class clips can be viewed directly in Google Earth) Here’s the procedure:

Locate the url of the Flash video version of the clip and paste it into a new browser page.

Right click to view the source code.

Copy all the code between the emp here comment tags (towards the end of the source code and beginning with div id = player.

Make a placemark as desired in Google Earth and right click to edit its properties.

Paste the video embed code directly into the placemark description.

Save the placemark – here’s a demo which needs Google Earth.

Dawlish 360

Noel Jenkins — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:51:51 +0000

This is a first draft of a little teaching resource I’ve been working on. I’ve used a Google My Map to link to some high quality 360 images. It’s not finished – there will be a better version along with some teaching ideas on Juicy Geography soon.

View Dawlish 360 in a larger map

Sea Arch 360

Noel Jenkins — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 15:16:21 +0000

Probably the worst 360 I’ve made yet but there were considerable issues involving an incident with a wave, high tide and a “courting” couple. Also my camera settings were out of whack since it was the first time in a long while that it has Â been used in daylight. It’s an image of the arch at Langstone Rock Dawlish. I selected it because of the variety of structural and erosion features evident, and I’ll probably re-make it again next time I’m down that way. Click the image for full-screenness.

BECTa presentation

Noel Jenkins — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:01:09 +0000

I’ve been hawking around a presentation about how I’ve been getting students to reach a wider, public audience. it won’t mean much if you weren’t there!

Place Space Interface

View more presentations from juicygeography.

The value of brownfield sites: Hams Hall control room

Noel Jenkins — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:16:46 +0000

Developing brownfield sites is generally held to be a “good” thing (at least GCSE students are programmed to think so), however at times it’s worth considering that buildings such as power stations represent a substantial part of our industrial heritage. Hams Hall was a series of three coal-fired power stations at Lea Marston in Warwickshire, constructed between 1928 and 1968. Demolition of the last of the stations took place under cover of darkness in 1993

photo Wikipedia transferred from Geograph. Copyright Tim Marshall

The only building that survives is the control room of Hams Hall substation. The exterior is vaguely reminiscent of a mosque, though guarded with razor wire and liberal coatings of anti-climb paint. Indeed on my first visit, late on a stormy November night, the place was less than welcoming, and I failed to get inside.

Thanks to information from some helpful locals, I was able to return for a closer look. I knew what to expect; a circular control room with an extraordinary glass “flower” roof.

I planned to make a 360 degree image to show the room properly. The floor is covered in glass and it’s extremely dark inside, meaning that the exposures had to be lit with a torch. Here’s the finished panorama on 360 Cities:

Hams Hall substation control room in England

I’ve published the image as a full screen, high quality panorama on a personal page as well, since 360 Cities is getting a little cluttered . Click the image below:

Decrepit old buildings can hide all kinds of fascinating secrets. I don’t believe this building is protected in any way, although it is very well sealed up. Maybe it should be listed? Either way, it’s an important part of the local built environment, and a pretty special place. Perhaps we should get students to think more critically about the value of certain brownfield sites? The substation would make a really great local studies classroom, or some other kind of publicly-accessible building, where the unique roof and control panels could be protected from further damage.

secret geographies

Noel Jenkins — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 18:46:51 +0000

Since August, I’ve pushed blogging and other forms of time-wasting activities firmly to one side and dedicated myself to a series of adventures in hidden places. Every weekend has been a new experience, learning new skills and going deeper and further into the hidden parts of the built environment that surrounds us. It’s a simple, yet hugely fulfilling activity, filled with remarkable characters and stories, risks and rewards.Â This Flickr River stream randomly serves up a taster of some of the places I’ve been:

The hobby has benefited both History and Geography lessons. This weekend we visited a hidden deep shelter, built to house 2,500 people during WW2. It was a surreal time walk:

I made this video for a local teacher (I had the song going around my head while exploring the shelter) Others might also find it useful:

London INSET February 11th

Noel Jenkins — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 10:02:46 +0000

It’s been VERY quiet on the blog for a while – every so often I like to take a break and re-calibrate my life. Digital Geography is in a bit of a hiatus at the moment as my weekends are fully booked with various adventures – in fact I might even sell the domain if I get a good enough offer!

However I’ve been really enjoying working on some new projects. Dave Holmes and I are running a Web 2.0 / Google Earth course in London soon and as usual there will be quite a bit of variation to the published programme. I’m particularly interested in student publishing at the moment, so along with the usual Google Earth updates I’m looking forward to sharing ideas for personal geographies, VR images, and new decision-making activities. I’d like delegates to finish the day confident that they can get their students up and running with their own blogs and happily working with a range of neo-geography applications. Feel free to get in touch for more information, or go to the Philip Allan site.