Volcanoes,
With the magma chamber underneath,
The magma flows up through the layers of ash,
And lava,
But people died cuz,
Of the poisonous gases,
And the pyroclastic flows of pressured hot ash,
And tar,
I-I don’t know,
Why they live in danger zones,
They live by volcanoes cuz of tourists and farmland,
What about earthquakes?
How do people live there?
They build strong buildings, it’s cuz of tectonic plates.

(Chorus)

By Rachel and Lauren ( Year 8 )

Grasping a somewhat rudimentary appreciation of the various arguments developed at the unconference, I unleashed the question “How would you like to be assessed?” on a Year 8 class that had just completed a long and detailed unit of work on Tectonics. I started by reminding them of key ideas from the unit and asked them to consider how they could show how much they’d learned, one option of course, being a formal test. I was suprised by the range of ideas. Within 10 minutes the class had made 20 suggestions. One student acted as secretary, typing up the ideas on a Power Point slide. Next I invited the class to discuss the merits of each idea, focussing on the need to show a broad and deep understanding of the topic, rather than a specific idea. Votes were cast for each idea. Here is the list with the votes cast (out of 27)

Interpretive dance - a popular and long running joke amongst the students, though a good case was made! (12)
A quiz/game show - possibilities include teacher or students setting questions (5)
Make up a song - song lyrics were considered to be a good way of demonstrating learning (15)
A performance – some kind of play that explores volcanoes and earthquakes (13)
Lego man movie - several of the students are interested in lego movies (15)
Poems – very popular with a few of the most literate students (6)
Radio show - possibility of producing a podcast with lots of appropriate sound effects (13)
Volcano’s got talent – Britian’s Got Talent is already fading from the collective Year 8 memories, so an unpopular idea (3)
Do a biography/story - popular among the same students that enjoy poems (5)
Cloverfield style film - the favourite idea and a possibility with Flip videos. Students felt it suited the topic very well. (16)
Make powerpoints - The idea is that these would be for an external audience and shared on Slideshare (7)
Write a textbook -  Idea is that students would write for a real audience publishing on a wiki (9)
QR code- a combination of QR codes and display, though most couldn’t see any learning benefits (4)
Depicting artwork - idea is to create a complex instructional artwork in a Where’s Wally? style (15)
Model volcano - idea rejected by most because of limited potential to demonstrate learning (3)
Chatterbox – this idea transpired to be an origami project and was then vetoed by the rest of the class! (2)
Human volcano - Influenced by BGT winners Diversity – a street dance with a narration. Very popular, esp with interpretive dance enthusiasts (15)
Big volcano Split it in half - a suggestion to create a huge wall display to show a cross-section through a volcano (15)
Formal test - a good justification made for a traditonal test by some of the class, but quite unpopular with most (5)
Presentation with different media - idea for a structured presentation of at least 5 minutes using various media to develop speaking skills (6)

Ideas with less than 5 votes were dismissed and the discussion turned to whether or not students wanted to work in groups. Most wished to be part of a team, though several students proposed that groups should be able to exercise the right to fire members not pulling their weight. The class decided that they didn’t want to work on the same task – several “Cloverfield” style films for example, would be boring to watch.

It was a very interesting experiment to try. The debate was rigorous and remained focussed on the key idea of demonstrating learning. The message is that most (but not all) students want to work in a collaborative environment, and they also want to demonstrate their learning by creating, rather than recalling. I’m quite happy with that, though I doubt that the exam boards will be featuring interpretative dance as an option any time soon. What’s important now is to get the students to agree on the criteria for a really good piece of work before they embark on their assesment next week.

EarthBrowser Version 3.11

There are many schools which haven’t been able to install Google Earth across a network (mine included) and I view the two applications as being broadly complementary. Google Earth is great for spatial decision-making that requires high resolution imagery, while EarthBrowser is a better alternative when using global data sets such as webcams, volcanoes earthquakes and storms – which are all available within a single click from the main screen, as opposed to the increasingly complex Layers within Google Earth.

If you haven’t looked at EarthBrowser recently, do give it a try. It’s a free, super-fast download, and a site license is available.

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?

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.

Earth Browser 3 is Flash /Adobe Air based, and in a number of respects will be a genuine alternative to Google Earth, indeed possibly a better classroom tool for studying certain topics, especially weather and tectonics. Here’s a quick preview of how the application is looking at the moment.

EarthBrowser is a delight to use, extremely intuitive and quick in operation. Expanded to full screen on an interactive whiteboard, the virtual globe is stunning. The navigation is hugely enhanced with a neat and attractive draggable menu:

The data sets include comprehensive real time weather information, tectonic plates, earthquakes, volcanoes, webcams and country borders. The Layers panel in Google Earth by comparison is becoming rather unmanageable – try finding the new Earthquakes layer without a guide!

The Placemarks tab adds several other data sets including Aurora Activity. You can also add your own placemarks. I’ve done this in the screenshot below, ading a photo that I took recently in Tromso:

click to enlarge

KML files can be opened by dragging them into Earth Browser, and clicking names or flags in the weather window brings up a related Wikipedia search.

The Placemark menu includes the option to open a Google Map that tracks the Earth Browser view when panned. This is an important feature, partly because the Google Map will display a satellite view at resolutions that Earth Browser can’t manage.

The New Map window (click to enlarge)

I’m very excited about EarthBrowser 3 and will be eagerly awaiting the finished version. The USP for geography teachers is the clean and efficient navigation and essential real-time datasets. I notice that Apple are hosting some useful looking teaching resources for EarthBrowser here.