Geography and all that Jazz

Over to a local school on Thursday this week for a network meeting organised by Rob Lodge . Rob has been organising these meetings for Norfolk teachers for many years, and they are always useful, so it was good to be able to go along and share some of my recent work, and also have a 20 minute journey to an event rather than one of three or four hours. There was plenty of interest in the meeting, some of which may form a separate blog post. It was good to meet colleagues new and old, and also have the chance to wish a happy retirement to John, who I've known for many years. There was some good sharing at the event, which had a range of activities.  Some of you may be thinking of organising a local network meeting at your school ? This could be themed around a particular issue, or perhaps based on the Teachmeet style of event with short inputs from everyone. This could be cheap twilight CPD, or a more organised city-wide event.  Over the last few years I've been fortunate to...

We-Think Geography is going places... Just read this book, and it is going to feature prominently in a lot of forthcoming projects that I will be involved with, and has already put a range of ideas in my head. Head over to AMAZON now and buy your own copy. Highly recommended . The book has an interesting history. A draft of the book was placed online for people to edit and comment on. This took place back in 2006, and it has then been another 18 months until the book has emerged. It explores the growth of social innovation, and the power of mass collaboration to trigger innovation. So far, so not-that-geography-related. The trick is to relate this to the creation and sustaining of geography teacher networks, and the growth of geography projects which involve large numbers of teachers collaborating: something that I will be involved with full time from September. There is a 5 stage process which is mentioned in the book (although the progression from one to the other isn't necessar...

This is a very interesting blog post and resource produced by Ollie Bray. It is related to the idea of CONNECTING SCHOOLS in the 21st Century. It suggests some interesting ways of connecting schools, and by extension departments, and teachers... | View | Upload your own

Another geography networking idea: "Think Global at your Local" .... Taking the idea of the TEACHMEET , which is a very successful one from Scotland. Arrange to meet with other local colleagues in a room at a pub in a central location, hopefully with WIFI and arrange for people to bring short ideas to share with the others. The TEACHMEET model can be adapted in numerous ways... A few freebies to hand out, and a good time will be had by all (including the designated drivers...) "See the world through the bottom of a pint glass." How about invites printed on beer mats ? I think this idea is 'a goer', and you might see me in a pub near you sometime in the next year....

Just signed up to Twitter to see what the fuss is about. Could be another way of encouraging networking and wider access to conferences...

Podcasting One way of setting up networks. Thanks to Ollie Bray for the weblink to the COMMONCRAFT "how to"....

Just been exploring the idea of network building and was reminded of a post on Russell Davies ' blog (have mentioned Russell's excellent work before) This linked to the idea of "social playfulness" and putting the "fun" into functional, and the work of Amy Jo Kim from ShuffleBrain. | View | Upload your own The post also introduced me to PMOG which sounds like it has potential. Got an invite to the beta. Will let you know how I get on.... This unconventional massively multiplayer online game merges your web life with an alternate, hidden reality. The mundane takes on a layer of fantastic achievement. Player behavior generates characters and alliances, triggers interactions in the environment and earns the player points to spend online beefing up their inventory. Suddenly the Internet is not a series of untouchable exhibits, but rather a hackable, rewarding environment! Tapping into the virtual is the way to build exciting new networks.