Ewan McIntosh Channel 4 21st Century Professional Networking: 10.30 at SECC Blogged as it happened by "the geek at the back who's the only one with a laptop open..." ;) Any errors in the semantics of what Ewan said are entirely mine... Referred to Richard Teese Keynote from yesterday: "If you're a teacher you need a personal and professional network." Proving that it works is an issue: no data which actually supports the idea that it's "worth it" If used, it changes practice for the better. The users "know" that it does. Not too many tools mentioned. 3 tools included, and "6 weeks deadline" to do it or you'll never do it... Trying to satisfy students with the same materials that had been used in the 1980's - need to move the curriculum / pedagogy on... "Don't tell the dinosaurs the meteors are coming " BECTa research on use of social media (interviewed hundreds of learners) Co-ordinating activity (and...
Posts
Just digesting all the material from the Scottish Learning Festival. A range of posts will appear over the next week or so (although I have another big project to finish first) on LIVING GEOGRAPHY . One good moment was seeing Val Vannet's presentation on the SMARTBOARD stand. She had made imaginative use of the various features of the Smart Notebook 10 software (which is very useful: I have it on my laptop even though I no longer have my Smartboard. Interesting tip that I hadn't been aware of was the automatic conversion of Quicktime to FLV, which can then be viewed in the Smartboard document.
Scottish Learning Festival Head over to LIVINGGEOGRAPHY to see the latest posts on the last 2 days up in Glasgow. Now en route back south, with some book editing ahead of me to pass the time (and also take a few piccies out of the window...) One of the bonuses was meeting up with Val Vannet again and seeing her presentation on virtual fieldwork on the Smartboard stand... Before you do, please check out the details on the new LIVING GEOGRAPHY regional conferences. They are going to be very exciting !
If you're in Sheffield on the 31st of October get yourself down to the Showroom to hear my friend Rob Hindle read from his collection "Neurosurgery in Iraq".
This is Rob's first collection of poetry , although he did publish a sequence of poems on the Sheffield Flood, and has had material in various anthologies and publications. He is also a regular at local poetry festivals.
I have read the collection and there are some wonderful pieces in there, some of which also have added resonance: I too remember Connell's dog, and the washer women in the gipsy 'district' of Madrid across the road from where Rob lived for a time.
Some pieces are developed from blog postings, and there are quite a few geographical references in there too...
Rob Hindle writes movingly and powerfully of Spain and South Yorkshire and beyond, captured and then liberated in a language that sings – Ian McMillan
Did you attend a CfBT COURSE last year for the new Geography KS3 ?
If you DIDN'T, you're a Geography teacher in the UK, and you don't know what I'm on about then please get in touch...
If you DID, here's some information that the National Subject Leads: Ruth Totterdell and David Rayner wanted passing on...
The CfBT project supporting the implementation of the new secondary curriculum has got further funding until April 2009. During this period we will be developing some further video case studies for the website www.newsecondarycurriculum.org We are also aiming to provide support for the implementation of the new PoS through further CPD sessions to local networks of teachers.
As a regional advisor I would be happy to lead another session for your teacher network.
The session could be customized to suit the needs of the teachers in your network group and to encourage them to use the new PoS as an opportunity to reinvigorate geography...
Latest issue now available to download from GA website. Features items on: What does the GA do ? An exploration of Geography within the curriculum by Professor David Lambert Details on Conference 2009 Background to the Quality Marks A report from Helen Cowlan in Brunei Details on new resources for geography teachers Primary Geography focus My regular 'Webwatch' feature
Participatory Geography One area that I have been getting involved with as part of my new role is the whole area of PARTICIPATORY GEOGRAPHY and LIVING GEOGRAPHY (of which much more to come in 2009) David Rogers, fellow member of the SPC has produced a handy suggested "definition" on his blog. Here is his take on it from earlier this month. a. Pupils involved in creating and evaluating the curriculum b. Pupils making informed personal choices c. Pupils informing and influencing their peers and family d. Pupils contacting influential individuals and organisations One person who takes this idea of participation to its extreme is a 'partner in Geography' of mine called Dan Raven Ellison. He has just completed a remarkable trio of adventures called URBAN EARTH . Read the description of his travels on the BLOG.... You can see Dan at the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers conference in OCTOBER (I'll be there too...)
The Cerne Abbas Giant was in the news earlier in the week. Image by Flickr user johnelamper, kindly made available under Creative Commons The priapic figure on the hill had become more difficult to see, because vegetation and moss has obscured the chalk outline. A wet summer has been blamed, along with an absence of grazing sheep. Volunteers started work to re-chalk the giant's outline. It has one fairly obvious feature... I liked a comment in a letter published in 'The Guardian' on Thursday. A comment made by a boy, who asked his mother, "Why is his willy on upside down ?"
Quick Quiz...
Where does this come from ?
Hello. Hello morning. My, this is a grand way to start the day. Bit different from what it used to be, I can tell you. I can remember like it was yesterday. Coo, it wasn't half so comfortable. Took a bloke a good hour to get to work. As for the view - if you can call it a view - you needn't ask when you were getting near the town - you knew without looking. Still what could you expect with drab looking houses and ugly factories; not even a blooming place for the kids to play - poor little blighters. I tell you - by the time I got to work I was all in.
Can you remember where you were on the 'magic' date of 08.08.08 at 8 minutes past 8.... ?? I was at Maine Road Football Ground, Moss Side, Manchester listening to the opening chords of "Shine on you Crazy Diamond"... Here was the full set list: Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Signs of Life, Learning to Fly, Yet Another Movie, Round & Around, Sorrow, Dogs of War, On the Turning Away, One of These Days, Time, On the Run, Great Gig in the Sky, Wish You Were Here, Welcome to the Machine, Us & Them, Money, Another Brick in the Wall (pt 2), Comfortably Numb, One Slip, Run Like Hell Just read sad news of death of Richard Wright of Pink Floyd. Out with the copy of 'Echoes' I think... RIP Richard...
Image by USGS from HERE. Some more information on the use of GIS or Geographic Information Systems , which is part of the new KS3 PoS. As I posted earlier, I spent Friday down in London, considering the sort of questions that teachers might be asking, and where the CfBT / GA / DCSF / QCA project could help... First of all, how should we interpret what it says in the PoS. It's clear that students should actually be USING GIS , and that this should be 'throughout' the Key Stage, rather than one view of it so that a 'box can be ticked'... How can the use of GIS improve the quality of teaching and learning ? (a justification that could perhaps be used in some schools for NOT using GIS...) We started with Fred Martin, who took us through the current state of play with GIS. These first 3 slides are taken from his presentation with thanks. We then had David Rayner take us through some of the free online and software options (which are OK to get schools started...) Ruth To...
Image by me... A very pleasant day at the Royal Geographical Society on Friday for a training day for Geography Regional Subject Advisers. Thanks to Judy Mansell and co for hosting us... The day was led by the National Subject Leads: David Rayner and Ruth Totterdell, and we also had sessions from Fred Martin, who provided an excellent overview on the use of GIS, and 2 GIS providers: Diana Freeman from the Advisory Unit with AEGIS, and James Sawle from Digital Worlds. The CfBT support is focussing on the use of GIS technologies this year. If you need some support with the use of GIS in your Key Stage 3 Geography teaching. get in touch, and I'll pass you on to the relevant adviser: if you teach in the East of England , you can get support from Katharine Hutchinson and I... Perhaps the easiest thing is to have a TAXI DRIVER for a geography teacher ? According to research by University College London, they have a particular type of brain... Image from UCL via BBC website And to win...
The TV Sitcom... There have been some classics over the years... For those who aren't sure what they are: A sitcom ("sit-com", "sit com") or, to give it it's full name, situation comedy is a genre of comedy performance in which recurring characters take part in humorous story lines centred on a common environment, such as a family home or workplace. Sitcoms were originally devised for the radio but today are typically found on television. Who can forget "Fawlty Towers" . Well, actually, most students have probably never seen it, as it was made before they were born, and how many of us watch TV programmes that were made before we were born ? The 'golden age' of sit coms was probably about my youth: the late 70s, early 80s - unless you think otherwise of course. What would be the classics ? "Terry and June" (perhaps not) "Porridge" "The Good Life" "Only Fools and Horses" "Rising Damp" How do...
Credit Crunch - we all need cheering up a bit... Interesting items on the news today that suggests we all need a bit of cheering up, and if you can do that you may be onto a winner. One firm that has done this is THORNTON' s the chocolate makers... Another company proving 'resilient' in the face of the downturn is DISNEY. Any other good news ?
Need a geographical idea fast ? Try the Geography Event Generator ! Thanks to John Davitt for the original idea at his NEW TOOLS website, which is well worth a visit. I blogged about it last week... I contacted John and sent him a set of 20 'geographically-related' ideas and possible ways of presenting the work, and he very kindly produced a custom-made GEOGRAPHY GENERATOR. Press the button that says CLICK HERE , and you'll get a new idea for how to teach, or present a particular topic. If you make use of this tool, e-mail and let me know... Also, if you have ideas for other similar topics and/or methods of delivering them, please get in touch, or let John know direct, as he's collecting more ideas....
Geography of Stuff A new unit, written by Simon Oakes , is now available on the Geography Teaching Today website. If you have not checked out this website before (which is possible I suppose....) you need to go there now. The GEOGRAPHY OF STUFF is good for the growing area of "Living Geography" as it tackles issues that are very much related to students' daily lives. It also ties in very nicely with areas growing out of the Pilot People as Consumers unit. A related area is that of GOLD FARMING . I am very much interested in the idea of the employment of people who are essentially carrying out repetitive task in virtul gaming environments in order to create 'virtual wealth', which is then passed on to people who can afford to pay for it, but can't be bothered to play the game themselves.. This BBC ARTICLE provides more detail on this fascinating employment example. But what SECTOR does it fall into ?
Box clever.... Image by Flickr user splorp under Creative Commons The BBC have branded a shipping container , and have fitted it with various GPS tracking devices, and are about to follow it as it travels around the world... Last year, I produced a resource looking at the use of the SHIPPING CONTAINER as a box that changed the world. This came out of a book by Sarah Murray called MOVEABLE FEASTS . Click the logo below to go to the book's accompanying website... Click THIS LINK to download a PDF from the Moveable Feasts site which looks at the birth of the shipping container... At the moment, the BBC's branded box is in Southampton, but you can track it's progress on this MAP. Its first journey is apparently a lorry trip up to Scotland to be loaded with whisky.... Mmmmm.... whisky.... There is a page with all the relevant information and weblinks. I suggested on the Edexcel NING that teachers could perhaps use this as a method of exploring the idea of GLOBALISATION ......
Some more mapping-type things that I liked... G-ECON PROJECT (another one from Infonaut blog) I've been familiar with the outputs from the project, which is based at Yale for some time, and have used their excellent images which plot economic activity in various countries. They have now added some other images, which can be viewed on the project's FLICKR SET . Here are a few examples that I liked... World elevation data mapped World rainfall mapped... FLOWING DATA has a very useful map of the spread of WAL MART. Visit and watch it slowly animate with the location of Wal Mart stores...
Earth: the Biography A nice site from the National Geographic stable. A re-branded Iain Stewart programme. Try out this nice INTERACTIVE : can you keep the earth in balance ? Click the image to check your "Earth IQ" - after each correct answer, you'll be shown a short segment of the programme. Would make a good STARTER or " REWARD " activity. Also a GOOGLE MAPS based HEALTH MAP of the world - for those who study HEALTH ISSUES.
SPORE - very exciting prospect ! Ewan is one of many who are excited about the educational possibilities of this game, launched TODAY. SPORE explores ideas of evolution and the creation of societies and communities. I have a copy ordered, but not received it yet... "Spore is bringing creativity to the masses where you as a consumer watch something on TV and say I can do something better than that, I can make a better space ship than that and you go on Spore and you can make something very compelling and even better in terms of design and scope." Thomas Vu, Spore Producer The key to the game surviving is suggested to be " narrative density ", which is a good thing to aim for when producing an educational resource I would suggest, especially if it's evident in what the students produce as a consequence... Here's the creator: Will Wright at Ted Talks over a year ago... The planetary editing phase looks particularly great !
Britain from Above from the BBC Got the hardback book of the series yesterday in my friendly local multinational supermarket at half price. The website has some nice additional features now, such as some clips and additional resources. A pity that the Google Earth layer comes up with a page error... Interestingly, there is a link through to a series of vintage programmes which have an aerial photography theme. Click the link HERE , or the image below to visit the website area. For the first time, BBC Archive has gathered together more than 60 years of broadcasting from the air. Watch as cities grow, motorways are introduced and the sea continues to batter the coast. The aerial recordings provide a glimpse into Britain's past and ever changing landscape. The aerial story of the UK has been narrated by some of our most beloved personalities. In programmes taken from the famous series Bird's Eye View you can hear poet John Betjeman narrating a personal, idealised journey acros...
Classtools for the new term... Just a reminder of this excellent tool, which some of you may not have heard of, and others forgotten about. Click the logo to visit. It's the work of Russel Tarr. You can create a whole range of items which can then be uploaded to websites, or embedded into blog posts.. I'll create a few later perhaps so that you can see how they might be used... Check it out ! My favourite price too...