Where will your Valentine's flowers be from ?

Image by Alan Parkinson

As it's coming up to Valentine's Day (don't forget !) this might be time to be teaching the KS3 Toolkit unit: "A Thorny Issue" which explores the question of whether roses from Kenya should be purchased in the wider context of the global flower trade...
It can be bought from the GA Online shop if you haven't already got a copy...

Moving Pictures

Thanks to So-Shan Au for leading me to a great set of Flickr images made from Lego by Flickr user Brixe63 - part of a larger Flickr group of album covers done in Lego...

Particularly taken by the Rush front covers, and the best one is "Moving Pictures"

Going to be seeing the Rush Time Machine tour in Sheffield in May - it's going to be awesome...

Thanks to Brixe63 for permission to reproduce the image above, which is cool...

Tessa Willy on Radio 5 Live

If you want to hear the rest of Tessa's contribution, including a geography quiz, listen from around 158 minutes in...

Countryfile

My latest issue of the Countryfile magazine arrived today.
A good article by Mike Parker is featured in the magazine.

He is the author of Map Addict, a book about his obsession with Ordnance Survey maps, for which he wrote an item for GA mgazine last year.

Mike's new book comes out in April, the day after he does the public lecture at the GA's conference at the University of Surrey.
You can come along for the lecture, and stay for the conference :)

Looking forward to the lecture. Mike and I were both scheduled to speak at an event earlier in the year the British Library which was unfortunately postponed.

Look forward to reading the book too....

Salzburg and digital-earth.eu - Day 4

Sunday January 23rd
Final few hours in Salzburg
With a lunch-time flight there was now time to have a lunch time wander having checked out of the hotel and had breakfast, and said goodbye to Luc and Harry, who were the last of the team still to leave.
Another beautiful crisp sunny day, with fresh mountain air.
I walked into the centre, cutting across to the river from the hotel, and came across the first of many churches with their bells ringing for Sunday morning. There was an amazing sunny and crisp feel to the city.
Wandered into the centre, and borrowed some of McDonalds' wifi to upload photos and catch up with various networks.
People were heading for church, or wandering the alleys...
Remember to check out my FLICKR SET for over a hundred images taken of the city.
Passed the house of Paracelsus, a name familiar to me from Robertson Davies books. Back to Hotel Bristol, and took a taxi to the flughavn
There was free wifi in the airport terminal: something which would be good to copy perhaps in some other airports.A spot of duty-free shopping, before boarding.
The plane was not very full, probably around 40 passengers in total. Settled in with my music, Sennheisers and a cold beer.

Had the Alps on the left hand side as we took off, with an amazing panorama of peaks - those five minutes alone made the trip worthwhile. Check the Flickr set for some of those pictures. Here's a sample... this was a real geography wow moment...

And 2 hours later, I was driving through the damp countryside of Norfolk heading home...
An excellent learning experience...

Salzburg and digital-earth.eu - Day 3

Saturday January 22nd
Working groups had been organised the previous day, so after breakfast it was back to Z-GIS to spend a few hours discussing with Harry (and with notes from Alfons) the way that we would reach our targets on time. For the first year of the project, our curriculum group would be focussing on a leaflet for publicity purposes, and also a series of contributions to the July conference in Salzburg (of which more in an earlier post, along with the links to my photos from the trip)

After the meeting had finished a little later than planned, with our planning fairly well organized, it was over to a pizza restaurant on the university campus.

We heard about the recent heavy snowfalls that had covered the area but had been melted away by the fohn wind... Having taught about the fohn many times, it was now time to be in a place where the wind actually blew...
We drank Trumer Pils, which was brewed in the village where Michaela lives, a short drive from the city, and at the base of one of the many mountains that surrounded the city. We were only a few kilometers from Germany. Apparently they did brewery tours, perhaps a possible excursion from the conference in July

Excellent pizza and salad, and out to the hotel to change. Farewell to some of the project team, and then a bus into the centre. Made a rendezvous for later, then did a lung busting walk up the steps to the church opposite the citadel. In snow covered woodlands, with a great view down the river, and across to the old town. Past the Mirabell gardens earlier, scenes from 'The Sound of Music'.

Mozart week was on, and Harry was doing some investigation of the prices, we had a mind to go if the tickets weren't too bad - turned out the cheap seats were around 80 euros so we decided to catch the Guggemusik instead !
Great costumes and vibe once again.

In the centre it was time to meet up in Eugenspiegel with the remaining 6 who had still stayed in the city.
Karl was en route to Vienna. Markus had driven back to Ljubljana and was back home for tea. Giovanni had taken the Brenner Pass back to Genoa.

The downstairs bar had a great atmosphere again, and smoking was possible. Upstairs to the restaurant rooms, which were excellent. The room was really memorable, with old paintings and wall murals. Had some of the old Kartoffelrauhmsuppe - earth apple....

Talked about malt whisky, and the 2020 event at Bowmore, where the 21 year old malt had been there for free refreshments for delegates. Back at the hotel, went to the hotel bar with Harry, and we asked about the whiskies that they had, and out came a single cask bottle of Bowmore, which was a bit of a surprise...

A nice way to round off the trip...

Salzburg and digital-earth.eu - Day 2

Friday January 21st


Snow was falling lightly through the night, and had left a covering on cars, but the pavements were clear - there'd was no shortage of Salz in Salzburg !

After breakfast, we walked the ten minutes from Itzlinger Hof to the university Techno campus, which featured those departments which involved technology. In one of the blocks, we crossed the artificial river, and took the lift to the third floor, where we found Z-GIS

Pictures by Michaela Lindner Fally
This was a facility established by Joseph Strobel, who was not present at the meeting as he was in India.
Fortunately the language for the project was English - my language skills were put to shame, although I picked up a few phrases and only had to shake my head in incomprehension a few times.

There were some remarkable people on the project, and then there was me. There were more PhDs than you can shake a stick at. The evaluator was Harry Rogge, who had been involved in education for many years, and was currently involved in a project to build a brand new school. We used the Google Earth app on the iPad to find the location of the school during our meeting.

There was lengthy discussion on the background to the project, the financing and the deliverables: all required because of the EU funding that was making the networking possible.

Each person introduced themselves with a few slides, and there was a wide range of experience and talent amongst the project team - a real eye opener into another world of European connections and traveling...
Some of the team were known to each other, but there were a few of us, such as Ali from Turkey who were fairly new.

Over to the university canteen for lunch - a vey nice fish fillet with vegetables and crusty roll, plus drinks,

Lots of drinks and fruit and chocolates and biscuits brought from various project members were on the side to keep us. The project had gained funding thanks to Karl's extensive work in EU projects such as HERODOT over many years, and his lobbying of MEPs through EUROGEO, the European association for Geography.

There were a few things that we focussed on in particular. The main one was planning an event in Salzburg in July which would be the first of three such events over the next three years.
This would involve us organizing workshops and engaging visiting speakers. John Lyon from the Geographical Association would be taking my place for the July event

Groups were arranged. There was some overlap of the themes, but my area of curriculum was the one that I decided to focus on.

After the meeting ended at around 6pm, we had time to walk back to the hotel for a quick-change, and then had to walk along the river - fortunately my down jacket from Iceland was getting another airing as the temperature for most of the time in the city was below freezing.

We came across a huge group of musicians who were gathered in Salzburg for something we discovered later was an event called Guggemusik (which my iPad kept insisting on autocorrecting to Guggenheim) There were bands from all the Alpine regions, including some from Lithuania as well as an Austrian group.
They gathered somewhere once a year - the previous year had been in Prague.

They were fuelled by energy and alcohol and we encountered them for the rest of the weekend. There were some wonderful costumes, with painted faces and instruments. I met up with Michaela and we wandered through the musicians, listening to the competing bands. These photos were taken by Michaela too.
Don't forget to visit my FLICKR SET to see all of my pictures...

Pictures by Michaela Lindner Fally

Peterskeller, our restaurant for the night, was in the corner of a square in the old town - I discovered later that I had missed out on seeing some catacombs in the area. The restaurant had apparently been in existence for over 1000 years. One surreal moment was a trip up to a splendid dining room on the upper floor, which was full of some of the 400 odd musicians who were booked in there that evening. The staff were getting in on the act with face paint
There was a wonderful atmosphere to the whole city, and to the restaurant too. On the way to the restaurant, I was starting to get the hang of the little alleyways which cut through the blocks of buildings which led to the base of the crags where the restaurant was completed.

The lift to the castle at the top was closed because of refurbishments - the original plan had been to eat in the restaurant in the castle above the old town...

There was excellent service from the man who was in charge of the room: the starter was kohl rabi soup - not something i will probably have again. Some very decent wine was drunk, and then it was back to the hotel. Ran for the late bus, after wandering the old town in the falling snow.
An earlyish night as there was another long day ahead the following day...

Salzburg and digital-earth.eu - Day 1

OK - this has been somewhat delayed as I've been a bit busy since my return...
Here's the details of the digitalearth trip to Salzburg at the end of January 2010


Thursday 20th January
Stansted airport was the starting point for a 4 day project meeting to establish 4 groups who would be working on a project for the next 3 years to develop a network of GI users across Europe and organise a number of conferences, which would hopefully attract around 1000 delegates.
The importance of GI and Geomedia is growing, and with the recent announcement on the state of the UK economy - apparently there was cold weather during winter - the ability to make the most of sketching technologies is even more important.

Air Berlin was the airport that Karl Donert: the project leader, had suggested, and proved to be an excellent choice. Check-in was done the previous day via website, so I only had to find my car-parking and take the shuttle bus to the terminal, which was not at all busy, so there was time to relax, and do some preparation of the paper that I was due to present. This took shape with the help of John Lyon and Fred Martin who offered their additional perspectives on the place of GI in geography education.
Before long, I was heading towards Salzburg at 35 000 feet and 860 km/hr, as I read through the conference papers and prepared myself for the 2 days of meetings which would be a new experience for me. Sun on cloudscape below, which had cleared only at the last minute, to reveal a snowy landscape.

Arrived early at the airport, and out to catch the bus into the city in the dark - we had our directions, but there was some confusion on my part as to where the Haut Bahnhof was. Crossed the river, and got off the bus to take a few photos of the Salzach river, flowing cold and dark through the city.

Snow was sifting down as I wandered back to the hotel, and checked into my hotel for the next 3 nights, and had a room up at the top of the hotel, beneath the pitched roof. My room had a view facing away from the peaks and once I'd 'freshened up' I wandered down to the welcome meal, and met the other project team, with introductions by Karl.

I had met Luc Zwartjes from Belgium at last year's GTE, but chatted with some of the other project team, and with Karl, and had a beer or two, and then a nice sea bass and various other courses.
Had a good chat with Ali too from Istanbul. There was a real pan-European flavour to the project team, and I was looking forward to the next few days...

OFSTED Subject Specific Report 2011: Tony Cassidy's response

My thanks to colleague Tony Cassidy for the measured response to the release of the OFSTED report on his website.

It's important that you have your say, so that we can develop the most effective outcomes and share them as widely as possible.

OFSTED Subject Specific Report 2011: Writing the Earth in Primary

Another quote that set me thinking:

Good attention was often given to developing pupils’ geographical vocabulary, but a minority of teachers did not understand the terminology and so failed to encourage pupils to use it appropriately.

This relates to what David Lambert has called the 'vocabulary' and 'grammar' of geography.

Teachers should be able to connect the vocabulary so that it makes sense, and students then supported to do the same.

If teachers are unsure of the terminology, then they may have other specialisms but find themselves teaching geography (a particular problem perhaps where a focus on exam performance means that the best teachers are prioritised to the exam classes rather than lower down the school)

The statement was about Primary schools, where teachers who are training have just a few hours exposure to geography as part of their course. It is not surprising that they might be unsure of the terminology.

Primary teachers should make sure that they join the thousand strong PRIMARY CHAMPIONS NING, and  also keep an eye out for the Primary Toolkit series.

The first two books are now available to buy from the GA shop.

They contain useful planning guides like the section of one featured opposite...

This section continued:

 Geographical skills were particularly well developed when the schools had a very comprehensive fieldwork programme and when a variety of maps, aerial photographs and other geographical resources was used frequently...

and this section

In the schools where pupils were exposed to geography regularly, they were able to develop and consolidate their skills, knowledge and understanding in the subject progressively. In these schools, learning in geography was often reinforced regularly through other subjects, notably English, but also through focused days. On these occasions, geography provided a rich context for pupils to express their opinions on real issues and improve their writing across a variety of genres.

Geography means writing the earth: students need to be supported to develop their own personal geographies...

OFSTED Subject Specific Report 2011: GIS response

More responses to the report....

I was interested in the statement on the use of GIS, having been involved in training sessions and development of materials for almost a year as part of the ESRI / GA strategic partnership:

New technology was frequently in evidence in lessons with most teachers being competent users of digital projectors and interactive whiteboards to enhance presentations. However, more limited use was made of topical events in the news or geographical information systems to engage pupils in learning in geography.

This was followed up in the report by the following statement

For a small number of students, geographical information systems (GIS) were revolutionising and extending their experiences. Visual images from around the world provided via internet links gave immediacy to their learning, and satellite technology brought landscapes to life. Higher-attaining pupils were challenged by being able to overlay data and explore interactive maps to interpret patterns and solve problems. This sixth form lesson illustrates good practice.

The students collected laptops on entry and logged in. In the opening activity the students were shown a photograph of an Indian slum. Google Earth was then used to zoom in and study slums in Mumbai, encouraging the students to discuss whether or not it would be appropriate to make the slums legal. Reference was made to two contrasting less economically developed countries and linked to previous learning. The teacher’s questions were challenging, with a strong emphasis on sharpening geographical vocabulary and the skills of interpreting photographs and maps, needed for work at AS level. The very effective use of satellite technology for data interpretation engaged all the students. In the final part of the lesson, the teacher referred to the learning objectives and linked them to the next lesson when students would be expected to consider contemporary urbanisation in Britain.

However, most teachers were reluctant to use such technology, despite the requirements of the Key Stage 3 curriculum and examination syllabuses to teach its use.

First of all, the teacher here is to be congratulated for their thoughtful lesson sequence, and use of what is undoubtedly appropriate and engaging technology to involve students and offer opportunities for the higher thinking that OFSTED recognised.
I would, however, question whether Google Earth use should be called GIS. I know that Richard Waite of ESRI would take the view that is a powerful tool, but that it allows for geo-spatial visualisation, but is not true GIS....

There is a debate that still needs to be had about the real definition of GIS. You can see some thoughts here on the GA website as part of an online CPD course.One question is that if teachers and OFSTED are unsure, then the move towards embedding GIS in all schools, which should be happening as OFSTED recognise will continue to be difficult.
The definition that OFSTED provide as a footnote is reproduced here:

[1] A geographic information system (GIS), or geographical information system, is any system that captures, stores, analyses, manages, and presents data linked to location. In the simplest terms, GIS is the merging of cartography, statistical analysis, and database technology. GIS systems are used in cartography, remote sensing, land surveying, utility management, natural resource management, photogrammetry, geography, urban planning, emergency management, navigation, and localised search engines.

If you haven't already done so, please visit the GA website and have your say on the report.

This is the first of a few posts on the OFSTED report and some links to GA support that could be used to further support schools and teachers.
Don't forget to listen to Alan Kinder and John Lyon on the Audioboos below...

Alan Kinder on BBC London Breakfast

Alan Kinder, co-chair of Education Committee of GA on BBC London Breakfast with Gaby Roslin and Paul Ross

John Lyon on BBC Oxford

John Lyon of the GA on BBC Oxford with Malcolm Boyden

OFSTED Subject Specific Report 2011

Today sees the launch of the OFSTED Subject specific report for Geography.

It's called Geography: Learning to make a world of difference


The GA has produced an official response to the release of the report.
This coincides with the approaching end of the Action Plan for Geography 2006-11
For the last 2 and a half years, I have been working with teachers across the country, and visiting schools, universities, PGCE courses and other events where young people have been showing how the curriculum and pedagogy has been changing in response to a rapidly changing world.


A few quotes from the official press release:

Geography provision was outstanding in over a quarter of all the schools we visited but just over half were not using geography to good effect to support pupils in understanding their role in their locality, their country and the wider world.

‘Where geography was flourishing, students had a strong understanding of place. They also cared about their environment and had an awareness of social, political, economic and environmental issues.  Good fieldwork played an important part in deepening student’s knowledge and understanding.

‘Where provision is weaker, schools should focus on developing pupils’ core knowledge in geography, particularly their sense of place. Where geography is taught thematically or within a humanities programme, the subject elements should be identified clearly, and taught properly and covered fully.’

The report recommends that secondary schools in particular should focus on improving the quality of their provision in Key Stage 3, so that more pupils will be able to continue to study geography successfully at GCSE and post 16.

Schools should also provide subject-specific support and professional development for teachers to improve their confidence and expertise, enabling them to teach geography more effectively.

Opportunities for fieldwork to enhance learning and improve motivation should be improved, but fieldwork also needs to be of good quality.

The report showcases much best practice too. In one secondary school studying how Olympic regeneration would benefit East London, lessons were well planned and stimulating, using an array of activities to engage students who enjoyed their lessons. ‘No two are the same,’ said one. There was a sense of anticipation wondering what each geography lesson would contain.

In another secondary school a wide range of activities, games and competitions were available on the school’s website under the heading ‘Mission Geography’, much of it written in-house. Many GCSE students downloaded material from the blog onto their iPods for revision, helping them fit extra learning into their schedules.

Some comments from Professor David Lambert: the Chief Executive of the Geographical Association.

The GA agrees with Ofsted that geography “is more important than ever in today’s world” We also agree that although it is for teachers, individually and in teams, to make geography engaging, interesting and enjoyable, both in the ‘field’ and in the classroom, they are often hampered by insufficient training and support, which undermines confidence and what we call curriculum making capability.

This Report therefore sends a strong message to senior leaders in primary and secondary schools: it is unacceptable to tolerate geography that is weak, because this impoverishes the curriculum. If geography is weak it “is a key issue to be addressed by the leadership teams in these schools”

The Report links poor teaching to school contexts in which geography has been marginalized – in terms of curriculum time, curriculum organization or in terms of curriculum specific training and support.

The Report shows many examples of schools in which geography has been encouraged and is flourishing. These are schools where the geography is driven by challenging questions about the contemporary world, where pupils knowledge of people, places and environments is extensive and where the teaching is lively, topical and well informed. One reason for good geography was found to be where “subject specific professional support had been sought out and utilized” 

A strong theme is the polarized pattern of provision in terms of the quality of teaching and learning and the curriculum between schools. This is linked to the lack of subject specialist teachers and/or lack of subject specialist training. It is therefore a worry that training numbers are being cut in geography. This is doubly so in the context of the introduction of the EBacc: in many schools specialist teachers will be deployed in KS4, further undermining quality at KS3

The Report provides evidence to suggest that an emphasis on core knowledge in the primary and secondary curriculum, such as is provided in the 2010 White Paper The Importance of Teaching, should be welcomed. The GA certainly does. However, there is little in the way of definition in the Report, or in the White Paper, as to what is meant by core knowledge – beyond a notion of being “able to locate countries, key mountain ranges or other features” and developing “mapwork skills”.

The GA looks forward to working with teachers in the context of the curriculum review to refine and develop geographical knowledge development through the primary and secondary years (including, but not limited to, ‘core knowledge’)

I am preparing for some forthcoming conferences where I will be linking some of the findings in the report to the work that we have been doing at the GA.There is, more than ever, a role for the GA in modelling the importance of creative "curriculum making".
What is clear is that subject specific support is essential, and that there needs to be more debate over what is meant by core knowledge in Geography.
The picture that is painted in the report, and the interpretation chosen by some of the news reports is not reflective of what I have seen on my travels.
Thanks also to Tony Cassidy for his thoughts on his website / blog.

On the 16th of February, in Sheffield, we have the 5th birthday celebrations for the Primary Geography Quality Mark... That will be one occasion where quality geography is celebrated, and will act as a useful counter-balance to some of the comments that are being used today.

As always, comments here are my personal thoughts... GA official response is on the website...

Toontastic

Very many thanks to Mark Warner for his tweet last week that led me to the wonderful TOONTASTIC.

Toontastic - is a great app, and costs less than the price of a comic, but allows you to create your own animated comics using a range of characters, or ones that you have created yourself.
I'll send some links to some of the wonderful cartoons that my son has created, but it is now his favourite app (and that is some accolade)
The app is from Launchpad software, and provides a guide to comic creation, and a range of mood music and pre-created characters and backgrounds. There is also a ToonTube channel where comics can be shared, and badges can be earned for positive reviews of them.

A few thoughts for possible improvements which will hopefully emerge in the updated versions in the future:

- the chance for hand-drawn characters to be stored in a library so that they can be selected for more than one scene: at the moment, they have to be drawn for each scene they are in (unless there is a way of doing that already that I haven't spotted)
- similarly for backgrounds
- a selection of sound effects which can be generated by pressing icons while recording the scene ? (not sure how easy that would be to do, and whether the icons would get in the way of the scene)
- ability to use your own images as backgrounds - a photo scene of some mountains with characters in front of it would be cool...

Even without these, Toontastic is a great app and well worth the money

OFSTED Subject report

The new OFSTED Subject report for Geography will be released tomorrow morning.

Professor David Lambert has already had a letter / report published in the Daily Telegraph today, and it is well worth a read. As always, a well informed and passionate defence of geography....

David references the late Rex Walford and explains the importance of geography, which is...

"...the subject that contributes more than any other to young people's knowledge of the world, their understanding of the relationships between people and places, and their ability and propensity to think critically and creatively about the ways in which we affect the planet we live on.

Given the vast ambition of the topic, it is easy to see how it can be badly taught. But it would be a betrayal of young people to give up on what geography can contribute to their education, just because it is hard to teach well."

Don't forget to add your comments to the GA website tomorrow morning when you've had the chance to find out more about the report and its contents...

Crime maps update

Just went over to the Post Office to post a few parcels, and this was the newspaper banner outside...

It refers to the Crime mapping website that was revealed earlier in the week, and which crashed due to the amount of traffic that it was getting...
Checked out my postcode, and there were just 3 crimes in December 2010 apparently...
At a previous address near the school where I taught in King's Lynn, there were over 400 crimes...

Good to see the website up and running, as now there can be some interesting work done with students to explore the relationship between the data and the maps, and to be critical about how both are used here to represent something that has a clear geographical relevance...

BETT 2011 6: A final wander and some faces...

Good to catch up with a few familiar faces at the BETT show, as I was wandering at lunchtime and elsewhere..
They included Eylan on the Brainpop Stand (check out the new Brainpop iPhone app with its movie of the day every day if you haven't already)
Ollie Bray wandered up to say hello after a long week in London.
Also bumped into Tom Barrett and John Davitt, who showed me his excellent new 4 word feedback idea.

So, that was BETT... sorry those blog posts were a bit brief, but time has marched on since then, and plenty more things that need adding here when I get a moment...

BETT 2011 5: Mission:Explore

Met Dan Ellison at BETT. He was fresh back from the Outdoors Show, and we had a chat about the latest Mission:Explore books, which are due out on April the 1st (no fooling...)
We saw the two drafts of the new books, with the latest of Tom Morgan Jones' excellent illustrations.
Also talked about some future exciting plans for The Geography Collective.
More to come here during the year..

Chernobyl - 25 years on...

Some amazing images and story from Chernobyl 25 years on...
Regular readers will know of my interest with this event.
The Long Shadow of Chernobyl continues to persist, as it will do for centuries..
As the area opens up further for tourism, I would be pleased to visit and report on the remarkable changes in the area over the last quarter of a century, and the legacy on the environment and people...

BETT 2011 4: Bertelsmann

One of the people who came over to the GA stand was a lady from the publishers Bertelsmann.
They publish atlases which might be of interest to those colleagues who have significant numbers of students whose first language is not English.

The basic atlas can be edited to have the text in a number of alternative languages...
Worth a look...

There are a large number of available languages that the products can be translated into...

Yasi

After the floods of the last few weeks, northern Australia has just experienced another major natural hazard: a tropical cyclone.

Cyclone YASI made landfall along the Cassowary Coast yesterday, and was thought to be the worst storm to hit Australia for over 100 years. Forward planning and evacuation measures were put in place, and there were also centres set up for those people who were unable to leave in time. Although there has been some dramatic structural damage to many homes and other buildings, and damage to infrastructure and vegetation, there seems to have been only a minor storm surge.

It was very useful that ABC AUSTRALIA removed the geographical block on their programmes being visible via their website. This meant that I could watch the live coverage through the 'night' (or afternoon as it was here) and gather more useful material relating to the preparations that were in hand for the storm.

There are some ideas and resources that Anne Greaves and I were able to create for the GA WEBSITE as a way of exploring cyclones in general, and this one in particular.
Currently, there seem to have been few, if any, fatalities, which always makes for a more palatable case study...
The final track of the storm was, as always, crucial in determining its overall impact. It is currently weakening as it moves inland...

Image from radar site

Image from BBC weather showing the storm approaching Australia

Comparison image from Brisbane Times

Live streaming on the ABC News website - very helpful resource

Mystery Walker

A post on the Ordnance Survey blog led me to the RAMBLERS ASSOCIATION website.
This is asking for people to become "mystery walkers" and support their campaign to walk as many of the nation's footpaths as possible, and check the current state of the paths.
There are sheets to record the results of this survey.
This might be a useful excuse for a school to work with students in the area immediately around the school to explore rights of way and access, in the context of changes to landscapes...

You will also see the public consultation on the current plans to sell off many of the nation's woodlands, something which we are currently creating something about for the MISSION EXPLORE website.

Police.uk

Have you seen the new Police crime maps ?
No, neither have I yet...

Plenty in the news today on all things data, mapping, anomalies, statistics and plenty more stuff that will make great case study material for students exploring GI and connecting with living geography and young people's geographies...

More to come here once I've had the chance to explore in more detail and make some curriculum connections....

Stay safe out there :)

digital-earth.eu - Draft website now open

As regular readers of the blog will know, I spent 4 days in late January in Salzburg at the opening evening of the digital-earth.eu project. This is a three year funded project to raise the profile of GI and geomedia in teaching, and also collect together the best practice from schools across Europe.

Also started off a Twitter feed for the project at @digitaleartheu - feel free to follow us...

The DIGITAL EARTH draft website is now open. At the moment, it has some details about the project and the various strands, but as we get to work on the project more will appear.

One of the first outcomes will be some publicity on the value of GI and geomedia, and there will also be a book of papers. I submitted a paper to the publication earlier today, in between one or two other things...

Going to be an excellent project, and you can follow it here on the blog.
A series of posts on my trip will appear at the weekend when I get the chance to catch my breath. Scheduled to break the 1000 mile point for my travelling in the last 4 days alone, so not got a lot of time for blogging...
In fact, before I do a few last things before bed, I'd better press PUBLISH POST.... now...

BETT 2011 3: ESRI UK

Over to the ESRI UK stand at the show to see the education team and collect some leaflets.

There was a good display of GIS in action.
Also good to see our logo on display as well as a map and images of Happisburgh: relating to a piece of work prepared for the ESRI / GA partnership...
More pictures to come shortly...