GA Conference Teachmeet 2021

 

Once again, we are not able to be in person at a GA Conference, so aspects of the conference cannot be done face to face. There are many highlights of any GA conference, and the Teachmeet has become established as one of them: taking place at the end of the first full day and a chance to extend the day and have a beer with friends while listening to ten or more colleagues sharing ideas from their classrooms.

You can sign up to either present or lurk here.

To get a flavour for the atmosphere at a Teachmeet, you can still watch 2019's version here. Thanks to Rich Allaway of Geography all the Way for live streaming the event.

This year, we are particularly interested in new and diverse voices and storytellers, who have never presented before and are ready to step up and share an idea. There should also be a link to the conference theme of Compassionate Geographies.

RIP MTJ

 I heard earlier today about the passing of Michael T Jones via Ed Parson's Twitter feed.

RIP MTJ Thank you on behalf of all the earthlings pic.twitter.com/8fTIUfQbOy

— ED PARSONS (@edparsons) January 18, 2021

He was one of the people behind the development of Keyhole, which later became Google Earth.

For over 15 years, this tool has helped to revolutionise our geography teaching and also the way we, and students conceptualise the earth.

"We are going to make discovering the Earth a joy - like you're dating a planet and you want to know it, to hear all about its past and hopes. That's what we did: we made something immersive and engaging and personal. You can fly to your home--fly to your parents' home - and remember the time you snuck out in the backyard and did something you shouldn't do, or the place where you had a first kiss, or the place you got married."

This article from 2013 outlines some of his thinking, as downloads passed one billion.

New ESRI School Atlas Collection

Shared by the ESRI UK Education Team.

A new collection of digital atlases for use in lockdown learning.

Access them all here.

Don't forget that the GA also has its Geography From Home section ready to help as many return to remote teaching for a few weeks at least.