A map which shows a terrible toll...

Hardly any part of the country has remained untouched by the pandemic...

The latest interactive map from the ONS.

Rivers and GIS crowdsourcing project

Time to sign up for the Great British and Irish River Managment GIS Initiative, being organised by Alistair Hamill, Brendan Conway and Andy Funnell.

Get more of a sense of the Great British and Irish River Managment GIS Initiative in this video. These are the citizen scientists across these islands who have signed up so far.

Want to join us? https://t.co/x73nk7dAR7 pic.twitter.com/7XBvpKTrTk

— Alistair Hamill 😷 (@lcgeography) February 20, 2021

As it says on the sign-up page:

The local walk has been the lifeline for so many of us over the past year. The chance to get away from the desk and from the computer screen; the chance to get out and feel the wind against your back and the warmth of the sunlight on your face (or, perhaps, if you live in N. Ireland, yet more rain driving into your face!)

And, perhaps, during your local walks you have come to know your local area a bit more. Perhaps you’ve ventured down pathways or streets you don’t normally walk; perhaps you’ve come to appreciate that little bit more that place we call our community.

Maybe, like me, you’ve spent more time exploring your local river, getting to know all its twists and turns, watching it respond to the changing weather patterns. Perhaps you have come to appreciate it even more too.

If so, then the Great British & Irish River Management GIS Initiative might be just for you.

The idea behind this is to pool the resources of geography teachers and other interested parties in a kind of ‘citizen science’ data capture of river management across these islands. Not in some theoretical way – but in the way it happens on the river beside us, the river we have local knowledge and experience of. River management as it actually happens, warts and all. So we’re interested in the small scale stretch of river beside you; the kilometre or three that you walk along, that you know and love well.

We will use GIS to collect and collate the information. All it will take is for you to collect data with your phone and you will be supported into how to bring this into the wonderful world of GIS. Don’t worry if you haven’t much experience in using GIS so far. The skills you will need for this are very accessible and you will be supported in developing them.

SIGN UP HERE.

Townscaper

Townscaper 1

I first came across this game in July 2020 when it was on early access on Steam, and sadly not available for iOS. I coveted it. It's created by Oscar Stålberg.

I downloaded it a couple of months ago, and have finally had a few hours to get to play with it, and it's excellent and very calming.

I shall probably be posting numerous screenshots in different locations over the next few days.

There's a GUIDE here, although you can start playing immediately by choosing a colour, scrolling around the existing town and then clicking in different directions. I love watching the seagulls circling and settling on the rooves as well.

Here's the description on Steam. It currently costs £4.79

Build quaint island towns with curvy streets. Build small hamlets, soaring cathedrals, canal networks, or sky cities on stilts. Block by block.

No goal. No real gameplay. Just plenty of building and plenty of beauty. That's it.

Townscaper is an experimental passion project. More of a toy than a game. Pick colors from the palette, plop down colored blocks of house on the irregular grid, and watch Townscaper's underlying algorithm automatically turn those blocks into cute little houses, arches, stairways, bridges and lush backyards, depending on their configuration. Post settings Labels Urban,Townscaper,Games Based Learning,Games,Cities, No matching suggestions Published on 19/02/2021 12:38 Permalink Location Options Post: Edit

StreetView in a Pandemic

Thanks to Rob Morris for forwarding this article on the use of Google Street View to 'take us places' when we are unable to visit places at the current time, and international travel is looking unlikely for another summer. 

Google Street View may offer us a short-term escape as we perhaps explore (un)familiar places which are far away...

The New Yorker piece has some interesting ideas which would be relevant to the classroom. One person who is mentioned is Nick Nicholaou, a London-based developer, who built a site called MapCrunch ten years ago. 

I've used this for about that long in sessions with teachers and also in my teaching, and it allows for random street views, or views within a particular country or area chosen on the map. It also mentions games / challenges such as the MapCrunch Airport Game.

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.

Your year in Maps

This Bloomberg project was excellent and resulted in some very creative maps.

Worth checking out....

OneSoil

An AI generated map showing crops in USA and Europe.

Google Earth Case Studies

Andy Funnell has been working away on his Earth Case Studies mini blogpost.

World GIS Day 2020

Will put up a few posts today for World GIS Day.

This is an excellent map of the National Risk Index in the USA, produced by FEMA.

Up over 100 000 views

Well that sneaked up on me... the blog is now up over 100 000 views, since first launching back in 2005. Thanks for reading.

Why Study Geography?

 Plenty of mentions for GIS and Google Earth in this latest books of mine.

"I have always been a Geographer and have always believed that the state of geography in universities depends on attracting good sixth formers to become undergraduates."

Andrew Goudie 

My latest solo authored book came out earlier this week. I've had copies for a week, and colleagues and some of those who contributed to the book have been receiving copies as well. Family copies are earmarked and  I'm delighted with the finished product, which is part of a growing series of books asking the same question for different subjects.

There's already been interest from a number of countries including the USA and Turkey, and I'm hoping for further reviews in addition to the ones that the publishers have already elicited from geographical journals and organisations, and individuals who can help the book reach its intended markets.

It is called 'Why Study Geography' and is published by the London Publishing Partnership.

It explores why students should continue to study the subject, and provides answers to a number of key questions from Y9-13, plus their parents and UCAS tutors.

Here they are opposite on the Contents page.

The final chapter contains links to over 50 resources to support your exploration of geography including films, books, websites, podcasts and others.

It explores all aspects of the subject and is unashamedly 100% geography. 

There are so many people who have helped me out with the book in various ways. These include colleagues from the GA and the RGS, along with teaching colleagues. It includes vignettes from a number of people including Kit Racklet, Corinna Hawkes and Ben Hennig. There are details of how the subject developed, and more on academic geography. It finishes by exploring the reasons why geography matters now more than ever - mirroring the theme of this year's GA Conference under the Presidency of Gill Miller.

Copies will be available from additional outlets soon including bookshops, online outlets, Book Depository and others.

I would suggest it would make a good book for a number of different groups of people:

- students - of different ages

- parents

- UCAS tutors / careers advisers

- geography teachers - both ECT and experienced teachers

- teacher educators - ITE colleagues from a number of different routes

Look out for lots of tweets with the hashtag #whystudygeography over the next week or so as we try to make as many people as possible aware of the book and its potential value for their work.

Also available on Wordery, Blackwells, Waterstones and as a Kindle or Kobo e-book version for convenience.

Data Classification and Mapping

A new and very helpful StoryMap.

Check it out...

Developing Place knowledge - a new DfS resource

Simon Catling and Emma Espley have been working on some new materials for the resource area of Digimap for Schools, designed for subscribers, but free to access by all.

Digimap for Schools gave free access to their service to schools during lockdown, and I am sure many will have found it a useful and effective resource.

The resources explore Place Knowledge using the new global mapping along with the familiar Digimap tools...