GeogEd

Geography and Blogging

A new resources has just appeared on the Geographical Association website.
It's a new online journal called GeogEd.
The first item is an article by Phil Wood called Advances in E-Learning: The Case of Blogging in School Geography.
This looks at blogging in geography, and name-checks the article I wrote for Teaching Geography in 2004, and then mentions some current Geog Blogs, though sadly not the 'original' GeoBlogs...
Fame (ish) at last...

Free RGS-IBG training

With the generous support of Google™ the RGS-IBG in conjunction with Digital Explorer will be running 10 free of charge Google Earth workshops for LEA-maintained school geography teachers.

These practical workshops show teachers how to create virtual fieldwork using Google Earth. They involve hands-on experience with digital cameras and GPS units creating mini-fieldwork projects outdoors. Participants are then shown how this data can be transformed into a virtual journey using Google Earth.

The workshops will take place across the UK at the following venues:

RGS-IBG, London – Tuesday 16 October 2007
Swansea – Monday 12 November 2007
Newcastle – Monday 19 November 2007
Edinburgh – Tuesday 20 November 2007
Belfast – Monday 10 December 2007
Leeds – Monday 14 January 2008
Birmingham – Monday 28 January 2008
RGS-IBG, London – Tuesday 4 March 2008
Cornwall – date to be confirmed
Southampton – date to be confirmed

Further details of these courses and open courses available for non-LEA school teachers can be found on our website www.rgs.org/GOseminars

If you have any questions please call Lucy on: 020 7591 3030 or email: L.bruzzone@rgs.org

Training is being carried out by Jamie Buchanan Dunlop of Digital Explorer
http://digexplorer.wordpress.com/

Google Maps now embeddable

Create a map.
Click on LINK TO THIS MAP.
Copy the code
Paste into blogger posting
Hey presto...


View Larger Map

Hurricane Tracker

Ollie Bray reminded me of the HURRICANE TRACKER network link.
Here is the current and predicted position of HURRICANE DEAN...

Blog Action Day

Blog Action Day is on October 15th.
The theme of the day is THE ENVIRONMENT.
Watch the video below for more details.
This blog has signed up for BLOG ACTION DAY. Make sure your blog is too.

International Polar Year

2007 is the IPY or International Polar Year.
Stefan Geens of Ogle Earth has produced a very useful resource for Geographers, in the form of a new layer for Google Earth, containing a range of useful resources.
Thanks (once again) to Noel Jenkins for flagging this up on the SLN Forum

Google Earth Summer School

Richard Allaway has been spending part of his summer holidays in Toulouse, where he teaches, teaching a Summer school, which has a major GOOGLE EARTH element to it.
It includes his 'trademark' Site Pal 'talking heads' introducing the tasks.

You could also do worse than check out Rich's Delicious Google Earth bookmarks.

Smoke Free Blog

June Floods - Yorkshire 2007

Well done to Melanie Richards for putting together a resource based around the current flooding which has devastated my home area of Rotherham and Sheffield.
At her GORGEOUS GEOGRAPHY blog, she has placed a file which shows images and also a layer of flooded area produced by the Environment Agency. This is a very useful and timely piece of work.
Also check out the GA's page of June 2007 resources: http://www.geography.org.uk/resources/june2007floods/

MetalToad

MetalToad have a very useful Flickr / Google Earth style thing...
Download the KML file, and it produces a feed of photos which have been Geotagged on Flickr, and shows them in their actual location.
Here's a nice example that was taken in Norwich...
Check it out !

Thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightening...

....but not with this Google Earth layer
Mentioned at GEARTHBLOG
It picked up some lightning in Norfolk yesterday evening. Could be good to use with students to track storms across towards the school, or warn of possible problems for the Sports Day javelin event, or the staff golf tournament...

The tool is produced by the GUIWEATHER site.

Updates and Norfolk in high res finally....

New update for June
Just updated to latest version of Google Earth (always good to have an up to date version)
Thanks to Noel Jenkins for reminding me of this update.

The big news though is that there is now high quality imagery of Norfolk on Google Earth, and it includes my home village and the place where I work.
There is one issue though: the age of the images that are used.

The ones of my village are at least 5 years old and possibly nearer 7.

The ones of my school are about the same age, as they show a number of missing details. In fact: one of the tasks I might do with my groups next week is to play a SPOT THE DIFFERENCE game for the local area.

Here is an image of my brother in law's house in Norwich for example - I think that's his car, so they are within the last 5 years or so:Here is one of my house - and some neighbours:And here is one of the school where I work...
There appears to be a missing TESCOS !

Another piece of news on GEARTHBLOG was about a recent Developers' Day where it was announced that Google has acquired PANORAMIO: the source of million plus images in Google Earth.

Sounds on Google Earth ?

Thanks to David Hancock for guiding me to this BBC NEWS article, which suggests that there may soon be a soundscape layer added to Google Earth.

Kokae

I've mentioned the KOKAE resource before on my Google Earth page, but for those who don't know, it's a series of video resources based on Google Earth.
A session was delivered to the GA Conference in April 2007 by Richard Treves, and this is now available for you to view HERE. This includes all details of the talk and lots of other materials. A very helpful resource.

I was unable to attend this session as I was delivering our 2 hour workshop on GIS, delivered by members of the GA Secondary Committee at the time.
The materials from the GA Conference are now appearing on the website.
There's plenty more of Geographical interest there...

Chartered Geographer

Chartered Geographer

Want professional recognition for all that you do for the Geography community and for Geography within your current school ?
Why not apply for Chartered Geographer (Teacher) status from the RGS-IBG.

I applied this year, and in April heard that I have been accepted, so I am now a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Chartered Geographer. If you would like to know more about the process, or what I did for my application please get in touch.

I also have a very nice framed shiny 'halo' for my wall...