Look at it this Way

Handout for Seminar at the TES Education Show
3rd October 2009

1. LOOK AT IT THIS WAY
ICT IN THE GEOGRAPHY CLASSROOM

ALAN PARKINSON
SECONDARY CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT LEADER
GEOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATION
http://livinggeography.blogspot.com
[email protected]
3
rd
October 2009

2. An ‘A – Z’* of ICT in the Geography Classroom

A = Animoto: http://animoto.com – cool slideshows with pop video
transitions: free accounts available for teachers

B = Blogs – a whole list of teachers who blog has been collated by the
Geographical Association, going back to one of the first: my GeoBlogs project
from 2003: http://www.geography.org.uk/resources/geographyblogs

C = Class Tools: http://classtools.net - a range of templates for common
classroom activities which can be turned into flash files or added to websites:
includes the famous random name generator, plus some new generators
including the Animated Book

C = Creative Commons – make sure that you use images that you have
permission for, and acknowledge sources when using them – for more details
see the website: http://creativecommons.org/

3. D = Delicious and Diigo - social bookmarking allows for website ‘favourites’
to be stored online rather than on a particular computer, and shared with
others – mine are available at http://www.delicious.com/GeoBlogs
D = Dumpr : http://dumpr.net – turns your images into ‘fieldsketches’ by
emphasising the outlines of the image - a useful cheat for those wanting to
represent an image differently
D = Digital Explorer: a series of user guides to explain how to make creative
use of Google Earth in the classroom, and in fieldwork in the school grounds:
a series of lesson resources are available for free download, with thanks to
Jamie Buchanan Dunlop: http://www.digitalexplorer.co.uk
E = Etherpad – a collaborative online document which up to 8 people can
work on simultaneously if they know its address – http://etherpad.com

F = Flickr and Flickr Toys – Flickr is a photo-sharing website which hosts
billions of images, and can be searched for Creative Commons images – once
an image is available, use the Flickr Toys website (also called Big Huge Labs)
to transform it into a number of creative resources including film posters,
jigsaws, world maps and magazine covers, plus image gallery creation
http://www.flickr.com and http://bighugelabs.com/
F = Flip Video – handheld camera (also HD version) which has a very simple
interface for transferring videos to computer and also editing the movies
G = Geographical Association – the subject association for geography
teachers, with a mission to “further the learning and teaching of geography”
– now supported by the Action Plan for Geography funding:
http://www.geography.org.uk
GeographyTeachingToday: the key site for the Action Plan for Geography,
contains a range of Flash interactives to support a creative set of resources,
plus new online CPD courses: http://www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk

4. G = http://www.geographypages.co.uk
G = Google Earth and Street View: enough said ? – great for ‘story-telling’ and
alternative fieldwork
I = Infographics: a new version of the pie chart, and vital for geographers:
Some examples include the classic Gapminder, and Worldmapper sites
(also see Visualisations)
J = John Davitt – creator of the RAG and the wonderful Learning Event
Generator – loads of creative inspiration for geographers at
http://newtools.org/ - LEG now available as an Excel file to create your own
N = Ning: your ‘virtual professional network’ platform – the GA has taken up
this method of contacting members of the geographical community – create
one to keep the conversation flowing with students: “the lesson doesn’t have
to end when the lesson ends...”: http://geographical.ning.com
N = Noel Jenkins: AST in Somerset – http://www.juicygeography.co.uk –
some classics here, as well as Noel’s stunning photography and VR work
O = Osocio – http://osocio.org – a collection of images and videos from
social advertising campaigns: some images are controversial and should be
used with care – particularly useful for provocative starters
P = Picasa – photo organisation software which also includes an editing
function, with the ability to do creative image manipulation: a free download
from http://picasa.com
R = Richard Allaway: International School of Geneva: makes use of a range of
new web tools in his teaching. Has taken some ideas of mine and developed
them to the ‘next level’ e.g. Trial of Alfred Wegener, and the ‘I am a pebble’
activity... (see handouts) : http://geographyalltheway.com

5. S = Scribd http://scribd.com and Slideshare http://www.slideshare.com –
share your work online – embeddable code produced for blogs – can also be
turned into FLASH versions using iSpring
SLN Geography Forum – get your questions answered here and share your
resources - http://learningnet.co.uk/geoforum/
S = Smart Notebook software: particularly the ability to freehand capture
images: place yourself anywhere you want to be – student edition of the
software available to download free – can be used without a Smartboard
T = Tony Cassidy – friend and creative colleague from Notts – check out
http://www.tonycassidy.co.uk for links to Tony’s online empire

T = Twitter - microblogging tool : register at http://www.twitter.com – you
can then follow people / they follow you and a network of colleagues
develops who you can contact by broadcasting your thoughts and actions –
excellent for professional networking
Twalter Ego: @pensionerfrank @glacierjess @farmerchalmers
U = Urban Earth – Dan Raven Ellison’s inspirational urban explorations –
check out the ‘mash-up’ of London, Mumbai and Mexico City: images taken
on walks across the world’s urban centres: http://urbanearth.ning.com – why
not join a walk
V = Visualisations: a key geographical tool which has been made possible
using a range of new online tools (see infographics)
V = Voicethread: some work by Simon Renshaw to show – post work and
gather contributions from other people in the form of audio comments on
the work

6. V = Vocaroo = no software required – record your voice to create an
embeddable mp3 file (will also work in a Google Earth placemark)
http://vocaroo.com

Wordle contains text of this handout...
W = Wordle – http://wordle.net – tag cloud generator: the size of words is
proportional to the frequency with which they appear in the original text –
can be used for decoration, or as part of an analysis of a document or student
work – other tag clouds have appeared since the launch of Wordle
Wordle produced by http://www.wordle.net/ Images of Wordles are licensed .
X = I love Geography...
Y = Young People’s Geographies: one of the GA’s Action Plan funded projects
which involves students in curriculum development. Sign up and see the
latest material at http://www.youngpeoplesgeographies.co.uk
Z = http://www.zattoo.com – watch TV on your laptop – or catch-up on
programmes using TV CatchUp (and other channel specific sites) – ideal for
showing clips of relevant TV programmes (or download ones from Teachers
TV)

7. Agree or disagree with my choices ?
Please get in touch via [email protected] and I’ll add your
suggestions to the online version of the handout that will go up once the TES
Education Show has finished.

For more online resources, go to:
http://www.geographypages.co.uk – site since 2001
http://livinggeography.blogspot.com – my work related travels since
September 2008
http://geographyjazz.blogspot.com – over 1000 posts on all things
geographical (and a bit of jazz and malt whisky)
The GA Ning: http://geographical.ning.com
Follow me on Twitter: @GeoBlogs
My delicious bookmarks: GeoBlogs
My Slideshare presentations: GeoBlogs

*= with a few letters missing out