Workshops maketh a conference!

Left image: Amien Cathedral, France.
Right image: Sydney Opera House from the pavement.

Related sites to the Spatialworlds project
Spatialworlds website
21st Century Geography Google Group
Australian Geography Teachers' Association website
'Towards a National Geography Curriculum' project website
Geography Teachers' Association of South Australia website
Mick Laws Blog
Email contact
manning@chariot.net.au


Where am I??
Adelaide, Australia: S: 34º 55' E: 138º 36'


AGTA 2011 in Adelaide
In our quest to clarify what is geography and what is important to geography teachers, it is often worthwhile looking at the workshops at a conference. As we know conference attendees vote with their feet and the 2011 AGTA conference in Adelaide is no different. We have already an unprecedented interest in the conference and the registrations are very strong 3 months out. This conference is looking as the biggest AGTA conference for a long time. The list of workshops provides a great summary of where geography is at in the year 2010. The workshops range from the use of technology (spatial and other), global perspectives, Australian curriculum engagement, geographical thinking and pedagogy, geography in a range of contexts and links to the world outside the classroom (employment and fieldwork).

Just have a look at this smorgasboard of geographical professional learning provided by the AGTA 2011 conference:
• Exploring Globes, Maps and Mapping in the Primary School
• The Australian Curriculum within a Minerals and Energy Context
• Using Thinking Routines in the field
• Using Web 2.0 Technology in the Geography Classroom
• Learning about the Olympics in the Geography classroom
• Building Global Awareness Twenty first century Australians are members of a global community, connected to the rest of the world by ties of culture
• Data sets and data visualisation tools:
• Finally, a teacher-friendly GIS!
• Forests- a global perspective
• Geography past present and future
• Australian Curriculum: Moving from content to engagement
• Injecting Thinking into classroom practice
• Teaching about other Countries
• Gaia, Evolution and the very Spirit of Geography.
• Goyder’s Line and beyond
• Bringing the Australian Geography curriculum into the classroom
• Geographical skills: inquiry and Geography Going National
• Creative, Collaborative, Mobile Technologies for the Geography Classroom
• Geography across the P-12 campus
• Geography Beyond Education
• Development Geography and Global Citizenship
• Where From? Where To? Where Now?
• Making Spatial Simple
• A new professional learning tool
• The future of the Geography textbook in the digital age
• A Picture's Worth a 1000 Lessons
• Carbon Kids – tackling climate change
• 20 Minute GIS Using Virtual Globes
• Big Game Small World – The Geography of Sport
• Building Global Awareness
• The Geographers' Toolbox for the National Curriculum
• myWorld Atlas - see your world in a whole new light
• The Asian Century
• More than Google Earth
• Population: The Essential Ingredients.
•Combining Geography and Surfing to develop better Global Citizens
• Cache in on Learning, Cache in on Fun!
• Being an active global citizen
• Injecting Thinking into classroom practice
•“Teacher vs. Wild"- exploring and surviving the world's environments via virtual field trip (VFT)

The workshops are being support by excellent fieldtrips to the Adelaide coastline, CBD and suburbs, the St Kilda wetlands and mangroves, the Lower Murray Lakes and Coorong and waste recovery sites around Adelaide. Again, a real mixture of physical, human and 'sustainability' geography.

Finally the context for the conference will be set by Dr Peter Hill (ACARA CEO) and Dr Rita Gardner (RGS UK Director) when they talk about the place of geography in the curriculum of any progressive, thinking and sustainable nation.

All those involved are really looking forward to the conference and encourage all Spatialworlds blog followers who have not registered to consider travelling to Scotch College in Adelaide on January 10th, 2011 to attend this seminal conference for geography in Australia.