What is in and what is out?

Images above showing the beauty of South Korea.

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
Email contact
manning@chariot.net.au

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


Tough questions on curriculum content

As the consultation period for the draft Australian Curriculum: Geography is nearing an end, it is worth thinking about what should and shouldn’t be in the geography curriculum. As expected we all have different views of what is fundamentally important to be included and what can be dispensed with. This is particularly evident as we read the feedback from teachers, industry, jurisdictions, universities, community members, government departments, organisations, geography societies and geography teachers’ associations. All of these groups have different agendas and ways of looking at the world and naturally consider that their area of interest needs to be appropriately and satisfactorily represented in the curriculum.

I thought it would be an interesting exercise to make a list of all the things to consider as ACARA continues to work on ‘bedding down’ the content of the curriculum.

They are:
• How do we decide?
• Who decides?
• What is important?
• What is imperative?
• What is engaging?
• What is useful (socially, vocationally, personally, environmentally, nationally …)?
• What is age appropriate content?
• What content is achievable for schools (teacher expertise and resources?)
• Should we push outside of what is happening know in geography classrooms across Australia?
• What should be in a 21st Century curriculum?

Even after months of work and discussion there are a range of issues/points of clarification which continue to require discussion as we move ever close to the October publication deadline.

They are:
• The nature of place and space.
• The nature of sustainability in geography.
• The importance of the spatial perspective.
• Geography and citizenship capacity.
• The appropriatness and extent of cross curriculum priorities coverage.
• The mandating of fieldwork.
• The aim of engagement versus essential coverage.
• The physical/human geography balance.
• How do we integrate the key concepts into the curriculum content?
• Spatial technology and its use as a core issue to be mandated in some way or not.
• The need for the language and terminology of the document to be understandable to non-geographers.
• Geography in the primary setting – suitability and achievability.

Needless to say, ACARA and its writers and advisers have quite a job ahead in meeting the expectations of the disparate groups and individuals who have provided the feedback during consultation. A task I am sure will be met to the best of ability by all of those involved.

My top 10 this week

Left image: Walking around Uluru, Northern Territory, Australia.
Right image: Devils Marbles, Northern Territory, Australia.

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
Email contact
manning@chariot.net.au

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


My Top 10 to check out

I thought I would have a play at checking out some sites of interest and use for the classroom and then try to make a top 10 list. Although they are not all directly geography, I am sure that the creative geography teacher could integrate them into a geography lesson of worth.

Well, here is my top 10 for this week.

Number 1: The Traveler IQ Challenge. Great fun learning places and their location. Try it!

Number 2: Tony Cassidy has compiled a great list of online Social Studies games.

Number 3: Culture Crossing is a unique resource for information about different countries. It provides some basic demographics, but it also shares details about communication style, dress, gestures, etc. It’s unlike any other source of information about countries on the web.

Number 4: Photos that changed the world – great visuals to explore visual literacy.
• Camera Naked’s.
• Neatorame
• Jonathan Klein: Photos that changed the world is a new “TED Talk”.

Number 5: What The World Eats, an online slideshow from Time magazine that shows families from fifteen different countries, along with what they eat during one week and its cost. This site can be used to initiate a discussion on economic inequities; use in compare/contrast activities – great for the Year 9 Food topic of the Australian Curriculum: Geography.

Number 6: The Zero Footprint Kids Calculator: It would be difficult to develop a more accessible web tool for people to figure out their own ecological footprint.

Number 7: Geographical Media is an interesting site to develop media literacy and also collect data for some mapping of media coverage.

Number 8: Map Battle is a very easy-to-use tool to create geography games online.

Number 9: Geobeats is a huge collection of short travel videos from around the world.

Number 10: Visual Geography is a nice site with images, information, and quizzes about 85 countries around the world. The quizzes on each country are good, as is the feature called “Compare.” You can pick any two countries and easily compare their demographic data with a click of the mouse.

Knowing without going in the classroom

Images above of .... Have a guess!

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
Email contact
manning@chariot.net.au

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


Virtual trips in the classroom

Over the years I have been talking with geography teachers about virtual tourism and the potential of spatial technology to take students to places all around the world without actually going there. Such virtual trips are a great way to develop student understanding of places and to feel like they actually have gone there in some way. We cannot recreate the sounds, smells and feeling of a place but we can certainly acquire amazing visuals and associated information on a place from a range of tourism focussed Internet sites. Maybe the smell and feeling is to come but I am sure the sound aspect would be easy to recreate. In this posting I will list some of the most popular sites for such "virtual tripping" by students in the classroom.

* Tripwolf is a travel guide and a travel community – all in one! On tripwolf you will find the contents of professional travel reports from renowned travel guides combined with up-to-date travel tips from thousands of travelers from all over the world. Discover travel information about 50,000 places.

* Go Planit is a great travel planning site for students to explore.

* Discover America is a useful planning site for American travel.

* Travel DK is a personalised guide tool which allows you to pick n'mix information on sights, attractions, hotels, restaurants and shops.

* Yahoo Travel is a great travel organisation site.

* Gogobot is a trip planning tool which taps into social networks.

* Geolover is a new application that lets you very easily pick a destination in the world; then you’re shown key attractions at your choice; next, you pick the ones you’re most interested in seeing, and finally you’re given a unique url address showing your list. It would be nice for a geography class, and students can write why they chose the destinations and attractions they did.

* Stay.com lets users easily “drag-and-drop” attractions they want to see in different cities in order to create their own unique downloadable PDF travel guide. You can also read the PDF without having to download it. Students can just post the url and still view it on the Web.


Tripline is a great map-making application. You just list the various places you want to go in a journey, or a famous trip that has happened in history or literature, or a class field trip itinerary, and a embeddable map is created showing the trip where you can add written descriptions and photos. You can use your own photos or just search through Flickr.

* GeoTrio lets you create a virtual tour of just about anyplace on a map. You type in addresses or locations and easily create multiple “stops” that show the Google Street View snapshots of the area. You can also upload your own images.

* Tripomatic lets you create itineraries for your trips.

What amazing technology is available now for virtual tripping - let's use it in our geography lessons!

Thinking Geographically: a resource

Images from the Thinking Geographically interactive DVD.

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
Email contact
manning@chariot.net.au

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


The Thinking Geographically resource

* The Thinking Geographically DVD

* Order form for the Thinking Geographically DVD

A resource has recewntly been produced to support professional learning in geography. The resource is called 'Thinking Geographically' because that is what we need to start working on with teachers in Australia who soon will have the opportunity to teach the Australian Curriculum: Geography.

The 'Thinking Geographically' resource is in the form of an interactive DVD and is aimed at preparing geographers and non-geographers in Australian schools to deliver the new Australian Curriculum: Geography from 2013 and beyond. Despite the Australian focus, the resource would be of equal value to any country teaching geography as a subject in schools.

As I have discussed in previous postings, there is a need to articulate clearly to non-geographers in particular what geographer actually is. That is, to be able to explain what makes geography geography. One of the invaluable lessons I have learnt from being involved in the development of the ACARA Australian Curriculum: Geography is the opportunity to clarify my thoughts on what geographical thinking is. The development of the key concepts of the Australian Curriculum: Geography has been invaluable in 'nailing down' geographical thinking. Everything can be studied geographically through the key concepts - hence every topic is a potential resource for geography classrooms.

The resource comprises a range of Geographical 'think pieces', articles and presentations, tips and structures for curriculum planning and hundreds of Internet sites to support geographical education in schools. The attached document provides a useful insight into the operation and nature of the resource.

I hope the resource will be a useful part of the implementation and associated professional learning for the Australian Curriculum: Geography and any other country teaching geography in schools.

If you wish to have a copy of the interactive 'Thinking Geographically' DVD just download the order form or email me at manning@chariot.net.au and I will forward the DVD to you. Hopefully it will hit the mark with professional learning on thinking geographically.