Is this geography?

 

Image above: An image to analyse: what does it say?

 

Related links
Geogaction
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Australian Geography Teachers' Association website
'Towards a National Geography Curriculum' project website
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manning@chariot.net.au

Where am I? 
Darwin, Australia: S: 12º 46' E: 130º 84' 

“Is this geography?” is a question often asked by teachers and students when looking at internet sites. With the amazing numbers of sites of interest that can be viewed on the Internet, this is a reasonable question to asked.  I suggest that the answer is that if the site can be used to articulate and explore the concepts of geography, then it can be geography. The concepts of the Australian Curriculum: Geography are Place, Space, Environment, Interconnection, Change, Sustainability and Scale and they create the lens which any site can be viewed through to determine whether it can be used in the geography classroom.  What make a site (the inter-actives, maps and graphs they contain) geographical are the conceptual questions asked of the resource.

A previous Spatialworlds posting showcased sites such as Plane Finder, Marine Traffic and Public Profiler – great sites able to be used in the geography classroom to not only elucidate the concepts but also explore the content of the curriculum.

The task for this posting is to map the application of the following fascinating sites and what they contain against the content and concepts of the curriculum. These sites have not been created for the geography classroom but provide a great resource to teach the Australian Curriculum: Geography. The challenge is where and how?

 

* An animated graphic on drug addiction and spending.

 

* Other examples of data visualisations you never thought you needed (or anyone would map/graph) are found on the 'data is beautiful' site  


* And this visualisation is also of interest for ...



 * Watch the Intricate Patterns of Global Infrastructure Emerge From Geocoded Tweets

* ...and how could a geographer resist fitting these maps into a geography class. Maps which some call Map porn!