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Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority Spatial Technology Resources

This really useful spatial technology and fieldwork resource is the product of a 2015 VCAA pilot project that trialed evidence-based practice of digital learning through the use of personal mobile devices and spatial technologies. Teachers and students from two Victorian schools, Werribee Secondary College and Bayside P-12 College participated in the pilot.

The site contains an application guide, and cases studies on Levels 7-8 Landforms and Landscapes and Levels 9-10 Geographies of Interconnections.

The case studies show how students used their personal mobile devices in the field with free apps utilising global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers, to collect their fieldwork data. This became the basis for post-fieldwork analysis tasks using cloud-based data sharing and mapping using a basic Geographic Information System (GIS).

Thanks to Stephen Matthews for this information - a great Australian based resource Stephen, congratulations.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Citing cities

Image above: Viewing urbanisation over time.

Related links to Spatialworlds
GeogSplace (a teaching blog for Year 12 geography)
Geogaction (geography professional learning blog)
Spatialworlds website
GeogSpace
Australian Geography Teachers' Association website

Spatial Education and technology Scoop.it
Just real interesting Scoop.it

Follow Spatialworlds on Twitter

Email contact:

manning@chariot.net.au

The rise and fall of great world cities: 5,700 years of urbanisation – mapped

Recent research, published in the journal Scientific Nature Data, transcribed and geocoded nearly 6,000 years (from 3700BC to AD2000) of human population data. The report provides a gargantuan resource for scholars hoping to better understand how and why cities rise and fall – and allowed blogger Max Galka to map the changes on his site Metrocosm.

Over the years the Guardian has produced some great resources on cities for us to learn about and consider. Go to The Story of Cities, a 51-part history of urbanisation from Baghdad to Beijing, Dubai to Dadaab

Sunday, February 21, 2016

A perfect place to explore place

Image above: An advert for a new store that highlighted that a space is only a space until it turns into a place! By the way the new shopping area was to be called 'Rundle Place'.

Related links to Spatialworlds
GeogSplace (a teaching blog for Year 12 geography)
Geogaction (geography professional learning blog)
Spatialworlds website
GeogSpace
Australian Geography Teachers' Association website

Spatial Education and technology Scoop.it
Just real interesting Scoop.it

Follow Spatialworlds on Twitter

Email contact:

manning@chariot.net.au

“Our relationships with places are as necessary, varied, and sometimes perhaps just as unpleasant as our relationships with other people.”
Place and Placelessness, TedRelph 1976

This posting is dedicated to the blog, called 'Placeness, Place and Placelessness'.
It is the blog of Ted Relph in which he explores the concept of place, sense of place, spirit of place, placemaking, placelessness and non-place, and almost everything to do with place and places. Ted started the blog in 2015 and has put together some fascinating postings that reinforces and challenges our understanding of the concept of place. There are numerous Spatialworlds posting on the concept of Place but I was very excited when I came across Ted's blog because it takes the concept to the next level and beyond a simpleview of the concept.

Place in my experience is not a simple, centred and enduring phenomenon.

Ted, as placeaphile (not sure if this is a word but Ted makes up plenty of place related words in his blog), has been writing about place since 1976, a long time before we started to write the Australian Curriculum: Geography in 2009. His writings certainly makes one think about the fact that there is much more about the study of place than meets the eye. Coupled with the wonderful writings of Yi-Fu Tuan on Topophilia back in 1970, the blog just adds new dimensions, perceptions and complexities to the study and concept of place. Most importantly the blog makes us very aware of the richness of the concept for students and teachers.

Place is a fundamental concept in the Australian Curriculum: Geography - in fact it can be argued that the emphasis on the modern interpretation of place is what makes the Australian Curriculum: Geography a 21st Century Geography curriculum. As the writings on the Ted's blog show, the concept of place is a complex and multi-dimensional one that goes way beyond the traditional view of place in geography.

As Ted says:

“Our relationships with places are as necessary, varied, and sometimes perhaps just as unpleasant as our relationships with other people.”

It is this human construct of the relationship of individuals and groups with place that makes the place concept what it is - in fact it can be argued that a location is only a place when it has been given a name and/or people relate to a location and give it a sense of meaning that links into their identity.

The blog provides discussion on topics such as: topophobia, topophila, spirit of place, place names and mobility and place.

As a new blog I look forward to what postings Ted creates in months to come. Ted has been quiet since November 2015 (maybe he is in another place?) but he says that he plans to write entries on topics such as the experience of place, pride of place, power of place, displacement, border and boundaries, art and place, nostalgia, site and situation, gender and place, ecology of place, placenessness, books about place and experience of place - they sound fascinating and I look forward to read them in 2016 - what this space (or is it place?).

Place has changed for ever

Whilst on about Place, this interesting Ted Talk from David Houle, a futurist, thinker, and speaker, who explains how technology, specifically cell phone ubiquity, has radically altered the notion of place in modern society.

A sense of Place from Space

This talk from Joseph Allen, a retired NASA astronaut who flew aboard space shuttles Columbia and Discovery makes us think about the sense of Place on a broader scale .

Monday, February 15, 2016

Food for thought

Image above: The Home page for the Australian Governments Food for thought resource.

Related links to Spatialworlds
GeogSplace (a teaching blog for Year 12 geography)
Geogaction (geography professional learning blog)
Spatialworlds website
GeogSpace
Australian Geography Teachers' Association website

Spatial Education and technology Scoop.it
Just real interesting Scoop.it

Follow Spatialworlds on Twitter

Email contact:

manning@chariot.net.au

Thinking food!

A resource to help unpack the following conundrum:

"The world produces enough food to feed everyone. Yet, one in nine people on our planet go to bed hungry each night. Why does hunger exist in a world with enough food for all?"

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Australian Government, in partnership with Oxfam Australia and the Geography Teachers' Association of Victoria have developed a free resource titled Food 4 Thought. This new education resource is perfect for the teaching of the Australian Curriculum Year 9 Geography Unit 1: Biomes and food security.

The online student-centred learning sequence of the site uses an interactive inquiry-based approach where students can gain knowledge on social justice issues that relate to the global food system. The resource can be found online at www.food4thought.org.au

Through exploring Food 4 Thought, students gain an understanding of how biomes are altered to grow food, and how land grabs and climate change pose challenges to food production. Students can also explore how food security can be increased and achieved and what they, as global citizens, can do.

The Food 4 Thought resource includes:

Teacher notes and curriculum mapping to key geographical knowledge and understanding, geographical inquiry and skills competencies

Interactive online learning activities for students housed on a special online learning space
Videos, interactive maps, infographics, reports, photo essays, links to relevant websites and other source material
Print and tablet-friendly downloadable PDFs.

For more information, contact Annalise De Mel, Schools Program Coordinator at Oxfam Australia at annalisedm@oxfam.org.au or 03 9289 9390.

Whilst on the Oxfam site, check out the other teaching resources developed by Oxfam and other potential activities and programs relevant to the teaching of the geography curriculum.

Click here for more maps relevant to food production and security to support teaching and learning on the Biomes and food security unit of the Australian Curriculum: Geography.

Friday, February 5, 2016

Spatial ineptitude

Image above: Meeting Karen, the GPS girl - we have all heard her!

Related links to Spatialworlds
GeogSplace (a teaching blog for Year 12 geography)
Geogaction (geography professional learning blog)
Spatialworlds website
GeogSpace
Australian Geography Teachers' Association website