Spatialworlds

Time to talk about the big questions in Geography

2009-11-04T01:16:00.000-08:00

Picture descriptions:
Images: Geographers talking in person over a wine. Google Groups not as much fun but probably more effective!

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'

Time to talk about the big questions in Geography
Several weeks ago I launched the Google Group titled "21st Century Geography in Australian classrooms". With so much happening with geography around Australia and the Web 2.0 capabilities constantly being talked about I thought it was time to establish a forum for geographers to discuss happenings and ideas. Hopefully the group will also provide the latest updates of the progress of the National Geography Curriculum and be a conduit for feedback and the clarification of ideas. On the Google Groups description I wrote:
"This group is to encourage teachers in Australia to discuss matters relevant to the teaching of 21st Century geography in Australian schools. The group aims to develop a network of like-minded teachers to promote geography in the curriculum. In particular, the incorporation of spatial technology and spatial literacy ideas into the geography curriculum."
After two weeks the "21st Century Geography in Australian schools" Google Group has 102 members and already there has been some really vigorous discussion on the topic of:
“So what are the big questions we should be posing in the geography classroom in the 21st Century? As people talk about and construct a possible geography curriculum for Australian students, it would be an interesting discussion to consider what would be the “die in the trenches” questions we would like students to be asked during their geographical education? The questions need to be “big” enough to enable a multiplicity of pathways for exploration by students and adequately provocative to engender issue based discussion, lateral thinking and creative enquiry. In the eyes of the proposer, the question should be considered to be a non-negotiable question to be explored in the national geography curriculum – somewhere and somehow! Ideally the final list compiled from the responses should cover all the branches of geography (not just the environment)”

Already we have the questions posed:
* Should Tourism be encouraged?
* What should the population of Australia be? What is sustainable and how should it be achieved?
* Globalisation - a necessary evil?
* Are soils more important than drainage basins?
* Is managed retreat the saviour of our coasts?
* Will migration save Australia?
* Are natural hazards unmanageable?
* What is the sustainability of farming in Australia?
* How should drainage basins/coastal areas be managed for a sustainable future?
* Should what is to be grown based on sustainability and not the free market economy?
* Does intercultural understanding require geographical knowledge?

We also have had some reservations expressed to the big question approach from some of the groups contributors. They are:
* It doesn't always matter what the actual content you are studying is, as long as in this case there is a local case study you can get the kids thinking about...
* Can geography as a discipline alone adequately address questions such as Australian (or world) population carrying capacity, growth, and what can be done about it because it has to include perspectives of ethics, politics, religion, culture, economics, history, philosophy, science, technology, media, sociology.
* I have deep reservations about issues based geography while I think its good to have the discussions surrounding globalisation, tourism etc. Geography is part of the puzzle in responding to these issues.
* I think questions date easily and are often value laden. Better for students to come up with their own questions, with relevant hints at the time, if needed.

All good discussion! As I said in an entry today, “I think these are discussions on the big questions we need to have before we develop the "will be taught" aspects of a curriculum. Why are we teaching geography? Do the courses we develop reflect the challenges of the 21st Century? What is the role of geography in a student developing as active citizens in the 21st Century? Maybe it is the discussion (not recession) Australia has to have!”

I look forward to the continuing discussion over the next months on the Google Group. In particular, I look forward to the discussions morph and expand as more and more Australian Geographers (and international) get involved. Hopefully the discussion informs and supports the development of the National Geography Curriculum. Most importantly the Google Group can provide a process of democratisation which gives more than just the perceived experts a voice.

If you want to join the “21st Century Geography in Australian schools" Google Group just go to http://groups.google.com/group/21st-century-geography-in-australian-schools

Whilst on the democratization process provided by Web 2.0 capability, have a look at the one hour documentary film titled "Us now" about the power of mass collaboration, Government and the Internet.

Other forums to join to discuss geography/matters spatial
Martin Pluss (GTANSW) has established a great Ning titled “Australian Geography teachers” To join this group just go to http://australiangeographyteachers.ning.com/

South African geography teachers also have a Google Group going. It is interesting to see how many of the issues and concerns of these geographers in another part of the world have similar concerns and issues to us in Australia. Go to http://groups.google.com/group/sageographyteachers?hl=en

The spatial round table forum
Have your say on the hot topics in the spatial industry at http://www.esriaustralia.com.au/esri/167_5967.html. ESRI's Spatial Roundtable provides a great opportunity for you to share your points of view about concerns, trends, challenges, and technologies.

Some Wikispaces from Rob Marchetto (GTANSW)
http://twitter.com/RobMarchetto
http://yr10geography.wikispaces.com/
https://yr11geography.wikispaces.com/
http://yr8geography.wikispaces.com/
https://yr12geography.wikispaces.com/
http://failthinklearn.wikispaces.com/
http://www.slideshare.net/rmarchetto

A mobile world diminishing in size!

2009-10-30T18:42:00.000-07:00

Picture descriptions:
Left image: World air traffic visualisation
Right image: Traffic at Heathrow Airport, London

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'

A mobile world diminishing in size!
The spatial representations of air traffic movements are a great indication of the changed mobility of people, good, ideas and microbes around the world every day. The spatial perception people have about the size of the world is vastly different to what it was 100 years ago(40 years ago for that matter). Not only does the telephone and internet enable us to talk (and see) someone on the other side of the world, we can hop on a plane and be on the other side of the world ourselves in 24 hours. Air travel has become increasingly accessible and affordable for a large number of the worlds population and hence the interchange of ideas, people and even diseases has increased remarkably. Many observers say that the resulting changed spatial perceptions of the world has been a major driver of globalisation phenomena over recent years. The world is a "mobile feast" with all the associated good and bad consequences.
Of interest to this blog is what is the impact on a persons spatial perception of the world and space as a result of this changed and ever diminishing "tyranny of distance"? Do people actually see the world as a smaller place. Just consider the following spatial representations of air traffic every 24 hours and some of the facts about air traffic in many of the countries of the world.

Air traffic visualisations and information on the links and the range of ways to show global flight movements.
The yellow dots are airplanes in the sky during a 24-hour period. Stay with the picture. You will see the light of the day moving from the east to the west as the Earth spins on it's axis. Also you will see the aircraft flow of traffic leaving the North American continent and travelling at night to arrive in the UK in the morning. Then you will see the flow changing, leaving the UK in the morning and flying to the American continent in daylight. It is a 24-hour observation of all of the large aircraft flights in the world, condensed down to about 2 minutes. From space we look like a beehive of activity.
Such visualisations are wonderful ways to explore the related issues of increasingly world mobility with students.

World flights in 24 hours
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4g930pm8Ms&feature=fvw

United States Air Traffic in 24 hours
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viIJ1w2XZ1o&NR=1
Europe Air Traffic in 24 hours in 3D!

Some facts about air traffic
From the National Air Traffic Controllers Association

On any given day, more than 87,000 flights are in the skies in the United States. Only 35 per cent, or just over 30,000 of those flights are commercial carriers, like American, United or Southwest. On an average day, air traffic controllers handle 28,537 commercial flights (major and regional airlines), 27,178 general aviation flights (private planes), 24,548 air taxi flights (planes for hire), 5,260 military flights and 2,148 air cargo flights (Federal Express, UPS, etc.). At any given moment, roughly 5,000 planes are in the skies above the United States. In one year, controllers handle an average of 64 million takeoffs and landings. Passenger and freight traffic forecasts projecting that in 2011 the air transport industry will handle 2.75 billion passengers (620 million more passengers than in 2006) and 36 million tonnes of international freight (7.5 million tonnes more than in 2006).
International passenger demand is expected to rise from 760 million passengers in 2006 to 980 million in 2011 at an annual average growth rate (AAGR) of 5.1%.
International freight volumes are expected to grow at an AAGR of 4.8% over the forecast period, supported by economic growth, globalisation and trade.
Total international passenger numbers are forecast to be around 105 million in 2011, an increase of 30 million over 2006 levels.
"The numbers clearly show that the world wants to fly. And it also needs to fly. Air transport is critical to the fabric of the global economy, playing a critical role in wealth generation and poverty reduction. The livelihoods of 32 million people are tied to aviation, accounting for US$3.5 trillion in economic activity,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

So how do we and will we see the world spatially in the future? Is the world getting smaller in our brains?? Interestingly there seems to be a lack of research on this change in peoples spatial perception as a result of the real and virtual mobility around the planet. I will keep looking for the research but at this stage I have come up with only commentary but not research.

Free GIS activities downloads for the classroom

2009-10-10T16:34:00.000-07:00

Picture descriptions:
The importance of maps in the De-militarized Zone between North and South Korea. In fact, it is critical to know where the 38th parallel is!!

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'

Free GIS activities downloads for the classroom are now available from the Spatial Worlds website. The website is linked to this blog and over the past years has been a source of articles on using GIS in the classroom and spatial literacy. A page on the website now provides free downloads of GIS classroom activity's in GIS in geography, historical GIS and urban geography. Copyright on these chapters remain TECHGEOG's but you can download and use with ArcView 3 or adapt to your needs using ArcGIS or any other GIS software. The activities provide some useful templates to design a GIS course for physical geography, historical geography and urban geography. The only thing TECHGEOG asks is that you do not on-sell the activities once you have re-designed. If you wish to use in your school that is fantastic.

The resources include chapters from the:
GIS in Physical Geography/Science book on:
* The basics of ArcView
* An excuse to hug a tree: using the CityGreen program
* Water matters
* Earthquakes
* Rock mapping
* Aquifer mapping
* Australian minerals
* Micro-climates
* Ocean floor mapping
* Internet sites.

Many of these chapters use the free Australian GIS data from the GeoScience website

Historical GIS book
* Cemetery mapping
* Exploration routes
* Building heritage mapping
* Battlefield mapping
* Mapping Change over time

Urban Geography
* Streetscapes mapping

If you are interested in the TECHGEOG resource written for ArcGIS 9 download the attached order form (includes all TECHGEOG resources on CD/DVD).

How to create the need to know?

2009-10-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

Picture descriptions:
Left image: The importance of a map! Especially to lost geographer tourists wandering the streets of Seoul!
Right image: Motivated students in South Korea learning the geography of Australia. Is such compliance on the "need to know basis" or just the "need to achieve" imperative?

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'

How to create the need to know?
One of the challenges always facing geography teachers is convincing students why they need to know what we think they should know. The simple question of how to create the need to know in your classroom takes us down some interesting pathways. As teachers, if we cannot articulate why something is important for a student to know, then we must challenge ourselves as to whether we should be teaching the content or skills we are. This question becomes incredibly pertinent when one considers the discussions in relation to the national geography curriculum. Whilst not advocating that we only teach what student want to know, we must be conscious of the responsibility we have as educators to create an environment in the classroom which develops a curiosity and desire to want to know amongst our students. We should not expect students to be powerless receivers of the content we wish to teach! The context and reason for the importance of the content and skills we plan to teach needs to be created at the beginning of every course, topic, activity and experience. The national curriculum’s remit that they are developing content which needs to be taught and skills which must be acquired is a worry if it is not supported by a rationale that clearly and realistically explains why the curriculum is important for the young person on the receiving end. As a citizen of the 21st century it is imperative that our students receive geographical education which is relevant and useful to them as an individual living in an increasingly complex and demanding world.
So how do we create the need to know? This question takes us to the heart of learning and that is motivation. If motivated students are prepared to learn anything! I often hear one teacher say the kids found the topic boring and another saying the kids loved the same topic. It often is not the content that has changed but the context. The teacher who motivates can transfer their enthusiasm for a topic to a group of students regardless of the content. As a person who loved teaching soils and rocks I certainly know that others find such topics a challenge to teach! As well as authentic (or faked) enthusiasm on behalf of the teacher, students can be motivated by the plethora of technology now available to the geography teacher to make learning more relevant, inter-active, autonomous and exciting. The technologies often referred to in this blog, whether spatial or communication (wikis, blogs etc) are ways for students to see the inter-section between what they are studying in the classroom and the “real world” they live in. The technologies enable students to move beyond the classroom and see that the topic and skills they are learning have an application in the working world, family life and social functioning. As the American educator John Holt said:
“The child is curious. They want to make sense out of things, find out how things work, gain competence and control over themselves and their environment, and do what they can see other people doing. They are open, perceptive, and experimental. They do not merely observe the world surrounding around, they do not shut themselves off from the strange, complicated world around them, but taste it, touch it, heft it, bend it, break it. To find out how reality works, they work on it. They are bold. They are not afraid of making mistakes. And they are patient. They can tolerate an extraordinary amount of uncertainty, confusion, ignorance, and suspense ... School is not a place that gives much time, or opportunity, or reward, for this kind of thinking and learning.”
Geography with its traditional tendency towards exploration and curiosity about the world is perfectly positioned in the curriculum to enhance this aspect of student learning and have students engage in the world. Geography is not static and something to be learned within four walls only, it needs to be dynamic, interactive and explorative. Any geography curriculum developed must create in the students a "need to know" mentality. Allied to this needing to know, is the previously mentioned concept of nurturing the "discomfort of not knowing" with students. The inquiry methodology employed in geography is ideal to create such an environment for student exploration and learning. Spatial Technologies available to the teacher of geography is a wonderful tool to enhance student inquiry and exploration via software such as Google Earth (Google have recently developed a site for educators on how to use Google Earth in the classroom).
For learning to be engaging and motivating for students the content and pedagogy needs to be:
* Personally meaningful
* Integrated
* Coherent
* Transformative
* Transferable

Geography has traditionally done all of these things, plus being fun! Just for the fun of learning also check out the Lufthansa virtual pilot site (beats photocopied maps of Europe to learn places). I hope these thoughts are the premise we begin to write our national geography curriculum.
David Lambert, Chief Executive of the Geographical Association in the UK has written an excellent article on the “The World in the curriculum: why geography matters”. His discussion on the role and nature of geography in the curriculum is interesting in the context of this blog. While on the GA and organisations working at making geography a core ingredient of the curriculum, the following information is of interest.

* The world directory of Geographical Societies and organisations and other geography sites. A source for all aspects of geography.

* New GA Website Launched in September 2009

The website of the Geographical Association www.geography.org.uk has been redesigned and restructured to give it a fresh new look and make it easier to navigate.

It includes a range of exciting new features including:
* Lively homepage highlighting new additions and popular content
* Resource Finder tool allowing users to search the GA’s vast collection of online resources using a variety of criteria
* Tabbed Shop panel listing new books, recommendations and shopping basket contents
* Members’ panel containing personal account details, bookmarks and recently viewed pages
* New look Journals area with easy access to articles and associated resources
* Cloud tags – a new way to find similar content using keyword matching
* RSS Feeds – sign up for the latest website updates

The Geographical Association is a subject association with a mission to further the study, learning and teaching of geography.
The website is a popular resource, used by teachers in more than 200 countries and receiving an average of 3000 pageviews a day. Our website keeps the geography teaching community up to date and provides a wide range of high quality resources, including our three well-respected journals.

A free guide to the new website is available to download and further information about the Geographical Association can be found on the site.

Geography - teaching - excellence
Find out more about A different view: a manifesto from the Geographical Association

Books are where data goes to die!

2009-09-29T23:33:00.000-07:00

Spatial Worlds website

Melbourne, Australia: S: 37º 47' E: 144º 58'

Left image: A shop just selling rocks in rural South Korea.
Right image: Some great visual art at the Seoul Tower

Thought I would share the quote,"Books are where data goes to die!", from Mark Sanders at The Learning Federation Data Visualisation workshop in Melbourne yesterday. It got me thinking about how much we now rely on technology to transform data into an understandable visual for us. The days of mulling over data tables in books is long past with the public expecting to be informed, if not entertained, by the data being represented in graph form, maps, simulations over time or other original ways on the Interent in particular. In a previous blog posting I have listed many excellent visual representation websites available to the public on the Internet. Sites such as Gapminder, Worldmapper and Wordle provide some great data visualisations. Before listing a few more great sites for developing the visual and/or spatial literacy of your students (or yourself) I thought I would just examine the issue of visual literacy and spatial literacy and their relationship.

Many consider that visual-spatial intelligence is the new citizenship skill; the 4th R! Citizens of the future must not be helpless blind users of technology. The writings in this area go on to say that for a young person to acquire visual-spatial intelligence they need to develop/acquire visual and/or spatial literacy.

"Young people learn more than half of what they know from visual information, but few schools have an explicit curriculum to show students how to think critically about visual data"
Mary Alice White, researcher, Columbia Teacher's College

Visual literacy is the ability to evaluate, apply, or create conceptual visual representations. To use visualisations to create and communicate knowledge, or to devise new ways of representing insights.

To be considered ‘spatially literate’, an individual must have the ability to capture and communicate knowledge in the form of a map, to understand and recognise the world as view from above, to recognise and interpret patterns, and to comprehend such basic concepts as scale, projection and spatial resolution.

Such spatial literacy is even more important in the modern world because the spatial information revolution has resulted in eighty per cent of all information gathered today has a spatial or geographical component. This means that most information is tied to a place. To read, interpret such visualisation of data requires a high degree of visual literacy.

Some commentators consider that there is no education available which prepares children for the world of images, how to understand their meaning and judge their value. “Spatialogists” suggest that with visualisations which are increasingly prevalent in the media, on the internet and incorporated into everyday technologies (mobile phones, cars, prisoner tagging) there is a special way of thinking. This is called spatial thinking or spatial literacy, which isn’t a way of thinking that is naturally gifted to everyone and needs to be taught and facilitated.

Proposition: All spatial literacy requires visual literacy skills but not all visual literacy requires spatial literacy skills???

As a way forward Goodchild advocates a visual-spatial approach with data that enables us to find meaning in pictures, images, and maps. Visual-spatial intelligence is more important than ever, as life itself becomes more and more an image in television, video games, and virtual environments.

Here are some fascinating sites related to data visualisation and its potential:
* Some great spatial simulations of Swind flu, Melbourne trains and weather at Flinklabs (beyong the bar chart)
* The Durham University has developed a freeware software though its Smart Centre
* Have fun with the Baby-name Voyager facility. The graphs produced (although not maps) give an interesting usage perspective of names across time.
* For those wanting some engaging statistics for students to use relating to crime go to the Australian Institute of Criminology site.
* The suburban profiler site in the UK.
* The Surname profiler site for the UK (about to go global!)
* Using data visualisations via spatial technology to show climate change data.

Natually, there are tons more visual representation sites on the net. What it shows us is that as time goes by, the general public and students will just expect to see data represented as a graph with an associated map! There will be a need for citizens to have high level visual and spatial literacy to interpret this new form of data presentation.

Geography: More than meets the eye!

2009-09-27T04:27:00.000-07:00

Spatialworlds website

Picture descriptions:
Left image:From the Seoul Tower: Issues of pollution and urban design.
Right image:Cultural place amongst the beauty of the South Korean countryside.

Cairns, Australia: S: 16º 57' E: 145º 45'

This weekend I have travelled to Cairns to attend the Institute of Australian Geographers (IAG) Council meeting prior to the IAG conference. The program of the conference started me thinking about the question of what fields of endevour gather under the banner of geography and what gives them the credential to consider themselves geographical.
One of the great misunderstandings about the discipline of geography is that it is only about the environment and the earth sciences. Naturally geography involves the study of the environment but in a very multi-dimensional and diverse way – everything is geography if it is studied in a geographical way. That is, the study is undertaken through the spatial lens with the associated connections and inter-dependencies. It is not such much the topic that identifies a geographical study but rather the parameters within which it is studied.
Just looking at the IAG conference program show the diversity of topics which are connected as geographical studies. They are identified as such because the geographer will ask spatial questions over and over as they examine and unravel the inquiry.
For example the topics listed below are all geographical studies presented at the conference. To the outsider they would not immediately identify themselves as geographical studies – but they most certainly are!

* Human rights in place? Anti-racism, exports, damage limitation, choices
* Stewardship among lifestyle oriented rural landowners
* Regional sustainability and the Great Barrier Reef
* Creativity without borders? Re-thinking geographies of remoteness and proximity
* Aid cultures: Chinese aid to Cambodia
* Fired up? Understanding the disconnect between bushfire awareness and preparedness amongst diverse rural landowners
* Building resilience to coastal hazards and climate change: Lessons from post-tsunami efforts in the Indian Ocean
* State housing authorities and natural disaster preparations and response in Australia
* Traditional knowledge systems and climate change in the Torres Strait
* Using visual methodologies to study abject non-heterosexual performativities
* The self as informant in geographies of remembering
* Engaging the community in social research using data visualisation techniques
* How do you discover the nuances of social networks? A case study of Sudanese refugees in Colac, Victoria
* Tasmania’s ageing population: Non-metropolitan patterns and trends
* The meaning and importance of 'place' for older people living in rural areas: A WA case study
* Reconsidering financial globalisation in the developing world during the global financial crisis
* Anti-racism: Building evidence and utility for “what works”
* Everyday multiculturalism, Islam and the politics of ‘mixing’
* Leveraging sustainability: Communities of knowledge in the architecture industry
* Creative cities making a major contribution to urban sustainability
* Stepping out: A study of how urban design affects walkability in Sydney
* Environmental justice, ethical construction and gender
* Scrap: The revaluing of used household goods
* “Somewhere nice to go”: Garden making and home making in Hamilton South
* “A bottle of wine in front of the TV”: Material geographies of domestic alcohol consumption
* Masculine meanings of home: Preliminary results from an inner Sydney case study
* Mapping truffles in Australia
* Mapping historical tropical successional forest cover with satellite imagery
* Implications for the second Kyoto Accord and land-use/cover change geography
* Multispectral remote sensing applications for live fuel moisture content estimation in Sydney Basin bioregion
* The settlement geography of African refugee communities in Southeast Queensland
* Harmony, trust and participation in culturally diverse cities
* Exit strategies for ageing male farmers in Australia
* Identifying and meeting the care needs of older Indigenous people in a remote setting
* Gambling venue usage and problem gambling amongst grey nomads and itinerant construction
* Workers on the Sunshine Coast
* Using the coupled ‘human-environment systems framework’ for exploring issues of hazard and risk
* Groundwater fees in the North China Plain and its impact on irrigation practices
* Measuring potential of a residential neighbourhood for local food economy
* Urban food security: Community strategies and alternative food networks enterprises
* Sacred landscapes in secular society
* Designing sustainable cities using information technologies: Building information modelling and geographical information systems
* Teachers and the emotional dimensions of class in resource affected rural Australia
* The Pacific as a ‘development disaster’: New Zealand’s retrograde constructions of Pacific problems and solutions
* Invasion and spread of Australian White Ibis in south-western Australia
* Exploring the effects of 'sea- and tree-change' phenomena in far North Queensland
* Can tree-change development and rural production values co-exist?
* Refugee dispersal: Burden sharing, exclusion, or opportunity?
* Invisible Australians: The female Chinese in white Australia
* Migrancy, mobility and diasporic travel
* Curves of the lifeline: A drawing of the betweenness of place
* Can you interview my husband?: The problem of trusting one’s spouse in a tourism locale
* Intimate geographies of touch
* Sustaining tourism to diversify the local economy
* What makes a rural community resilient?
* Complex entanglements: Race, gender and spirituality in Aotearoa, New Zealand
* “Thai men no good”: Exploring representations of Thai and Western masculinity among women on Samui Island, Southern Thailand
* Towards a critical geography of gambling in remote Australia
* Health tourism as a discursive resource in the fostering of post developmental healthcare-consuming subjects in Malaysia
* The making of moving pictures: The rickshaw art of Bangladesh
* Regulating Rover: Legislating the public place of urban pet dogs
* World heritage listing: Blight or blessing? Three examples from Western Australia

All of these topics can be classified under the broad 'schools'or branches of geography identified by the discipline. These branches are often listed under hte broad headings of Physical and Human Geography. These divisions of Geography are quite false in many ways because due to the inter-connectedness of the discipline of geography it is impossible to study just one branch in isolation because they are invariably connected to other branches through 'the tree of geography'. How can one study pedology without looking at the relationship with agricultural, cultural, geomorhological and biogeographical impacts of soil on a place?
Here is a list of some of these branches – by no way the definitive list!
* Cultural Geography
* Social Geography
* Environmental Geography
* Biogeography
* Hydrology
* Demography
* Coastal Geography
* Transportation Geography
* Geomorphology
* Oceanography
* Industrial Geography
* Economic Geography
* Historical Geography
* Spatial science
* Geotourism
* Climatology
* Regional Geography
* Hazard Geography
* Urban Geography
* Development Geography

In fact, to demonstrate to students the diversity of topics in geography it would be an interesting task for a geography class to classify the IAG conference workshops into the various branches of geography listed above. In 2008 the Geography Teachers Association of South Australia (GTASA) produced a CD called Surfing Geographical. The CD organised over 1000 Internet sites under the main branches of geography. Go to to the GTASA site to view the information on this excellent resource for students to use in their geographical research.

Visualising data: making data spatial

2009-09-23T20:18:00.000-07:00

Spatialworlds website

Left image: The Wordle visualisation of this entry.
Right image: The visual representation of the Spatialworlds blog hits via Clustrmaps. Hits on 264 computers across 11 countries in 2009.

Adelaide, Australia: S: 34º 55' E: 138º 36'

An important aspect of geography is the geographer’s ability to visually represent data and to interpret such representations. The geographers’ graphicacy and mapping skills are critical components of the geographer's toolkit. With over 80% of data now being attached to place, the growth of visual representation technology and their presence on the Internet is amazing. People expect to see data represented visually when they visit a website and/or view documentaries and news reports on the television. Via Internet based technologies and spatial technologies we are seeing a revolution in how we view and process information and data. The opportunities provided by geography and geography related technologies and skills are central to this revolution! The work in Neuroscience on the processing of such visualisations and its impact on learning and perceptions is a rich field of research. Such research is critical to our understanding of what is happening in regards to how people view the world and their spatial thinking. More about that later!

The following websites are great examples of how data can be represented by spatial technology and other forms of visual representations.

http://maker.geocommons.com/
http://thematicmapping.org/engine/
http://newsmap.jp/
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/06/50-great-examples-of-data-visualization/
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/08/augmented-reality/
http://www.kmlfactbook.org/
http://www.dataintheclassroom.org/index.php
http://www.wired.com/culture/education/magazine/17-09/st_sinmaps??mbid=cnn
http://theappleblog.com/2009/08/26/first-augmented-reality-app-for-the-iphone-is-live/

An interesting program which turns a piece of writing into a visual representation is wordle. What wordle does is give the words a spatial dimension to allow the reader to see where the emhasis in a piece of writing is. For example the wordle art of what the piece of writing on this posting looks like is shown at the beginning of the posting(interesting you turn words into a "looks like" context)

National Geography Curriculum keeps moving forward

2009-09-23T19:50:00.000-07:00

Spatialworlds website

Picture descriptions:
Images: AGTA at work

Adelaide, Australia: S: 34º 55' E: 138º 36'

Things have been moving forward over recent months in relation to the development of a national geography curriculum in Australia. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) process is well underway and on track to implement the national geography curriculum into Australian schools from 2012. This article will give a brief background to the work of the ‘Towards a National Geography Curriculum’ project in 2008 and 2009 and the on-going work of ACARA in developing a national geography curriculum for Australian schools.

The ‘Towards a National Geography Curriculum’ project

As you would be aware the ‘Towards a National Geography Curriculum’ project was established in October 2009 to inform ACARA of the views of geographers around Australia prior to the commencement of ACARA’s work to develop a national geography curriculum. The project involved the Australian Geography Teachers’ Association (AGTA), Institute of Australian Geographers (IAG) and the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland (RGSQ). The project aimed to develop a united and coherent statement from the Australian geographical community’s that provided a rationale, possible curriculum structures, preferred pedagogies and suggested implementation strategies for a national curriculum in geography.

Between November 2008 and May 2009 the project undertook extensive consultation across Australia involving input from teachers, students, academics and other community members. The project would like to take this opportunity to thank teachers, academics and community geographers for their participation in the consultation forums and comments posted on the ‘Towards a National Geography Curriculum’ project website. The enthusiasm of those attending the forums and the number of on-line responses was very encouraging for the project and showed the depth of interest and concern for geography in schools across Australia. The results of the consultation and supporting literature reviews and research by the appointed project writers Rob Berry and Roger Smith were presented as a background report to the ‘Towards a National Geography Curriculum’ project steering committee in May 2009. In turn, the steering committee synthesised and added to the background report, resulting in a final paper titled ‘Towards a National Geography Curriculum for Australia’ which was presented to ACARA in June 2009.
For more information on the work of the ‘Towards a National Geography Curriculum’ project and copies of the two papers go to the projects website at http://www.ngc.org.au/.

ACARA’s curriculum development process

In May 2009 ACARA commenced its work on the Australian Curriculum: Geography when it appointed Lucie Sorensen as the Senior Project Officer Geography. In July 2009 a Geography Reference Group was appointed and met for the first time on August 25th, 2009. Lucie and the reference group used the ‘Towards a National Geography Curriculum’ reports as part of their literature review as they worked on identifying key issues needing to be addressed prior to the substantive work on the geography curriculum commencing. Following the second meeting of the reference group on September 14th, 2009 the ACARA Board was presented with a Geography Position Paper on October 6th. In October the lead writer for the Australian Curriculum: Geography and an Advisory Panel were appointed by the ACARA Board. On behalf of geography teachers and students in Australia we wish those involved all the best with their work on the shaping phase of the Australian Curriculum: Geography.

The following draft ACARA timeline will give an idea of the 2009-2011 progression with the writing process for the national geography curriculum. Naturally, the timeline may change as time goes by but at this stage these are the dates, events and milestones ACARA has mapped out for the curriculum development process.
o October – December 2009: The appointed writer and advisory panel develop an Initial advice paper for the national geography curriculum.
o February 2010: National Forum to gather responses to the Initial advice paper.
o February - March 2010: Development of The Shape of Australian Curriculum: Geography paper.
o April 2010: National consultation to gather responses to The Shape of Australian Curriculum: Geography paper.
o June 2010: The release of the final The Shape of Australian Curriculum: Geography paper.
o June – December 2010: Appointment of writers and an advisory group to develop the scope and sequence for the national geography curriculum. The writing to be accompanied by a consultation process for the scope and sequence document.
o January – June 2011: Course writing in line with the final scope and sequence document for national geography curriculum.
o June 2011: Publication of the national geography curriculum.

We encourage all Australian geography teachers to keep informed of the ACARA process by registering on the ACARA website at http://www.acara.edu.au and take advantage of the opportunities provided by ACARA and geography teachers’ associations to feed comments and ideas into the process.

An opportunity

Over the next few years, issues associated with the implementation of the Australian geography curriculum are likely to dominate the work of AGTA and affiliates. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to develop a ‘state of the art’, contemporary, ‘worlds best practice’ geography curriculum for the 21st Century. Exciting times are ahead for geographical education in Australia!

...and there is more.

2009-08-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

Spatialworlds website

Picture descriptions:
Left Image: The train bridge in the demilitarised zone between South-North Korea.
Right image: Hopes for re-unification.

Seoul, South Korea: N: 37º 01' E: 126º 36'

More than just geography!
In previous entries I have outlined areas with direct potential for geography classes to study. However there are other aspects of the Korean experience which are worthy of note for study. They are foreign relations, ancient history, military history and democratic studies. Whilst not wanting to go into great detail in relation to these areas of study it is warranted in this entry to provide some useful case study links.

Foreign relations
Korea has played a strategic geographical role over the centuries between China, Japan and Russia. Purely because of its geographic position at the centre of this area, Korea in the modern era has had a pivotal role in the Russo-Japanese War, World War 2 , Korean War and the so-called Cold War. Interestingly this disputed geographical role is still being played out on the issue of the Korean Islands called Dokdo. The study of this present day contentious issue on the ownership of the Dokdo Islands provides a fascinating case study.

Ancient History

Korea has a rich ancient history involving the stories of dynasties, Kings and invasion. One of the most interesting talks we had on the study tour was by Moonjong Choi from the Ewha Womans University in Seoul who traced Korean history from the earliest times through the study of Korean art and pottery. The background to Korean art and pottery provided by this talk was supported by visits to the Seoul Museum and other cultural visits on the field trip. The approach was a very engaging way to learn about the history of Korea by linking the preservation of art with history. One of the highlights for me was the visit to the burial mounds of the Silla Kingdom at Gyeongju . These burial hills had all the mystery, wealth and intrigue of the Egyptian Pyramids. I had never even heard of them before this visit! With the added wonder of the Buddhist religion and relics as evidenced at the beautiful Seokguram Grotto, the study of Korean history is indeed a rich one, comparable with those we are so familiar with from Europe.

Military History
Naturally the Korean War of 1950-53 plays a key role in understanding modern day South Korea. The trip to the 38th parallel demilitarised Zone gives a great insight into the tension between North and South that still exists today. Only the week before our visit the North Korean launched missiles into the Sea of Japan, causing considerable news coverage and restrictions on the areas we could visit. The American teachers on a similar study tour were not even allowed to visit the zone (we could but they couldn’t- much to their disquiet!). The North Korean tunnels, the Freedom Bridge, and lookouts over North Korea are amazing living relicts of the Cold War. Equally eerie was the visit to the massive Dorasan Station which was opened in 2002 for rail traffic between the North and South. With only a few trains a day, this station is an amazing edifice to the hopes of re-unification. The study of the Korean War opens the door to examine related issues of nuclear disarmament, US-Korea relations, China-North Korea relations, the nature of communism in North Korea and the attitude of the South Korean Government to the North Korean regime.

Democratic Studies
South Korea has a rich modern history in relation to liberalism and democracy. The 1960 'People Power' democracy riots which resulted in the April Democratic Revolution (which started at Korean University where our lectures were) and the 1987 Democratization Movement are interesting case studies for the students of revolution in sociology and history.

Geography?
Despite the comprehensiveness of the program, one of the puzzling factors for the geographers on the trip was the lack of geography as a component of learning. At no time were we introduced to the internal geography of Korea as a topic and there seemed to be a total lack of spatial discussion of the Korean Peninsula, spatial representations used or discussion on environmental sustainability. For a country going through such enormous economic development and cultural change many of us thought that a study of Korea through the lens of geography would have been a necessity. Was this lack of geography and sustainability discussion just an oversight or is it way down the list of priorities for modern South Korea? As an aside to this discussion is the fact that in the Korean countryside postal numbers are based on the year the house was built rather than its location! Does this fact further support the view that history is more important in the Korean psychie that the location of place and their apparent dis-regard of geography? Just a thought!
Again, more questions than answers requiring another visit to Korea in the future. In the meantime I have found the book by Jennifer Barclay: "Meeting Mr Kim, or how I went to Korea and learned to love Kimchi" as an excellent read. As well as being inspiring and amusing the book also gave a great account of the history and culture of Korea and answered many questions I had after my visit. A well worthwhile and enjoyable read!

South Korea: a unique study for Cultural Geography

2009-08-02T02:33:00.000-07:00

Spatialworlds website

Picture descriptions:
Left Image: The clash of the old and new.
Right image: Banging the drums in the Buddhist Temple.

Seoul, South Korea: N: 37º 01' E: 126º 36'

So what is different about Korea from a westernised country such as Australia? Has South Korean culture been lost in this frenetic rush for economic development and the associated demographic changes? When we travel to other countries as tourists it is often difficult to see beyond our own cultural norms and expectations because of limited contact with the people of the country. The great thing about the Korean Studies workshop was that we were able to mix closely with South Korean people (albeit University educated) and get an insight into what being South Korean meant. As enlightening was our frequent wanderings around Seoul and the fact that South Korea’s tourist industry is relatively small compared to other parts of Asia and hence we were often seen as a novelty (particularly out in the country on the field trip). Before making any comments on the characteristics of South Korean culture as a unique entity compared to other Asian countries, the following experiences and observations we (I say we because I had some great traveling companions who were with me most of the time and we frequently asked questions of each other as we observed what was going on around us) experienced on the trip will give an insight into the nature of modern South Korean. Most astonishingly, a South Korean culture which seems to be maintaining its cultural integrity despite the onslaught of modernization.

Experiences/observations

* The people are incredibly helpful. Time and again we were asked if we needed help and people went out of their way to take us to where we wanted to go.
* The calmness of the society. Unlike other parts of the world we heard no horns honking or road rage. A classic experience occurred in a lane when a vehicle knocked a meal from the tray a women was carrying on her head. No histrionics but calm discussion to resolve!
* The hand gesture of receiving with both hands and giving with one with the other touching the elbow is widely practiced.
* The honesty of the society was evident with merchandise often being left out in the streets overnight with no fear of thieving.
* The Korean smile was evidenced as you went about your business, whether at the university, school, streets or subway. The smile seems to be sincere and really is one of welcome.
* It was astonishing when on the subway train that perfect strangers would grab the grey haired members of our group and make them sit down. They insisted our members sit and they stood. Sometimes they were even older than the forced sitter! What was that all about? Respect for the grey haired aged foreigners? We really were quite bemused. On top of that one of the gentlemen who forced us to sit, then gave us all lollies. Not normal behaviours on the train in Australia, even to visitors!
* There is an incredible respect for education and teachers (teachers are quite well paid). When I spent time with the student’s family in Seoul the mother continued to address me as teacher rather than by my name. Observations at the university in relation to the interaction between the lecturers and students tended to reinforce this deferment to educators.
* Males seem to still have considerable influence over females in the society. Whether this is in status, privilege or just prestige I would need more time to determine. Again the obvious demographic evidenced preference for boys would tend to confirm that the society is still rather male-centric in attitude.
* The society has an amazing attitude to cleanliness. This is evidenced by the removal of shoes when entering a living space or restaurant. As well as a preference of sitting on the floor for meals, which is alive and well in the society, South Koreans insist on no footwear in restaurants. Even in some of the hotels and in the homes it was insisted that the shoes were removed. Linked to the cleanliness is the immaculate nature of their toilets. Not only are they all clean and pleasant, they are also decorated by flowers, pictures and even perfumes. The best toilets I have visited in the world!
* The society is remarkably organised. Everything seems to work with a minimum of fuss and all just happens. My experiences in the subway (amazing organisation) or in the hospital, everything was efficient and “fuss-free”.
* A weird aspect of Korea is that the shopping is different. No-one bothers you to buy, haggling over price seems to be uncouth and if you don’t buy there is no animosity. Again a very different experience for a visitor of Asia (if not most parts of the world)
* There seems to be great civic pride in the society. This is evidenced by the proliferation of beautiful statues/artwork everywhere in Seoul (every business seems to have an artwork to be proud of). Such civic pride is also evidenced by the lack of graffiti in South Korea and the provision of complex exercise equipment in parks and streets which would be vandalized in most western cities.

So what can be made about this culture from these random observations? Undoubtedly the society is clean, calm, community based, respectful, pleasant and organized. As one of our lecturers quoted:
“Korea has an “us” culture
Korea is a great place to visit and my observations confirmed the “us” culture view but again various questions are posed by the cultural geographer.

Cultural questions

* Is the respect for education, males and educators based in Confucian traditions?
* Is the reference to Korean Jeong a reality? Is this Jeong still alive and well in South Korea? From my observations, seemingly so.
* With the likely influx of migrants (rapidly “ethnocising” society) to redress the low birth rates and sexual imbalance, will the traditions of the culture be maintained. Will the “us” culture be maintained.
* What will be the impact of rapid economic development on the South Korean culture? Will it be maintained with the onslaught of western values and culture?
* As a visitor one is always aware of falseness in smile and demeanor by those you come across. The pleasure shown by Koreans in being involved with visitors was overwhelming and hard not to be seen as sincere. Are Koreans as happy as they seem?
* What are the social controls in place to encourage people to maintain Korean cultural customs? In view of the low religiosity factor for Korean religion (religion often being the cultural glue for conformity), what is the glue which keeps the subtleties of Korean culture together. The cultural observations discussed in this blog are not social norms requiring law but rather the goodwill of the population to be Korean and be part of the “us” culture.
* What does it mean to be Korean? Are they proudly nationalistic and what is their attitude to people from other countries migrating to South Korea? I found it hard to answer this question in my time in Korea. Is their desire to be Korean homogenous and pride in their “Koreaness” a healthy scene? Apparently there have been only 5 refugees admitted into Korea in recent years. Begs the question, how difficult is it for a non-ethnic Korean to settle in the country? Even the international brides being allowed to enter Korea to redress the sexual imbalance tend to be ethnic Koreans.
* How difficult is it to be a Korean woman and reach the heights of Korean society? Is it a male-centric society, being difficult for Korean women to be leaders in the society?
* With education being so important is the society an “edutocracy” with the only way to advance and be respected is to be highly educated. Or does money talk as in all societies.
* Is there a difference in the “Koreaness” of the people between Seoul and the countryside?

Again, these are just questions, not meaning to be judgmental on Korean culture. What the questions do show is that South Korea is a fascinating study for the cultural geographer, with more questions of a cultural nature posed than answered after a quick visit to this beautiful country and people.

Development pressure cooker

2009-07-31T02:43:00.000-07:00

Spatialworlds website

Picture descriptions:
Left Image: Road infrastructure intersects with the beauty of the South Korean landscape.
Right image: Seoul from the top of the Samsung building.

Seoul, South Korea: N: 37º 01' E: 126º 36'

The unique demography of South Korea

It is a remarkable that a country that was totally devastated 50 years ago following the Korean War is now a bustling nation developing at an unprecedented rate. This development has been particularly noteworthy over the past 30 years with South Korea regularly appearing near the top of many of the important development indicators. In the last post the nature and quality of the education sector was highlighted. In this entry I want to focus on the fascinating demographic impact of the compressed rapid development of the Korean economy and society. During our visit we were frequently made aware of Korea's rating on the world stage and how the country intends to continue to develop and expand as a force in the economic world. The economy of South Korea is a highly developed free-market economy that is the fourth largest in Asia and 15th largest in the world. South Koreans enjoy one of the highest living standards in the world and have a high life expectancy and a high level of economic freedom. South Korea has one of the smallest gaps between the rich and the poor in Asia. South Korea boasts the world's highest broadband internet access per capita. In 2007, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked South Korea's IT Industry Competitiveness among the top three in the world. South Korea's economy relies heavily on exports and it is among the world's top exporters. It is home to many well known global conglomerates such as Samsung, Hyundai-Kia, LG and SK. In 2007, the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group became Asia's second largest car company and one of the top five automakers in the world. Who would have believed in 1990 that Samsung would overtake Sony as an economic operator.
What I wish to focus on in this blog are the ramifications of such development for Korean society. Such ramifications are evidenced in demographic terms when we look at birth rates, age-sex ratios, urbanisation, homogeneity of the population, religious observance and liberalism. The demographic statistics listed below are not remarkable in themselves but what is unique is how rapidly South Korea has demographically changed since 1980 in particular. As a demographic case study it is unique.

Demographic changes over the past 30 years

In 2009 South Korea has:
* a Total Fertility rate of only 1.08 (was 6.2 in 1960)
* an ageing population with 9.1% of the population over 65, projected to be 38.2% by 2050 (The % of the population over 65 was only 2.9% in 1960). South Korea has the most rapidly ageing population in the world.
* Unless a massive immigration program is launched in South Korea, the population will decline to 42.35 million by 2050 (presently the population is 48.3 million)
* an agricultural/fishing workforce of 7.9% (81.6% in 1958)
* a manufacturing and mining workforce of 17.2% (4.6% in 1960)
* a commerce and services workforce of 74.9% (13.8% in 1960)
* a life expectancy of 86.02 (only 62.33 in 1971)
* an increasing imbalance between males and females. 108 males to every 100 females.
* 46.9% of its population saying that they have no religion, 22.8% Buddhist. 18.3 Protestant and 18.3 Catholic. Of these only Catholicism is growing significantly.
* the highest % of high school graduates in the world (in 2009 it is 80% but in late 1990's it was only 40%)
* Labour shortage is inevitable because of the rapidly ageing population and the decreasing size of the economic active population (15-64 years old).
* a GDP/capita of US$20,000 (in 1960 was $60)

So what does this all mean for the South Korea of the future? Such a question is a great basis for a case study in a geography class. The answers are unknown but many questions can be asked and explored.

The questions!!

* Will the sexual imbalance be corrected by the importing of brides. If so, what will be the impact on this homogeneous society.
* How will the welfare and health infrastructure cope with the ageing population?
* With increased urbanisation how will the cities adapt and be sustainable?
* In such a traditional society what will be the impact of non-religious identification and materialistic society.
* How will South Korean society deal with diminishing population growth?
* Will there continue to be well paid jobs for the educated to realise their economic dreams.
* Will South Korea be able to maintain its manufacturing competitiveness against the industrial giant of China. If not, how can South Korea maintain it standard of living into the future.
* Will South Korea be able to maintain it liberal democracy and economic miracle with the growing demographic pressures of an ageing, low growth and sexually imbalanced population.
In short, is the economic miracle of South Korea sustainable and is the society created in such a pressure cooker about to handle the heat?
Again, the case study of South Korea has the potential to ask more questions than provide answers for the geographer.

South Korea: More questions than answers!

2009-07-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

Spatialworlds website

Picture descriptions:
Left Image: The message at Daeil Foreign Language School (Beautiful Dreams, High Hopes)in Seoul during a monsoonal downpour.
Right image: Classic view of a South Korean river.

Seoul, South Korea: N: 37º 01' E: 126º 36'

Questions to ponder
When searching for a country to study, the inquisitive geographer ideally wants to go beyond the mundane and investigate a place full of contradictions and complexities. From July 13th – 26th I was lucky enough to attend the Asia Education Foundation’s Korean Studies workshop in Seoul. What a great experience! The trip went way beyond my expectations and provided an amazing amount of knowledge and awareness of modern South Korea. However despite the copious lectures and input from tour guides on the field trip I was left with many questions about what makes South Korea tick. These questions relate to development, growth, relations with neighbors, education, environment and the culture itself. On the surface the country is beautiful, the economy seems robust, education is highly desired and the people friendly and happy. However the more time I spent in South Korea the more the questions grew in number. This blog sets out to pose questions about South Korean education, using information and experiences gleaned from my two weeks in the country. Future blogs will deal with Korean cultural sustainability, environmental perceptions, relations with neighbours and the rapidly changing demographics of Korea. In no way are the questions posed intended to be a criticism of South Korea but rather the observations of a geographer posing the question of what, where, why, what if and where next.

Competitive education

The educational scene in South Korea is highly valued but also highly competitive. Education is closely linked to South Korea's remarkable development and is seen as a necessary component of South Korea's future. As a result South Korea has some of the highest Program for International Assessment (PISA) scores in the world for literacy and numeracy. Many believe that Korea's attitude to education is determined by the countries confucious traditions and is firmly embedded in the national psyche and society as a result. Students are at school from 8am till 10pm at night (sometimes even later!). Even in the holidays students attend extra schooling to cram for the exams. There are many private tuition firms making a killing from the demand for extra tuition and academic success. Only now are academics and the Korean Government starting to see that this may be exploitation of the young and a potential problem.

The questions!!

* What sort of pressure is this putting on the young people of South Korea?
* Is such a system of exam centred learning creating a creative society?
* Is such a pressure cooker for young people healthy and is it sustainable?
* Will young people eventually challenge such a competitive environment or are Korean young people resilient enough to survive in such a system of education?
* Where will it stop? Can the treadmill of academic endeavour be slowed down?
* What social controls does the system use to ensure conformity and observance of expectations?

Considering the complexities of these questions in relation to education alone, the study of Korea has the potential to be a rich and challenging case study for geography classes. Korea and its amazing development over the past 30 years provide a unique opportunity to study an economy, environment and society going through massive changes over a very short time. This compressed development is not only unique but will continue to be newsworthy in future years. It is inevitable that with its dynamic socio-economic-political nature, South Korea will be frequently in the news. Such currency will provide teachers with a country that will provide plenty of newsworthiness as well as a country worthy of Australians knowing about and understanding in the Asia-Pacific region. Korea and it study will provide plenty of rich multi-dimensional questions for the inquisitive geographer to explore. I hope to pose these questions in future blog entries.

Actioning Geography

2009-07-04T05:07:00.001-07:00

Spatialworlds website

Picture descriptions:
Images: From within the Royal Geographical Society building, Kensington, London: The heart of Geography.

Adelaide, Australia: S: 34º 55' E: 138º 36'

Geography for the 21st Century
It is an interesting time for geography in Australia with the growing profile of geography as a result of the work of the National Curriculum Board. As mentioned in a previous blog, the Australian Geography Teachers' Association (AGTA), has been pro-active with other Australian geography associations/societies in ensuring that geography has been identified as a discipline to be developed as part of phase 2 of the National Curriculum due to be implemented in 2012. To support the work of the National Curriculum Board, AGTA, the Institute of Australian Geographers (IAG) and the Royal Geographical Society (RGSQ) in October 2008 established the 'Towards a National Geography Curriculum'(TNGC) project. On June 30th 2009 the TNGC project handed over to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) their report. This report, by leading geography educators in Australia in consultation with geography teachers across Australia over the past six months has been written to inform ACARA about the views of geography educators prior to the commencement of their work in developing the National Geography Curriculum. The report is a synthesis of the latest geographical educational research across the world, Australian curriculum documents and views gleaned from geographers at forums across Australia in 2008/09. The report has attempted to provide a coherent view on a geographical definition, procedural knowledge, pedagogical approaches in geography, curriculum structures, conceptual understandings in geography and implementation strategies. In 2009 ACARA is planning to develop a Position Paper on geography, appoint an advisory panel and curriculum writer and conduct consultation forums.
AGTA looks forward to this work and the opportunities the process provides to increase the profile of geography via the development of a national geography curriculum for 21st Century Australia.
It is interesting that what we are going through at the moment is similar to what geography in schools has recently undergone in the United Kingdom. When I was London in April this year I was privileged to spend a day at the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington, London. As well as enjoying the company of Dr Rita Gardner and her team I also learnt in detail about the efforts of the RGS to re-invigorate geography in the UK via their Action Plan. The Plan includes:
1. Chartered Geographers
2. Geography Ambassadors
3. Key Stage 3 resources
4. Virtual fieldwork and local learning
The website ‘Geography Teaching Today’ has been developed as part of the Action Plan for Geography to provide a single point of web-based communication and information sharing.
The UK Geographical Association is leading on other areas of the Action Plan.

To support the work with the National Geography Curriculum, AGTA is also involved in other initiatives which will provide opportunities for geography teachers and students to be involved in the renewal of geography in Australia. As well as the National Geography work the coming months will see AGTA:
1.Continuing to support the work of the RGSQ with the Australian Geography Competition initiative and the World Olympiad.
2.Geography promotions
a.Competition/s
b.Big Week Out
c.AGTA Awards
3.Websites
a.Geo-Careers website
b.Teacher orientated AGTA website
4.Professional Development and resources:
a.AGTA Conference
b.Key Skills publications
c.Geographical Education
d.Geographia newsletter
5.Making links with National and International Geographical Education bodies
a.Membership of NEF/SSI/IAG/AFSSSE/IGU/IAG etc
b.Formal relationship with other geography associations i.e RGS, HKGS
6.Introducing 21st Technology into the geography classroom
via workshops and Industry liaison with the Spatial Science Institute,
7.Geography Teaching Standard project with Melbourne University
8.Beginning Geography teacher programme
(Primary teachers and those between pre-service and experienced)
9 Marketing Geography
a.Australian Geographic liaison
b.Jon Dee’s 'Do something' initiative

The inquisitiveness of Geography

2009-06-29T14:39:00.000-07:00

Spatialworlds website

Picture descriptions:
Left Image: Freeways of London.
Right image: English country scene - Suffolk..

Adelaide, Australia: S: 34º 55' E: 138º 36'

Why is it so?

When discussing why geography is important and the reasons it should be part of the school curriculum, the words inquisitiveness and curiosity are often mentioned. An individual will study any subject because of interest and fascination in learning but the concept of inquisitiveness runs very strongly through the history of geography. From exploration and discoveries to map making geography requires a strong desire to ask questions and find out what is (where and how) and why is it? This is not to say there are many other reasons for studying geography but the inquisitive angle of geography seems to be a core requirement for the geographer. Geography covers a wide range of learning and hence has a wide appeal to a diverse group of students. Various attempts to classify geographical knowledge and endevour into themes or branches have been undertaken over the years. These themes provide ample opportunity to cater to the needs of individuals. For example the area of geo-tourism will attract a very different individual to the one interested in geomorphology. Whilst studying people travelling around the globe is very different to learning about rocks and landscapes, what links these individuals together as geographer's is their inquisitive geographical approach when they study or work in their chosen area. This inquisitive approach involves asking key geographical questions such as:
* What is where?
* What is the distribution and shape of what is there?
* Why is what is there there?
* What surrounds what is there?
* Why is what surrounds there there?
* What is the distribution and shape of what surrounds what is there?
* What are the reasons for the distribution and shape of what surrounds?
* What are the interactions between what is there and what surrounds?
* What are the interdependencies between what is there and what surrounds?
* How and why has what is there changed or is changing in nature, distribution and
shape over time?
* What is the future projection for what is there and what surrounds?
* other pertinent geographical questions to the area of geographical endevour!!

Whilst sounding a little confusing, the key to geographical inquisitiveness is to answer such questions in relation to places and spaces. This spatial inquisitevness is at the core of the geographical approach and is what drives explorers, adventurers, researchers, writers and hopefully teachers. This inquisitivesness in the classroom should be the driving force of inquiry teaching methodologies (pedagogies) which pose questions to the students and invite them to use their geographical knowledge and skills to find answers or possible solutions. Giving students the answer without inviting inquiry only goes towards crushing student inquisitiveness and makes the subject no different to others. Geography must embrace an inquiry approach so as to model what geography is all about! Asking questions and seeking answers by exploration of place and space. Spatial technologies are the great enabler for this approach. Spatial technology and the associated data and visualisations can provide the geographer in the workforce or the student in the geography classroom with information on places and patterns/trends across space that can answer the geographical questions developed.

The natural inquisitivenes of students when studying geography must be fed by asking the questions; what? where? why?, when? how? what if? and so what? when studying any of the geographical areas/themes.

What makes Geography Geography??

2009-06-25T00:42:00.000-07:00

Spatial Worlds website

Melbourne, Australia: S: 37º 47' E: 144º 58'

Left image: The Melbourne CBD
Right image: The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)

The headset of the geographer

With the context for the National Geography Curriculum presently being developed, the question, "What makes Geography Geography?" is being constantly posed by those coming to grips with the fact that geography is to be introduced in schools from R-12 across Australia in 2012. As a geographer I feel confident in discussing what makes geography different to other disciplines and indeed unique in the curriculum. However, to actually explain the nature of geographical study to the non-geographer is quite a challenge. As I have found out through the "Towards and National Geography Curriculum" project there is even disagreements on this question amongst geographers themselves. In this posting I will have a crack at trying to delineate the uniqueness of geography. In this day of spatial technology and spatial literacy, clarity on this question is essential. In fact, what are the linkages between geography and the world of the spatial scientist? Are geographers spatial scientists, or is the science word to be avoided? It is interesting that in the National Curriculum Board's Shaping Paper for Science, they refer to systems, interdependence, patterns, inquiry methodology, sustainability, climate change, biodiversity and digital and spatial technology. These are all concepts/topics/tools covered and used in geography! So is geographer all that different to Science in its approach? Naturally the answer is no but how then is it different? In the science document there is no reference to geography as a linking discipline and hence makes one wonder if the Science world is also not aware of the nature of geography and how it can compliment other disciplines? Interestingly the sparse mention of spatial variation and geography in the National Curriculum Boards Shaping Paper for history paper, a discipline traditionally closely allied with geography.

So what makes geography unique? To clarify this I thought it would be interesting to list the features of geographical education that I consider makes it what it is!

Geographers are interested and inquisitive about the:
* bio-physical (natural) environment and the built environment of humanity
* inter-actions within and between environmental systems
* interdependencies and intricacies of environmental interactions
* spatial variation evident across space and the reasons for the variation
* patterns and trends that can be identified when viewing spatial changes and environmental phenomena over space
* changes in land patterns and landuse over time
* processes which create landscape features and phenomena
* visual representation of places and their distribution over space

The way the geographer looks at the world though a geographical lens is what makes geography geography.
The advent of modern spatial technologies has put in the hands of geographers an array of tools which enable the geographer to visualise and describe the world geographically beyond our imagination only a few years ago. In this blog I will continue to present the latest spatial technologies which make geography one of the most exciting disciplines in the world when we are trying to visualise, describe, explain and analyse the world around us. The geographers headset is unique and needs to be clearly articulated if we expect good geography to be taught in our schools. The question needs to be asked, is the writing of a national geography curriculum going to improve geographical education in schools? The answer can be only yes when we develop professional learning strategies that enable non-geographically trained teachers understand what makes geography geography. It is not about the content of geography to be taught in the classroom but the headset of the geographer.

Great for Pirates! Real time never ceases to amaze

2009-05-26T04:33:00.000-07:00

Spatialworlds website

Picture descriptions:
Left Image: The Conola(called Rape in Europe)fields of Flanders.
Right image: The Riqueval Tunnel at Bellicourt, Picardie, France. Built by Napoleon in 1811 and still in use.

Adelaide, Australia: S: 34º 55' E: 138º 36'

Spatial technology sites never cease to amaze me with their power of communication and ability to visually represent what is happening now in the world. This is particularly true of real time sites which are great for the teaching of current affairs. A great example of such currency are two sites I have recently come across which relate to shipping around the world and piracy. Piracy is a hot topic on the international scene and a topic which continues to enthrall. Maybe the interest in piracy relates to those stories we all read or watched in our childhood about buccaneers. Regardless of the reasons, piracy on the seas is a real issue with associated security issues, under-development of countries, trade and trade routes and the rights of the haves to go unimpeded with their wealth.

1.Tracking shipping around the world (a gift to pirates!!)
This is an amazing site which shows the marine traffic on the oceans in real time. Not only does it show the location, type and travel direction of shipping but also the speed, image and name of the boats. Have a play with the site and you will find much more spatial information for analysis (i.e.why concentration of shipping, routes and shipping lanes etc). A great example of the power of spatial technology to inform and analyse.
This site is particularly topical considering the pirate issue on the high
seas at the moment.

2. Live Piracy map: A gift to the anti-piracy efforts!
As a follow up to the shipping map, here is a Google Map link on pirate attacks in recent years (International Chamber of Commerce Commercial Crime Service). The attacks are shown by date, type of attack, ship type, ship name and location with a crime report for each. Some interesting comparisons over time.

What a great way to combine current affairs, development studies, economic geography,international law of the sea, media spin and spatial technology. All in real time with temporal comparison!

The spatial and war

2009-05-21T23:26:00.000-07:00

Spatialworlds website

Picture descriptions:
Left image: Using telescopes in the trenches at the Newfoundland Memorial site.
Right image:Using modern spatial technology on the battlefield.

Amiens, Belgium: N: 49º 53.506' E: 002º 18.561'

Mapping our ANZACS
For many years we have spoken about how GIS technology is a product of military necessity. Whilst this is true for modern spatial technology, the historical importance of maps and spatial skills became very obvious to me when I visited the battlefields of France and Belgium in April this year. As part of my job I am fortunate to be involved in organising the South Australian Premier's ANZAC Spirit School Prize. This prize involves 6 students being selected to visit the battlefields of Europe and enact commemoration ceremonies at the graves of soldiers they have investigated. As part of the tour a military historian traces the last days of the soldier's life and this is where the skills of mapping and spatial thinking became so obvious. Despite not having GIS and GPS, the military strategist and commanders of the Great War needed high level spatial skills (and geographic naturally) to interpret maps and landscapes. Questions they would have frequently asked when looking at their maps and observing the landscape would be: where is the highest point, what is the line of sight for a location, where would a bombardment land, what is the aspect and gradient of a slope, what is the vertical exaggeration of the topography, where are the transport routes, how can we get water supplies to the soldiers, where are the natural barriers, what is the shortest route etc. The interesting thing is that these life and death spatial decisions were carried out with just maps,telescopes and basic aerial photography. How many lives could have been saved with the accuracy of modern spatial technology! Or would they? Even the best locational intelligence needs good decision making by commanders!
One of the thrills I had when in London at the Royal Geographical Society the same week was to view the original Gallipoli maps used by the British and Turks. The detail of the maps and contour intervals used by the Turks and British was startling and highlighted the importance of appropriate map making and usage. For example the Gallipoli landscape looked more gradient friendly on the British map with larger contour intervals than the smaller contour intervals of the Turkish map. If I was an Australian soldier using the Turkish maps I would have realised very quickly that the cliffs were imposing and next to suicidal for attacking (if they could read the map in the first instance!). With these thoughts in mind, maybe one can say that an army marches on its spatial knowledge as well as its stomach!
As you can see in the photographs above the students were required to read original battlefield maps as they followed the journey of the soldier to his death. A great example of the integration of history with geography in the field. Although difficult for the Australian geography classroom to get to France to undertake the fieldwork, such techniques could be a useful virtual fieldtrip for a combined history and geography class. Why not use the following website resources to research a fallen soldier and get some World War 1 maps for the activity.
Soldier records at:
http://www.awm.gov.au/database/biographical.asp
http://www.awm.gov.au/research/
http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/explore/defence/service-records/army-wwi.aspx
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission at http://www.cwgc.org/ for details on the European war cemeteries and graves in France.
World War 1 maps at:
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/maps/
http://www.worldwar1.com/maproom.htm
http://www.firstworldwar.com/maps/index.htm

Some neat OER websites for Geography

2009-04-15T08:10:00.001-07:00

Spatial Worlds Website

Picture descriptions:
Left image: The participating teachers at the Brussels OER workshop.
Right image:Brussel streetscape.

Brussels, Belgium: N:50º 52' E: 4º 22'

One of the great aspects of being involved in the OER intiative was that a huge range of innovative resources were presented. Here are just a few to have a go at!
Physical Geography
Geography games
World Demographic Clock
Environment
Designing an habitable planet
History and DNA (I know it is not Geography but really neat as a site)
Historical maps
Earthquakes
Outer space and geography
The breathing Earth
Lifestyle and the environment
Mapping worlds differently

It is worth looking at the http://creativecommons.org/and well travelled initiatives related to Open Education Resources. Considering more and more teachers are using websites in their teaching today there is a need to start working on some type of quality control to ensure that the websites support good pedagogy in the classroom. Naturally this is true for geography as well. For example when looking at a website do you consider the following to make sure it is OK for your quality teaching and student learning?** If it was a book I am sure these questions would be foremost in your review.
Is the website:
o Culturally appropriate
o Gender appropriate
o Current
o Agenda of the developer- bias
o Credibility
o Authentic
o Interactive
o Advertising Free
o Attractive
o Engaging
o Easy to navigate
o Relevant to curriculum (even if not designed specifically for a given curriculum or for any curriculum)
o Adhere to W3C Accessibility
o Modular
o Content independent of structured
o Language Independent or Multilingual
o Remixable
o Easy to download and save
o Stored as a file type that is readily accessible with generally
available software
o Cross Browser Compatibility
o Cross Platform Compatibility
o Accessible outside of login
o Unlikely to be blocked by firewalls
o Degree of Openness (eg Rights)
o No cost to use
o Labeling
o Indexed for Searchability
o Time Limitations

** These criteria developed at the April 2009 OER workshop in Brussels.

All good questions and need to be reviewed before the website is used as a teaching tool.

Open Education Resource Conference: Brussels

2009-04-15T02:16:00.001-07:00

Spatial Worlds Website

Picture descriptions:
Left Image: Historical square in central Brussels.
Right image: The OER workshop

Brussels, Belgium: N:50º 52' E: 4º 22'

Event: Open Education Resource Workshop
Dates: April 15th-17th 2009
Organisers of the event: European Schoolnet

This week I have been fortunate to attend the Open Education Resource Workshop in Brussels. The OER Teacher's Network Project is a scoping and feasibility study federating learning resource repositories both in Europe and internationally. The goal is to examine quality criteria for OER in order to promote more effective exchange of learning resources between repositories. I am particularly interested in this project because of its potential for the sharing of open education resources in geography and with spatial education resources in particular.

The study investigates how new mechanisms may now be required in order to facilitate in international K-12 OER collaboratives, particularly so that stakeholders can take a significant step forward as regards understanding what types of OER ‘travel well’ or have the most potential to be used and re-used in different K-12 curriculum frameworks, including in those countries in the less developed world where ICT deployment is still at a very early stage.

The Project is led by EUN SchoolNet with teacher participants from Europe, Australia, Africa, Finland, South Africa, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Zambia, Roumania, Spanish and the U.S. Fortunately there are about 4 geography teachers amongst the 16 teachers at the workshop for me to explore the use of OER resources in geographical education.
In this blog I will put down relevant facts, perceptions and resources which come out of the workshop. However what are Open Education Resources and what is the concept of travel well?

Open Education Resources:
http://www.oercommons.org/ The Hewlett Foundation describes these as teaching, learning and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use or re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials or techniques used to support access to knowledge.”
OER's enable teachers to republish material in new formats, publish online, permits reuse and remix of material, promotes innovation, promotes equity and accessibility and reduce costs - such resources are free of copyright and free to use.

Travel well:: Is the ability of an OER to be used across the globe in as widest range of contexts as possible. To be a travel well website one must consider copyright, language, visual representation, text density and is it easy to navigate, adapt and re-use.

Creative commons: Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved.

Website resources for sharing which provided the basis of the workshop
http://oertn.eun.org/forum/9
http://oertn.eun.org/forum/8

Of interest to the world of the geography teachers is the plethora of data which is regularly used to construct maps and other spatial representations. Is this data an open education resource or are we risking prosecution? This workshop is exploring the issues of copyright of such resources and what can be done in the future for teachers to feel comfortable and protected when accessing educational resources and data from a huge range of industry and contexts.

The spontaneity of Geography

2009-03-01T22:18:00.000-08:00

Spatial Worlds Website

Picture descriptions:
Left Image: Living on the water and high rise buildings in Hong Kong.
Right image: Hong Kong at night.

Adelaide, Australia: S: 34º 55' E: 138º 36'

With much talk happening in regards to core/foundation content for geography and the need to provide students with essential knowledge and skills it is important not to neglect one of the attractions of geography for students, and indeed teachers. That is, the spontaneity of the subject in the classroom. It would indeed be a tragedy if a teacher did not stop and embrace a current event because of the perceived need to get through the ‘content’ of the course. The Victorian bushfires are an excellent example of the potential of geography to provide classrooms the opportunity to explore causation, impact and most importantly provide the vehicle for teachers to debrief the students on the event. Such subject spontaneity is critical to keep the subject of geography relevant, useful and motivating for students. An ally to the opportunity for spontaneity is the capacity of spatial technologies to provide the medium for real- time data and visual representations as events unfold. Here are a few sites which over the years have provided an immediate and dynamic resource for teachers to respond to unfolding events. Needless to say, all rely heavily on the ability of spatial technology (particularly Google Earth and Google Maps and Flickr) to deliver current and accurate visualisations of place and space associated with the event. Such spontaneity and relevant tangential possibilities and the use of state of the art spatial technology should be a selling point for geography and not seen as an add-on hindering content delivery.

* Let’s start with the Victorian bushfire.
Within hours of such an event spatial sites appear often functional sites for emergency services and the community. Launched the Sunday, the day after Back Saturday, this Google Map that showed the extent of the Victorian bushfires (with associated photographs)
http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=-37.09024,145.360107&spn=5.467626,6.778564&z=7&msid=102713443485350180116.0004625c0e5a723331061

* Queensland floods: a study ready to goThe following sites provide an array of daily images, maps and commentary to aid the teacher covering the floods in Queensland during February 2009.
http://www.bom.gov.au/hydro/flood/qld/
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=37051
http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2009/01/30/2478669.htm?site=westqld
http://www.bom.gov.au/hydro/flood/qld/brochures/river_maps.shtml
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunrise7/3290986661/
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=16571
http://www.mainroads.qld.gov.au/web/AttachStore.nsf/allobjects/january-2009-flood-info/$file/road-closure-map-090302-9am.pdf

A real time Swine flu website
The Flutracker website is a map and the data behind it compiled by a biomedical researcher in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, using technology provided by Rhiza Labs and Google. The map is compiled using data from official sources, news reports and user-contributions and updated multiple times per day.

* The use of spatial technology in newsroom communications
Reuters AlertNet site: Alerting humanitarians to emergencies
It includes an interactive mapping tool (fed from MS Virtual Earth) and viewable by conflicts, storms, food security, health etc. http://www.alertnet.org/map/index.htm?ct=2&style=2&ex_iso=AF,AF,RU .
Another interesting approach to news and media is the mapping of news coverage around the world. The following sites provide some interesting spatial perspectives.
Newspaper coverage map sites.
Other world according to newspapers at
http://www.observatoiredesmedias.com/2008/03/24/le-monde-dans-les-yeux-dun-redac-chef-lamericaine-version/
Newsmapping at http://marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/
Buztracker: world news mapped: http://buzztracker.org

* Earth Album is a great geography relevant site that does a "mash up" of google earth maps and flickr images This a great site for students investigating current information on countries

* Mind's Wonderings: Education and Technology
Rebecca Nicholas (Victorian geography teacher and AGTA Secretary) has decided that it is not hard to be enthusiastic about the developments in technology and the applications these have on education and teaching. Each new development sends her mind wandering and wondering about how she can use this to teach her kids to enhance their learning? Such musing has resulted in her Wondering minds blog. Rebecca’s site is a great resource with regular new spatial websites posted. Keep an eye on it!

An example of a site explored on Rebecca’s site is the Satellite tracking site It apparently updates every 30 seconds and shows the path of each satellite etc.
What a great site to create a sense of spontaneity and immediacy in the geography classroom.

The discomfort of not knowing!

2009-01-04T02:15:00.000-08:00

Spatial Worlds Website

Picture descriptions:
Left image: The workshop participants.
Right image: Members of the organising committee and presenters at dinner on December 19th, 2008.

International Geo-spatial Information Technology Workshop for School Education

Hong Kong: N: 22º 12.646' E: 114º 01.775'

As a follow-up to my Churchill visit to Hong Kong in October 2007 I was invited to present a Demonstration Class at the International Geo-spatial Information Technology Workshop for School Education at the Baptist University in Hong Kong on December 19th, 2008. The workshop, attended by 60 Hong Kong Geography teachers was a great opportunity to meet with Hong Kong teachers interested in using spatial technology in their classrooms. As I reported in my October 2007 blog entry, the new Hong Kong curriculum has made the use of spatial technologies such as GIS an expectation for those teaching geography. Read more about the Hong Kong Curriculum at http://www.edb.gov.hk/FileManager/EN/Content_5185/nss_e_geog%20_pfd.pdf
This workshop was one of the numerous efforts to provide Hong Kong teachers with training and perspectives in relation to the use of GIS in the classroom. The day was action packed with my demonstration class titled ‘Getting a start with GIS skills on a meaningful task in the classroom‘ heading the program, followed by a diverse grouping of presentations including:
* Steve Dunn and Mark Smith, geography teachers from the Grammar School at Leeds presented classroom GIS activities using World, Brazilian and Hurricane data.
* Dr P.C.Lai from Hong Kong University presented a demonstration class on the use of GIS in the classroom setting while studying rainfall distribution and agricultural production in China.
* David Brian from the Chinese International School, Hong Kong presented a demonstration class on the use of GIS to study Air Quality.
The workshop was organised by Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong GIS Association, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Hong Kong Geographical Association. As always the workshop provided the opportunity to discuss the implementation of GIS in the classroom with the interested and passionate. An amazing outcome of the experience was that all those involved, whether from Leeds, Hong Kong or Australia were all saying the same things in relation to the approach we need to take with the introduction of GIS into schools. That is, for GIS to be a problem solving and creative tool for students to explore their world. Such an approach should embrace the philosophy of ‘the discomfort of not knowing’ when developing student tasks involving the use of spatial technologies. The technology should be the enabler for students to find out for themselves and in turn, ‘know’. For many of the teachers attending the workshop there was a degree of discomfort in not knowing the technology and all presenters did their best to ease any anxieties about using the technology and provided an impressive range of teaching materials and resources.
Here are a few of the resources provided on the day which may be of use to those interested in extending their use of GIS in the classroom.

Air quality in Hong Kong resources from the Chinese International School GIS classroom.
Those who have visited Hong Kong will be aware that Hong Kong is one of the most polluted cities in the world. Hence as a case study the mapping of pollution levels on a day to day basis from real time Internet data is a great GIS activity. These website provides all you need to undertake some great GIS classroom activities about air pollution and attempts to monitor and remedy.
Hong Kong Environmental protection Department at http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/environmentinhk/air/air_quality/air_quality.html
Hong Kong clear the air website at http://www.cleartheair.org.hk/

Steve and Mark are doing some great work on GIS in the classroom at Leeds Grammar.
In particular I found the use of some free Brazilian homicide data and the activities the lads have developed for their students to be a really an interesting approach. Steve and Mark have put many of their excellent classroom activities up on the ESRIUK website for teachers to use. Their approach was really inspiring and confirmed and affirmed my philosophy and approaches in using GIS in the classroom. I hope to catch up with Steve and Mark in the future to keep an eye on their great efforts in the UK. Australian teachers certainly would gain from their expertise and enthusiasm for the task.

Dr Lai and her graduates from Hong Kong University presented as excellent integrate activity using rainfall and agricultural production data.
The workshop produced maps to explore the relationship between rainfall distribution, rice production and wheat production. For more information on the work of Dr Lai and Hong Kong University in the area of GIS in schools go to the HKU website at http://geog.hku.hk/giscourse/index.htm.
Some of the websites Dr Lai used were:
* Chinese Climate Data Centre at http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html provides real time precipitation data for mapping.
* The Centre for Earth Science Information Network at http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/china provided comprehensive Chinese provincial data.
* Chinese grain production data at http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/china/econ/agr/agr49-90desc.html

Attending and presenting at this inaugural international gathering in Hong Kong of those involved in the implementation of GIS in Hong Kong classrooms was a great honour and a wonderful experience. Special thanks to Professor Zhou Qiming for his invitation to present and Matthew Pang for all his hard work in organizing the event and my participation.
I hope this link between Australian and Hong Kong Geographers continues to grow into the future. We face many of the same challengers and share similar approaches to the use of GIS in the classroom. It would be a pity not to learn from each other as we tackle the difficult task of implementing GIS in the classroom.

Nothing is new, just better!

2008-12-02T13:17:00.000-08:00

Spatial Worlds Website

Picture descriptions:
Left image: The map by Dr John Snow of cholera victims in London in 1855 .
Right image: Napoleons march on Moscow by Charles Minard in 1861.

Adelaide, Australia: S: 34º 55' E: 138º 36'

As geographers we have been using many of the GIS techniques/approaches since the beginning of the discipline of geography. Visual representations of place, space and events is nothing new and has been presented in map and chart form for centuries. What spatial technology has enabled is the ability of the geographer to crunch an enormous about of data, use overlay techniques and generally developed intricacies of digital presentations not imagined possible. That is not to say that the great cartographers and geographers of the past did not produce wonderful visualisations of data and space. When teaching students about thematic mapping and other forms of spatial visualisations it is worth showing and discussing the work of Charles Minard and the spatial mapping and analysis of Dr John Snow.
Dr John Snow is well known to many of us for his plotting of cholera cases in Soho, London in the 1840's and 1850’s. Snow developed spot maps from these outbreaks and using basic GIS applications of buffering and proximity determined that the cases were most likely associated with a particular water pump in Broadstreet (now Broadwick Street). The water pump was shut down and the cholera cases diminished. Up until that discovery cholera was thought to be transmitted by bad air or pollution. Despite the spatial analysis of Snow the skeptics re-opened the water pump after the cholera epidemic subsided. Such a simple technique of map making by hand had such power of analysis and implication for society. Imagine what Snow could have done with GIS overlays and hotspot/3D visualizations to prove his theory? Interestingly, a recent historical forensic study on the likely location of Jack the Ripper in London was undertaken by a so called geographical profiler. The profiler created simple GIS maps of attacks in London during the time of Jack the Ripper and made some basic conclusions using techniques of buffering and intersection of where the Ripper may have lived. Just imagine if we had a show on television about forensic geographical profiler involving sexy, charismatic characters like CSI? Spatial technology and geography classes would be overflowing! Maybe!
Issues of nothing new with GIS techniques came into even greater focus for me recently when I read an article about Charles Minard. Minard is best known for his amazing 1861 map of Napoleon’s March on Moscow. Many claim this is the best graphic ever produced! The map is a visualisation of troop numbers as Napoleon marched on and then withdrew from Moscow. The army was originally 422 000 in number and is represented by the width of a broad line overlaid on a map of Russia. As Napoleons army diminished to only 10 000 on his armies return to Paris, the line dwindles to being very thin. Running parallel to the troop line is a temperature graph which shows the relationship between diminishing troops and declining temperatures. The map was presented as a large format fold-out book of exquisite details and colour tones. Minard also did a similar graphics of Hannibal’s army in Italy, the movement of travelers on the principal railroads in Europe, international distribution of French wines, cotton and coal. He was indeed the pioneer of the thematic cartographer and associated statistical graphics. Many of Minard’s maps were used for planning in an era of rapid growth in Europe. For example, his map of population distribution in Paris was used to determine the location of a new central post office. Naturally such visualisations of data resulted in the sacrifice of actual locational scale. Minard “forced the scales of the geographic features on his map to fit the data being portrayed”. With the power of 21st Century GIS Minard could have overcome this conflict of priorities in his visual representations. As the article on Minard shows he also was the father of other data representations such as pie and rose diagrams. His pie diagrams were not only showing percentages of representation (type of meat for example) but also the volume of meat produced in each district as proportional pies.
Minards’ output of beautiful hand drawn and coloured maps was prodigious and included an enormous range of topics. Of special interest are his maps showing the impact of the American Civil War on French trade, patterns of European immigration around the world in the 1860’s and the movement of ancient languages throughout Europe.
Considering the elaborate and intricate maps of Minard, could you imagine his output from the click of a GIS mouse. His story is truly inspiring and relevant for the teacher of GIS in schools and the tale it tells is that many of the visualisations and techniques GIS operatives use today are not new. What is new is the capacity we have to go beyond the dreams of people such as Minard and Snow with the intricacy, commensurateness of scale and data, visual impact and the complexity of overlay of our maps.
Also of great interest is the map work and spatial analysis of Florence Nightingale. After witnessing terrible sanitary conditions in the Crimea, in 1858 she wrote "Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration of the British Army." This document became annimportant text and included a range of maps based graphs she called "Coxcombs"(rose maps).
Such an historical approach to introducing and/or elaborating the applications of GIS in the classroom is well worth the consideration.

Towards a National Geography Curriculum

2008-11-13T11:26:00.000-08:00

Spatial Worlds Website

Picture descriptions:
Left image: Cold wasteland between northern Italy and Prague.
Right image: Cityscape over Nuremberg, Germany.

Adelaide, Australia: S: 34º 55' E: 138º 36'

It seems that the drive to have National Curriculum in Australia has finally got some steam up. Everywhere you go in the educational scene people are talking about the national curriculum and its impact on present state curricula. We all know it has been done and/or attempted in countries such as the US and UK for example but Australia has been a hard one to crack for the educational federalists. Previous efforts in the 80's and 90's in Australia resulted in watered down and in many cases toothless tigers in terms of a meaningful and implemented national curriculum. This push seems a little different with many saying that the teeth in this 'putsch' for a national curriculum is the federal governments determination to link assessment and funding to implementation. Proof of this determination can be seen in the recently passed Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority legislation which is being established in 2009.
So what!! What does this mean to geographical education and by association, spatial education. Pleasingly for Australian geographers, the Australian Government via the National Curriculum Board has identified geography as the discipline to be developed and implemented across Australia as part of the second phase of national curriculum implementation in 2011(history, science, math and english in the first phase). In the case of history the materials developed to date are strongly tied into pre-existing australian government documents such as the 'Civics and Citizenship Statements of Learning' and the 'Model for Australian History'. When geographers in Australia looked around for similar national geography curriculum documents as reference points for the National Curriculum Board to use when they commence their work on geography, it soon became apparent that no such documents existed. To remedy this situation and provide guidance to the national curriculum board in 2009, the Australian Geography Teachers' Association, the Institute of Australian Geographers and the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland have established in October 2008 an initiative called 'Towards a National Geography Curriculum'. In short, the aim of the project is to develop a document, after extensive consultation with geographers around Australia, which will provide guidance for the National Curriculum Board when it commences its work on geography in 2010. It is hoped that such consultation and synthesis within the geography community by the geography community will ensure that a truly representative and quality curriculum is developed by the National Curriculum Board. As is stated on the Towards a National Geography Curriculum website:
"We are preparing a paper titled Towards a National Geography Curriculum for Australia modelled on the National Curriculum Board’s proposed structures for the national curriculum for subjects in the first phase of its work. These will set out “the nature of knowledge involved, the ways in which knowledge is acquired and tested, a rationale for the choice of content …, and the broad scope and sequence of learning”."

This is an exciting time for geography in Australia and a once in a lifetime opportunity for the meaningful integration of technology into geographical education. If we are to develop a geography curriculum for students which reflects the needs of the 21st century, then it is imperative that we consider the amazing and enabling technologies which are available to geographers and the community worldwide on a daily basis. Such technologies should be our tools in schools to make sure that our subject has currency and is the social, economic and citzenship enabler it should be for young people. Keep posted on this one, hopefully it will provide a way forward for innovative and current geographical education in our schools. In the meantime put your views forward via the Towards a National Geography Curriculum on-line survey.

AGTA 2008 Conference gems

2008-10-15T22:48:00.000-07:00

Spatial Worlds Website

Picture descriptions:
Left image: Glasshouse Mountains from Caloundra.
Right image: Brisbane from the air.

Caloundra: S:26º 81' E:153º 12'

AGTA 2008 Conference in Queensland
As always conferences are a great time to get new ideas and have the time to look at some new websites. The AGTA Conference on the Sunshine Coast from September 28th to October 2nd was no exception. In this blog entry I will describe six things that I found of interest and immediate use.

1. A reducing world: using technology to bring the world into your classroom by using the iEARN and Take it Global website.

iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) at http://www.iearn.org/
iEARN is the world's largest non-profit global network that enables teachers and youth to use the Internet and other technologies to collaborate on projects that enhance learning and make a difference in the world.

Some useful sections of the site:

Carbon footprint http://of2.iearn.org/
Our Footprints, Our Future!" is an international initiative that encourages youth (ages 19 and younger) from around the world to use online tools and resources to measure their carbon footprint and develop ways to reduce their carbon usage. The goal is for one million students around the world to join together with their families, their schools, and their communities to reduce the total global carbon footprint.

Register now for Oct 13 - Dec 15, 2008 session of iEARN Online Professional Development Courses for educators. iEARN's 9-week courses bring together participants from around the world to develop plans and techniques for integrating global projects into the classroom. http://www.iearn.org/professional/online.html

Taking it global at
http://www.takingitglobal.org/tiged/
TakingITGlobal.org is an online community that connects youth to find inspiration, access information, get involved, and take action in their local and global communities. It's the world's most popular online community for young people interested in making a difference, with hundreds of thousands of unique visitors each month. TIG's highly interactive website provides a platform for expression, connection to opportunities, and support for action. Join now and connect with thousands of other young people around the world.

Media literacy booklet http://www.takingitglobal.org/tiged/
As media becomes more digital, everyone needs to learn how to get the most out of what they read, watch and listen to. TIGed's new Digital Media Literacy Primer is a great way for teachers to bring important information into their classrooms. With explanations of great online tools and suggestions on how to teach with them

Understanding issues section at http://www.takingitglobal.org/understand/
This section of TakingITGlobal helps you inform yourself about pressing global issues, and lets you explore TIG's Featured Theme archive

Games and fun at http://www.takingitglobal.org/games/
The flag game at http://www.takingitglobal.org/games/flag/ is worth a look for Geography classes.

2. The Cluster search engine at http://clusty.com/
If you are sick of searches on the Internet where you get pages and pages of unsorted finds. The Clusty search engine is your answer! Clusty sorts your search into clusters or categories. For example if you type in GIS you get the option on the left side of the results to view the jobs in GIS, countries and GIS, free GIS options, GIS portals, GIS history and many more categories. What a great facility to isolate your search requirements. If that doesn’t make sense just do the search and it will show you the potential of this engine for your searches.

3. The Picasa web image library at http://picasa.google. com/
This program can be downloaded free and is a great way to store your images on the web. Picasa enables you to organise your photos and store them in one place, edit your photos, create movies/collages/slideshows etc and to share the photos via web albums.
To compliment the Picasa program open up a Google account (if you have not already) and start using a Picasa web album http://picasaweb.google.com/home . The use of the Picasa web library is an imperative if you intend to upload images into Google Earth or Google maps. These programs only load images from the web and not from your hard drive.

4. Google SketchUp at http://sketchup.google.com/index.html is a great program to create 3D objects such as buildings and landscape objects. What is really amazing is that these 3D objects can then be imported into Google Earth as buildings etc. The program is easy to use, has excellent instructions for use and is an ideal educational tool to add 3D dimensions to mapping projects. The K-12 Education page is of particular use to the geography teacher interested in SketchUp.

5. Eduspace at http://www.eduspace.esa.int/eduspace/main.asp?ulang=en has some great images and educational materials. As usual well worth the look.
The EduSpace-site aims to give to the youth of Europe a portal to space applications and in particular to a wide-spread visibility of Earth Observation as co-ordinated by the European Space Agency (ESA) and its European and National Partners.

6. 3D in Google Earth at http://earth.google.com/
We have all played with Google Earth by now but I was surprised by the new 3D capability as evidenced at Uluru. A real addition is the ability to map a path and fly around in Google Earth via the flight simulator. While talking about virtual flight, check out the Microsoft Flight Simulator at http://www.microsoft.com/games/FlightSimulatorX/ This site is a flight game with realistic terrain, scenery and weather to deal with.

These are just a few of the gems I brought back from the conference and now need to learn how to use and apply to the classroom for teachers. If you want to view the conference presentations go to the AGTA site at http://www.agta.asn.au/conf08/presentations.htm
Well done to Bec Nicholas and David Lergessner for a great conference.

Spatial technology: omnipresent goodness versus insidious invasiveness

2008-09-15T15:18:00.000-07:00

Image description: The Clustrmaps image of the world showing the hits on the Spatialworlds blog from 27/9/07 - 19/9/08.

Spatial Worlds Website

Adelaide, Australia: S: 34º 55' E: 138º 36'

The pervasive technology
Many people talk about the pervasive nature of spatial technology. Even my blog uses spatial technology in the form of the cluster map which appears as the first blog entry. Cluster maps are basic dot maps which plot and quantify the hits on my blog. How amazing that the technology can record, plot, quantify and visually represent every person in the world who access my site. Cluster maps are free to add to websites and blogs and can be accessed via the cluster map site at http://www.clustrmaps.com/.
While I have only had 602 hits over the past 12 months (apparently not showing all the hits), what is really interesting to me are the places the blog has been accessed and having a relative idea of the places where the blog is most popular.
In summary, the locations which have used the blog the most are Hong Kong, Dallas, Melbourne, Washington, Sydney and Toronto. The blog has been accessed from 26 world locations, with the majority of hits being in the US and Australia. All interesting stuff but also something to contemplate. Whilst pervasive means omnipresent and everywhere, it also means insidious and invasive. I can't help thinking that there is something 'big brother' about knowing the location of all those in the world who access my blog. Such a capability of spatial technology is only the tip of the iceberg to the monitoring ability of spatial technology. For example, GPS technology is being used for parental monitoring of their children , avoiding domestic violence stalking and monitoring prisoners on home release. I am confident the majority of spatial technology is used for the common good of society but it is also a technology which can be put to ill-use in society. More recently the media outcry over the invasive nature of Google Maps Streetview highights the potential this technology has to be abused by those wanting to invade privacy and profit by invasive monitoring of individuals. While the nature of Streetview is obvious to the majority of the public due to its wide use, there are many more spatial technologies which impacts on our daily lifes and we don't even know it. For example how does the taxi company know where we are when we ring up and why do we get text messages when we are in some particular location? All spatial technologies!! Several great Youtube videos demonstrate through humour the fear in society of the invasive nature of spatial technology

For many citizens the publicity about Google Maps Streetview has just confirmed their fear of the insidious nature of technologies such as GIS and GPS. Much of this fear is out of ignorance and fear of the new. However we do need to make sure that the technology does remain philosophically sound for the common good of society. I am sure those in the Dark Ages had a similar fear of books! It is beholden on education systems to reduce the ignorance and fear of spatial technology. Only then can society be empowered to understand and even monitor this powerful technological monitoring tool. Maybe wishful thinking but worth a try.