Spatialworlds

The line between pleasure and pain!

2012-01-13T11:10:00.020+10:30

Images above: On the road through the Flinders Ranges, South Australia.

Related sites to the Spatialworlds project
Spatialworlds website
21st Century Geography Google Group
Australian Geography Teachers' Association website
'Towards a National Geography Curriculum' project website
Geography Teachers' Association of Southttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifh Australia website
Email contact
malcolm.mcinerney@gmail.com

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

Presentations to develop visual literacy in geography

“The wise man fears the serene sky, but when a storm comes he walks on the waves and challenges the wind” Confucius quotes

This posting was initiated by viewing the Slideshare collection called the Nubia Group. After checking out the Slideshare resource go to the Nubia groups blogpsot to view even more presentations.

The collection is a broad selection of things we may consider beautiful and fascinating about living in our world and things which cause pain to humanity. I have just selected the PowerPoints from the collection which may be of use to the geography classroom (I am sure there are many more) and recommend you to go through the rich collection of images and commentary contained within. A great resource for visual literacy work in the classroom. While about it go and have look at other geography relevant collections on Slideshare – an amazing resource to help create lessons and for student projects etc.

Pleasure ??????????

Earth art

From the sky Part 1

From the sky Part 2

Digital world – great images

Around the World

Children of the World

Brazil carnival

Chinese festivals

The Haj

Christmas across the globe

Ramadan
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/observing-ramadan
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/observing-ramadan-part2
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/observing-ramadan-part3

Chinese Gods

Beauty of Egypt

Indian wedding

Iceland landscapes

Amazing landscapes

Urban colours

Amazing shots from far ways
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/amazing-shots-from-far-away-2
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/amazing-shots-from-far-away

Nature photography

Great migrations

Beauty of Burma

Beauty of Norway

Beauty of Canada

Beauty of Scotland

Beauty of Ireland

Beauty of Dubai

Beauty of New Zealand

Afghanistan picture portrait

Scenes from China

Beauty of the Philippines

Beauty of China

Egypt
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/egypte-11
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/the-nile-river-egypt-2492855

Around the world in images

Amazing World

Pakistan portraits

Great images

India portrait

People of the World
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/eric-lafforgue-photographer-part2
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/eric-lafforgue-photographer-part1

Nomads of Tibet

Pain??????????

Save the Children

Mississippi floods 2011

Brazil floods 2011

Flood in Pakistan
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/flood-in-pakistan-part-12
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/flood-in-pakistan-part-11eid-in-refugee-camps
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/flood-in-pakistan-part02
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/flood-in-pakistan-2010

Water

Japan weeks after the Tsunami 2011
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/japan-one-week-later2011-march-18
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/japan-two-weeks-later-2011march-25
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/japan-earthquake-aftermath-2011-march13

Japan earthquake 2011

Atomic fallout: Japan 2011
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/japan-alarm-over-atomic-crisismarch-16
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/nuclear-disaster-threat-looms-over-japan-2011-march14

New Zealand earthquake 2011

China flooding 2011

Russian wildfires 2010

China landslides 2010

Pakistan in need –Aid
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/flood-in-pakistan-part4
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/pakistan-in-need-part-9
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/flood-in-pakistan-part-10angelina-jolie
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/flood-emergency-in-pakistan-is-not-over

Libya unrest 2011
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/libya-unrest-2011march-2
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/libya-massive-exode-and-un-sanctions
http://www.slideshare.net/Nubiagroup/libya-on-the-edge

Middle East violence

Crisis in Yemen

Haiti earthquake – two years on

Rich information: Real time and spatial

2012-01-12T09:48:00.009+10:30

Left image:Crossing the bridge at going home time.
Right image: Cityscape from a room above, Sydney.

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 new year welcome to Spatialworlds with this amazing real time spatial information site from Hungary. A great site of rich spatial information to start the Spatialworlds year.

Here is an amazing Emergency and Disaster Information site from Budapest, Hungary with the philosophy

"Nothing happens unexpectedly, everything has an indication,
we just have to observe the connections."

A philosophy that truly reflects the geographical concept of interconnection.

The Hungarian National Association of Radio Distress-Signalling and Infocommunications (RSOE) operates the Emergency and Disaster Information Service (EDIS) within the frame of its own website which has the objective to monitor and document all the events on the Earth which may cause disaster or emergency. The service uses the speed and the data spectrum of the internet to gather information. They monitor and process several foreign organisation's data to get quick and certified information.

The EDIS website operated together by the General-Directorate of National Disaster Management (OKF) and RSOE, in co-operation with the Crisis Management Centre of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, provides useful information regarding emergency situations and their prevention. Extraordinary events happening in Hungary, Europe and other areas of the World are being monitored in 24 hours per day. All events processed by RSOE EDIS are displayed near real time - for the sake of international compatibility - according to the CAP protocol on a secure website.

To ensure clear transparency all events are categorized separately in the RSS,XML, CAP directory (e.g. earthquake, fire, flood, landslide, nuclear event, tornado, volcano). RSOE EDIS also contributes in dissemination of the CAP protocol in Hungary.

Beside the official information, with the help of special programs nearly 9-1000 internet press publications are monitored and the publication containing predefined keywords are processed. However, these "news" cannot be considered as official and reliable information, but many times critical information is gathered from the internet press. They screen the incoming information and store in a central database sorted by category.

If the world was 100 people

This excellent video, one of my favourites to get the message across to students re: the nature and dimensions of human geography, has been updated and is up on YouTube for classroom use.

Educational think piece

An older but goody, always worth another look.

SA Geographers, not South Australian!

2011-12-02T09:32:00.023+10:30

Left image: Student working on a SA Spatial technology site. South Australian as opposed to South African!
Right image: A piece of farming history on Goyders line - the margins of the good earth in South Australia.

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

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

Connection with South African geographers via Google Groups

After meeting geography teacher, Bridget Fleming from South Africa in 2009, I have been a member of the South African Google Group. This group of inspiring and committed geography teachers in South Africa has been the source of many great spatial links which I have included in this Spatialworlds blog. If you want to join the group go to http://groups.google.com/group/sageographyteachers?hl=en
Everytime I see an SA addressed email from the group come in I think it is something South Australian ... but it is from our South African colleagues. Must be terribly confusing for the postal services having two countries being SA! Be aware that there is quite a bit of “chatter” with the group, much not that relevant to those outside of South Africa, but the group does supply some great Internet links and provides a real insight into an active geographical education community doing their best to keep pace with the ever-changing world of geography.
Here are just some of the latest links that I was sent from the group.

Where in the World? A Google Earth Puzzle
Some amazing images from Google Earth – fantastic examples of patterns and trending for spatial analysis. Looking at the world through Google Earth offers striking images of the diversity of our planet and the impact that humans have had on it. The site finds some great images and then challenges visitors to figure out where in the world each of the images is taken. North is not always up in the pictures, and, apart from a bit of contrast, they are unaltered images provided by Google and its mapping partners. You make your guesses, and see the score at the end of looking and guessing.

A great website for contour lines.
Contour maps of South African dams. Although maps/images of South African locations, this site is a great example of the practical recreational use of spatial technology. A dream site for the South African fisherperson and boatie.

Fun with projections
What your favourite projection says about you?

Spatial Reference website- Topographic Maps in South Africa
This service provides access to about 1600 topographic maps covering most of South Africa. These maps are electronic copies of the 1:50000 scale topographic maps. Detail such as road networks, contours and spot heights, trig beacons, land use definition (residential, nature reserves, plantations, industrial), farm boundaries, some services, dams and rivers are available on the maps making it useful for surveyors, town planners, engineers, navigation, flight planning, geography, etc...

Weather animations
A useful collection of animations to support the teaching of climate and weather.

Images from the NASA Earth Observatory
* An image everyday. Have a look at the image for today at

*Also check out the image galleries for topics such as natural hazards, human presence etc.

* Worth also looking at the global maps while on the site

This information is not from SA but from the US - Well worth considering.

Teaching with GIS: Introduction to Using GIS in the Classroom
Three free ESRI authored web courses of one hour duration. The ESRI website says:

"Today's students embrace technology outside the classroom, and, when used effectively, technology is an excellent tool to engage students inside the classroom as well. This course presents strategies for integrating GIS to support instruction, discussion, and extended learning on any topic. You will learn how to create and use GIS maps as a framework for understanding the geographic context of current and historical events and phenomena and exploring issues of interest to your local community. Many practical ideas for GIS activities that enhance student learning and critical thinking skills are shared."

Everyone is a Geographer!

2011-11-28T16:11:00.028+10:30

Left image: Rural landscape from the air, Port Lincoln, South Austraia.
Right image: Early morning over Hobart, Tasmania.

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

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

The impact of the Geospatial Revolution on geography in the community

How amazing is the Geospatial Revolution? Everyone I now is a geographer via the use of Google Earth, Google maps etc on their computer/iPad and the use of the plethora of Apps on their iPhones. People who say they know nothing about geography or spatial technology are in fact, the users of spatial technology, appliers of geographic skills and acquirers of geographic knowledge. This indeed is a revolution!! In this posting, first of many I think, I will identify some of my favourite geography orientated apps and those of others. Where will it stop, this Geospatial Revolution?

Apps you must have!!

To find the app listed below just go to the App Store on the iPhone or your computer and search.

Most of those listed are free or only 99 cents. Great value to play by oneself or adapt as a classroom activity using your SmartBoard or other sharing devices.

* Living Earth HD
A world clock, weather and alarm all in one. Includes a stunning live 3D simulation of the Earth.

* GPS
Gives you access to the iPhone’s GPS functionality. Includes street and topographic maps.

* Global Navigator
GPS navigation all over the world using Google Map with up to date maps and satellite images.

* iMapMyRUN and iMapMyRIDE
Map your run, ride and workout – logs distance, route, calories, elevation and much more. A runners best friend!! Voice prompts give you updates on your progress.

* GolfLogix: Golf GPS
Maps your game on the course, providing course imagery and tracking.

* Navfree GPS Live Australia and New Zealand
A navigation app that offers turn-by-turn navigation using high quality open-source map data.

* MetroView GPS Navigation
A complete Turn-By-Turn Navigation solution with Speed Alert.

* World Geography Trivia
Geography trivia with animations and sounds.

* Geogame World Series
The ultimate geography game to test your knowledge and help you learn.

* World Countries ALL-IN-ONE
19 educational geographic apps in one app: Countries factbooks, Wikitravel, phots, news and much more.

* iWorldQuiz
You are given a location to find and after guessing you will be scored according to speed and accuracy.

* Where Around The World
The goal of this app is to chase down and catch criminals by solving geography trivia clues and mini-puzzles.

* The Amazing Hunt Around the World
A puzzle game to solve real world puzzles and riddles by visiting real-world scary locations.

* ESRI ArcGIS
Maps come to life using ArcGIS online – a great way to discover and use maps.

* Quakefeed – World Earthquakes
Using ESRI base maps, see the earthquakes of the past 7 days with a magnitude greater than 2.5.

* Maps+
Browse Google maps to find out where you are, search the map, get directions with route alternatives, use location alarms etc.

* City Walks
Maps of 470 cities worldwide.

* History: Maps of World
A fun and educational collection of high resolution historical maps.

* Around me
Enables you to quickly find out information about your surroundings.

* World MapView
Up-to date World Maps on the iPhone.

* Your World
This app challenges you to learn where the countries of the world are located by placing them onto a 3D earth.

* Toilet Map (one of many around the world)
This app shows you where the closest toilet is to your location in London.

Thanks to Roger and Anita for the following apps – their favourites on their GISetc website

* SkySafari
The basic version of SkySafari 3 shows you 120,000 stars, plus 220 of the best-known star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies in the sky. It displays the Solar System’s major planets and moons using NASA spacecraft imagery, and includes the best-known asteroids and comets.

* Oh! Ranger
Although American in content it is a great App as an example of the power of spatial technology. “Oh, Ranger!" is a virtual guide to the outdoors.

* Geo Walk – 3D World Fact Book
Let’s say you want to find out what there is to know about Africa. Spin the globe until you find it and you will see African sights only. If you are interested in architectural wonders of the world – category filter will help! Try the Quiz afterwards to feel that you are getting smarter by the minute!

* Skyview
Skyview is a stargazing app that implements augmented reality to “explore the universe.”

* Geology AZ is the Arizona version of the first GIS (geographical information system) for the iPhone. This initial release focuses on the geology of the Grand Canyon state, and related data.

* iRecycle
Recycling is the easiest and most accessible way to get people plugged into sustainability.

* Project Noah
Project Noah’s ultimate goal is to build the go-to platform for documenting all the world’s organisms and through doing this we hope to develop an effective way to measure Mother Nature’s pulse.

* My Radar
This free radar app will center over your location and provide you with accurate, real time weather scans.

This listing is really just the tip of the “app iceberg”. The potential for the teaching of geography in the classroom (and student homework) is unlimited. The iPhone apps related to geography, which are many, is a gift for the geography teacher wanting to engage students in geographical skills and thinking. Why not use what is second nature for students, their iPhone. In fact, as I mentioned earlier in the posting, our community has become geographically/spatially literate via Google Maps/Earth and the iPhone apps without realising it - this includes students in geography classes, no longer satisfied with hand-drawn maps and black-line master.

Opening up the open source option!

2011-11-24T11:23:00.009+10:30

Images: Student 3D work using ArcView 3x

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'

Open Source GIS, which one??

Access to software such as open source (the license shall not require a royalty or other fee), is becoming a viable alternative for schools to expensive stand-alone vendor products. In previous Spatialworlds posting we have highlighted the availability of free GIS on-line products such as ESRI ArcGIS on-line , Spatial Genie , QGIS and GRASS.

It seems that on a monthly basis the number of such software choices is growing. Basic GIS open source programs can provide basic GIS functionality, including data input, map display, spatial query, attribute query and spatial analysis. There are also open source programs for remote sensing and 3D visualization.

In this posting I wish to highlight the importance of this trend to the achievability of using GIS in the classroom and some of the open source products I have not previously mentioned. An excellent spatial blog from Direction Magazine is planning to review many of these on-line open source GIS platforms in coming months. It is worth keeping an eye on this site if you are considering exploring the option of open source GIS.

These programs are proving to be popular for a range of reasons:
* they are a real option for the teacher who would like to explore the possibility of teaching GIS but does not have immediate financial support from their school to purchase GIS software.
* the software is an excellent option if students would like to install and try GIS software on their home computers.
* the immediacy of such software is attractive for the teacher who would like to use GIS with their students tomorrow (commercial GIS software will require more than one week to finalize the licensing with vendors. You can download and use open source software immediately).
* it is the way to go for schools with computers that are using non-Windows operating systems, such as MacOSX or Linux

Here are a few of the open source options we have not previously discussed.

* uDig is an open source desktop application framework, built with Eclipse Rich Client (RCP) technology. The uDig program can be downloaded from the site, as can free data and walk throughs to support the use of the program.

* gvSIG is another open source geographic information system (GIS), that is a desktop application designed for capturing, storing, handling, analyzing and deploying any kind of referenced geographic information in order to solve complex management and planning problems. gvSIG is known for having a user-friendly interface, being able to access the most common formats, both vector and raster ones. It features a wide range of tools for working with geographic-like information (query tools, layout creation, geoprocessing, networks, etc).

* The OpenGeo Suite combines the power of open source plus the reliability and support of a single, stable vendor behind a full stack of software. The OpenGeo Suite offers a fully-integrated open source geospatial platform for serving maps and data through web applications, mobile devices, and desktop clients. The OpenGeo Suite Enterprise Edition is comprised of tested, integrated and supported geospatial components GeoServer, OpenLayers, GeoWebCache, PostGIS and GeoExt

* GISVM is a free and ready to use anywhere Geographic Information System Virtual Machine. It is now available in three main versions; A full-feature GIS Desktop Workstation, a base GIS Desktop Virtual Machine and a full-feature GIS Server based exclusively on free Server GIS software:

The Open Source Foundation

While talking about open source GIS it is worth mentioning the Open Source Software for Geospatial initiative organized by Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). This is a foundation created to support the collaborative development of open source geospatial software, and promote its widespread use. The recent 2011 FOSS4G conference in Denver was focused on free and open source geospatial software. Open source is becoming so popular that the list of FOSS4G sponsors has been growing rapidly. Sponsors today include names such as ESRI, Google, MapQuest and USGIF.

I am sure this is just the tip of the iceberg and in the future (if not already), open source software will be the way to go for GIS in schools.

AGTA 2013: It's all happening!

2011-11-20T19:33:00.021+10:30

Left image:Yorke Peninsula, South Australia.
Right Image: Adelaide coastline, South Australia.

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

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

“Without geography, the world would be a mystery to us.”
David Lambert CEO, Geography Association of the UK

In regards to curriculum, David Lambert writes:

“A curriculum shaped by whim, the topics in the news and contemporary themes of "relevance" - or, worse still, policy imperatives laid down by the Government - is likely to be incoherent, shallow and like junk food: deeply unsatisfying after the initial fat and sugar rush.
A person growing up in the 21st century as a global citizen (and all that implies) is at a disadvantage without geographical knowledge - economically, culturally and politically. How can we make any of the personal decisions that already confront us every day about energy, food and water security without geographical knowledge? Understanding geographical perspectives contributes to our capabilities as educated individuals and members of society.”

Why am I quoting David Lambert? It seems like yesterday that I was talking about AGTA 2011 and the arrival of Dr Rita Gardner, Director of the RGS to be our keynote.

Well time has moved forward and we are now well into planning for AGTA 2013 in Perth, Western Australia. Only last night I got the good news that David Lambert and Simon Catling have accepted AGTA’s invitation to be keynotes at AGTA 2013.

As some of the most respected and influential educators in the area of school geography, I thought it worth profiling them in this posting and commence my work convincing anyone who visits this blog to get to Perth in January 2013 to join us at AGTA 2013 – it should be a great experience in many ways.

The Australian Geography Teachers Association (AGTA) conference for 2013, known as AGTA 2013 is to be held in Perth from January 7-10, 2013. For more information on the conference and expressions of interest to present just go to the AGTA site at http://www.agta.asn.au/conf2013/index.htm.

So why David and Simon as keynotes? I think the background on them that follows speaks for itself. Their CV’s shows that with both presenting, AGTA 2013 covers the needs of geography from F-12 in a way that maybe previous conference neglected.

With the Australian Curriculum: Geography being written and to be implemented for all years from F-12, then we must tackle the challenges of primary implementation. It is hoped that this broader focus for AGTA 2013 will attract primary educators who may have seen the work of AGTA in the past secondary-centric. With the investment in bringing Simon, a primary geography educator of enormous influence and David, one who has been intimately involved in the implementation of the UK National Curriculum for Geography from Reception to Year 12, we hope this view may change for this conference.

Professor David Lambert

In his book, “Global Perspectives in the Geography Curriculum”, David said:

“a decline in the subject's popularity in the early 1990s prompted attempts to make geography more 'relevant' to pupils.”

In many ways this has been David’s mission as he has guided the work of the GA in the UK - with considerable success.

These quotes from a recent article by David in the Telegraph are worth highlighting here to give a taste of the inspiring talk we will hear in Perth in 2013;

“Geography is the subject that contributes more than any other to young people’s knowledge of the world. Geography is not just important on its own account. It is a linking discipline, connecting to science, to the arts, to history and languages. In primary schools where geography in strong, the subject can help to knit the curriculum together as well as satisfy pupils' curiosity about people and places. In senior schools, geography offers the opportunity to develop a broader and very contemporary skill-set. It also helps many students to keep their options open, rather than having to narrow their courses down to either the sciences or the arts. Geography straddles both, using diverse sources and data, and asking challenging and engaging questions about the change pupils can see in the world around them.
In schools where geography teaching is weak – and especially where it is handled by non-specialists – children are denied these crucial elements of a broad and balanced education that will benefit them throughout their lives. Instead, they will have a narrower conception of the world, and will have missed out on the fieldwork that could teach them about the power of learning directly in particular places and environments.
In the end, geography isn't just about reciting a list of capital cities – although that can be an impressive party trick. It is the subject that contributes more than any other to young people's knowledge of the world, their understanding of the relationships between people and places, and their ability and propensity to think critically and creatively about the ways in which we affect the planet we live on.”

So who is David Lambert?

Professor David Lambert was a comprehensive school geography teacher before joining the Institute of Education in 1987. In 2002 he became Chief Executive of the Geographical Association, helping guide its development as a significant provider of CPD and a leader in funded curriculum development activity. From September 2007, he has combined this role with a return to the Institute of Education as Professor of Geography Education. His writing and research are concerned with curriculum development and assessment, and his overarching goal is to advance understanding of the role of geography in schools in relation to broad educational purposes
Of particular significance to our work with the Australian Curriculum: Geography is David’s thinking and work in his book “Teaching Geography 11-18: A Conceptual Approach”.

"This is a must read for all 11-18 geography educators. It argues for a new geography curriculum founded on a set of major concepts that are profoundly relevant to 21st century life. For years, books on 11-18 geography education have focussed on classroom techniques, new pedagogic technologies and alternative modes of student assessment.. It asks not only what geography is for, but bases its answer on a set of key concepts able to sustain an exciting and relevant curriculum. ".
Professor Noel Castree, University of Manchester, UK

This engaging and stimulating book from David aims to radically re-shape and sharpen debates in geography education by asking several key questions:
• What is the place of geography within the secondary school curriculum?
• To what extent does school geography reflect and engage with contemporary issues and theories from the wider subject?
• What are the issues, challenges and opportunities of a concept-led approach to teaching geography?
• What are the implications of ICT, media and technology for the future of geography teaching in schools?

These are questions that we in Australia developing the Australian Curriculum: Geography consistently ask. David has said to me that there are strong parallels between what they have been through with the National Curriculum for Geography in the UK and what we are presently immersed in with ACARA in Australia. His keynote I am sure will be a highlight at the conference and will further inform our approaches as we head towards the implementation stage in 2013.

I can’t resist putting this quote as a footnote to my comments on David.

"If we think education in its broadest sense is important, then geography is important too. Thinking geographically helps us understand ourselves in the world... or, as our manifesto says, helps us travel with a different view. If geography, as it is laid out in the manifesto, were not part of the curriculum then we'd risk turning out young people who were only partially educated." - July 2009

Professor Simon Catling

Simon is the Professor in Primary Education in the School of Education - Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Simon's academic and research interests are:
• Young children’s geographies and their relationship to geographical education.
• Younger children’s ideas about geography.
• Geographical education and curriculum development in the Foundations Stage and Primary School curriculum.
• The representation of geography in commercial books on geography published for younger children.
• Student teachers’ geographical knowledge, understanding, values and attitudes.
• The role and value of geography professional learning for primary teachers.
Simon has written much on the subject of geography and map learning for teachers and children.

Simon’s specialist interest is in children’s geographical learning , a unique endeavour in the geographical education world and one which deserves continued attention. Recognised as the world leader in this area we are certainly fortunate to have Simon as our keynote at AGTA 2013. I plan to write more in reference to Simon's work and primary school geography in coming months.

A vision by the system: visualising data

2011-11-11T11:56:00.019+10:30

Left image, Mt Wellington early morning, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
Right Image: Constitution Dock, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

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

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

A systems initiative to support data visualization in the classroom

Last week I attended another Education Services Australia (ESA) Data Visualisation Workshop in Melbourne. This is the fourth workshop I have been involved with on this ESA project to create a platform and resources for teachers to use in the classroom whilst teaching topics/subjects requiring the use, analysis and visualisation of data. This is a highly significant initiative for the area of spatial education because of the projects promotion of grahicacy, data visualization and the use of spatial technology in our schools. The system 'buy-in' to the area many of us have been working on for years will be a great catalyst for the diffusion of the skills, tools and analysis of spatial literacy in our schools. Whilst interested in the data aspect of the project, my major interest in the project is the development by the education bureaucracy in Australia of a spatial platform with supporting spatial data for use in the classroom. As mentioned before, Data Genie and Spatial Genie are now operational on the Internet and teachers are able to access the program and associated data for classroom use. The workshop was attended by data and spatial education relevant learning area representatives and institutions such as the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute, Academy of Science, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSRIO), Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), representatives from jurisdictions such as myself and Queensland Education, ESA and ACARA. I was also at the meeting representing AGTA, as was Mick Law from the Queensland Geography Teachers' Association. The workshop was aimed at outlining ESA’s plans to develop on-line professional learning resources for teachers and to develop learning infrastructures and resources around key spatial and data Internet sites. Most importantly, the resources are to be linked directly into the Australian Curriculum for History, Mathematics, Science and Geography through the Australian Curriculum Connect project. Interestingly it was commented by the ESA representatives at the meeting that there are hardly any geography learning objects available through delivery systems such as Scootle and that this is an area where there needs to be significant investment over the next 18 months. Work was also conducted on further development on the functionality of Spatial Genie and what else needs to be done to develop strategic partnerships with and between ESA and spatial software providers.

Whilst the day was interesting to explore issues of resource development and preferred pedagogies using data, I was particularly interested in some of the spatial sites demonstrated by Michael Gehling, ESA project officer for this initiative. Here are some of the sites providing free platforms, data sources and spatial representations that may be of interest to the spatial educator;

* Tableausoftware
A great resource to help people see and understand data.
Free trial
http://www.tableausoftware.com/learn/gallery
http://www.tableausoftware.com/products/reader

* Atlas of Living Australia
The Atlas of Living Australia is a joint initiative to build a national database of our flora and fauna. The project brings together a huge array of information on Australia’s biodiversity, accessible through a single website. Partners in this collaborative project include CSIRO, museums, herbaria, other biological collections, the Australian Government and the community.

* Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Science
The Land Use of Australia, Version 4, 2005-06, is a land use map of Australia for the year 2005-06. The non-agricultural land uses are drawn from existing digital maps covering six themes: topographic features, catchment scale land use, protected areas, world heritage areas, tenure and forest cover.

* Australian Natural Resources Data Library and Atlas
http://adl.brs.gov.au/anrdl/php/anrdlSearch.html
http://www.anra.gov.au/topics/index.html
The Australian Natural Resources Atlas was developed by the National Land and Water Resources Audit to provide online access to information to support natural resource management. The Atlas is managed and maintained within the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. The Atlas comprises of a number of tools and information on Australia's natural resources:
• Australia's Resources Online: Generate a report containing the latest available data on Australia's natural resources against the Natural Resource Management Monitoring and Evaluation framework.
• Map Maker: View and query the data from the Atlas or make a map of a region of interest
The information in the Atlas is organised by topic and geography. There are eleven topics to choose from in the Atlas:
• Agriculture: agricultural resources
• Coasts: coastal environments.
• Dryland salinity: causes and impacts of dryland salinity
• Irrigation: sustainable irrigation
• Land: land resources
• Natural resource economics: economics and natural resource management
• People: Australians and the management of natural resources
• Rangelands: monitoring the status and trends in the rangelands
• Soils: Australian soil properties
• Vegetation and biodiversity: biological resources
• Water: use, availability, quality and management
With maps and data scattered throughout, this is a great site for the geographer. The social atlas is particular useful for the geographer

* Mapserver
MapServer is an Open Source platform for publishing spatial data and interactive mapping applications to the web. Download at http://mapserver.org/download.html#download

* Google Fusion Tables
Gather, visualize and share your data online
Google Fusion Tables is a modern data management and publishing web application that makes it easy to host, manage, collaborate on, visualize, and publish data tables online. Visualize and publish your data as maps, timelines and charts, host your data tables online and combine data from multiple people.
Have a look at the Google Fusion Example gallery to see the potential of this free site.

* uDig
uDig is an open source (LGPL) desktop application framework, built with Eclipse Rich Client (RCP) technology. Just download the platform at and use the Quick start to get underway.

* Grass GIS
Commonly referred to as GRASS, this is free Geographic Information System (GIS) software used for geospatial data management and analysis, image processing, graphics/maps production, spatial modeling, and visualization. GRASS is currently used in academic and commercial settings around the world, as well as by many governmental agencies and environmental consulting companies.

* Data Worldbank
Browse, map, graph, or download data by country, topic on over 4000 indicators. A rich source of spatial data.

* Sentinel site: Bushfire warning live by GIS
A site from Geoscience Australia with layers that can be manipulated, topographic down to 250K topo and Bureau of Meteorology Infrared layers. KML files can also be downloaded to use in Google Earth.

Playing with profiling

2011-11-10T18:02:00.010+10:30

Images: Granite Island, Victor Harbor, South Australia.

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

Where am I??
Melbourne, Australia: S: 37º 47' E: 144º 58'

Profiling the ‘GIS friendly teacher’

In previous postings I have explored the factors which are impeding the use of GIS in the classroom. Many of the factors such as data availability, software cost, network capacity and curriculum materials have been overcome in recent years. Basically I have surmised that the one remaining factor which is holding back the introduction of spatial technologies such as GIS in schools is ‘teacher factor’. In no way do I wish to be negative towards our teaching colleagues but when one considers the ease at which students pick up GIS, the only remaining impediment in many cases is the capacity and inclination of teachers to learn, feel comfortable with and integrate spatial technology into their teaching. One of the recommendations from my Churchill Fellowship report in 2007 was the suggestion that we need to build a profile for the 'GIS friendly teacher' so as to be able to identify the teachers most likely to take on the seemingly ominous learning curve to learn and integrate spatial technology into their teaching. I consider that such a profile is an important planning component as we develop face-face professional learning and professional on-line resources for teachers to support the introduction of GIS as one of the key skills of the Australian Curriculum: Geography.

It must be stated that the data acquisition, data retrieval, file management demands, often unforgiving procedures (no undo icon) and the multiplicity of functionality of the GIS software and processes makes it a unique type of technology and a demanding and risky business for teachers considering using GIS in the classroom setting.

In this posting I hope to flesh this out a bit more. Please note that these are only my observations of GIS friendly teachers after years working with and encouraging teachers to engage with spatial technology in their classroom – not based in research at all. I am sure such teacher profiling is a much needed structured study by some doctoral student somewhere in the world. A quantitative profiling study of GIS early adopters certainly would be useful to inform our work in this area in the future.

So what, according to my anecdotal and qualitative data, is the profile of the teacher most likely to be innovative and committed to use spatial technology in their classroom? Let’s for just a while forget about all the technical reasons that are put forward to explain the slow uptake of GIS in the classroom and let’s look at the very human personality traits of teachers which we must work with to make GIS in the classroom happen.

A GIS friendly teacher is:

• confident in their geographical thinking and understanding of geographical concepts
• one who needs to explore new ways for students to learn and grow
• committed to develop as a professional and learn ‘state of the art’ technology for learning in their area of study
• prepared to spend time on a regular basis to learn GIS over an extended time period
• prepared to develop a rudimentary understanding of the functional skills of GIS – either by following ‘how to do’ resources or attending professional learning activities on GIS
• able to spend time with students to develop core GIS skills and understandings so as to provide a foundation for using the technology
• prepared to be seen as not knowing the answer
• not afraid to be seen as making a mistake – a risk taker in the eyes of students and not the font of all knowledge
• comfortable with group work and a peer support ethos in their classroom
• prepared to reward student initiative and innovation – not always saying what is next – students have a degree of empowerment, often acted out as negotiating the curriculum processes
• comfortable to encourage students to find the solution/s and way forward when ‘stuck’ – not relying on the teacher to know the answer
• willing to let go of the talk and chalk approach and let students find out for themselves
• committed to learning through doing - using GIS as experiential learning
• aware of GIS applications in the real world, knows the relevance of GIS to society and can translate industry applications of GIS to classroom practice
• prepared to justify and even demand the use of ICT facilities in their school
• able to integrate the use of GIS into many areas of the curriculum they deliver – not an add-on but an integrative tool in their classroom
• prepared to engage the community and local area with the use of GIS in their classroom – they see a real world practical application of the technology for their students and classroom
• one who sees themselves as the facilitator of the learning process using GIS, to guide student reflection and analysis when using GIS
• prepared to be flexible, willing to change processes and direction in-tune with the capacity of the software i.e. being prepared to change and adapt when the software is not performing adequately or new potential of the software is discovered
• not constrained or compliant with system demands in terms of curriculum coverage or testing imperatives – an individual prepared to be a risk taker• prepared to change pedagogy and approaches and move out of their comfort zone. Some would say that the use of a technology such as GIS is pedagogical change ‘through the back door.”
• one who sees the use of GIS as non-negotiable if we are teaching 21st Century geography.

In short, the GIS friendly teacher is one who is committed to classroom and pedagogical change, able to see the real world relevance of the software to their learning area and students, prepared to learn to use the software beyond the cursory and willing to take a risk in the classroom.

As a posting my comments are generalisations and are in no way saying that to teach with GIS a teacher must be all of the above or even most of the above. Again, from my observations I do say that there are some commonalities between teachers who have been the early adopters with the use of spatial technology. Teacher uptake is certainly not based on age, socio-economic status of the student group, educational qualifications of the teacher, wealth of the school or other factors which are often identified as reasons for the embracing of various educational practices. I think it really comes down to the personality profile of the teacher and their comfort in particular pedagogical approaches using this unique software. The risk-taking innovative teacher prepared to change their pedagogy seems to be the profile. In fact, such a profile could be the case for any teacher prepared to move out of their comfort zone and embrace change. With GIS this change capacity is even further accentuated by the demands of the unique software and the implications for pedagogy the use of GIS demands.

Addressing this impediment is a tough one for those saying that GIS is a skill and tool that must be integrated into a 21st Century Geography curriculum. Awareness of the profile of the ‘GIS friendly teacher’ is important when we design programs to help all teachers be prepared to embark on the GIS learning curve and use GIS in their classroom. We need to design ‘smart’ professional learning and resources to support the ‘GIS friendly’ and ‘non-GIS friendly’ profiled teachers. We need to use the ‘GIS friendly’ early adopter teachers in this work to bring others along on the journey. For those who have made the journey and are using GIS in their classroom, there is no looking back. These teachers often say to me that they “could not imagine teaching geography without using spatial technology.”

Our US GIS colleagues

2011-11-08T16:16:00.006+10:30

Left image: Emus in a creek, Flinders Ranges, South Australia.
Right image: Rural South Australia, 100 kilometres North of Adelaide.

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'

GISetc.com

In this posting I will profile the GIS site of Anita and Roger Palmer, GIS specialists in Dallas and good friends of Australian geography and geographers. Over the years Roger and Anita have been regular attendees at Australian Geography conferences and have been extremely supportive and innovative drivers of GIS in schools through the development of learning resources and workshops. The workshops they conduct when they visit are always “state of the art” and inspiring to those who attend. Back in 2007 I had the good fortune to spend several days with Roger and Anita visiting schools in the Dallas area. It was great to see the practical and real use of GIS in the classrooms we visited.

Roger and Anita also offer GIS Institutes annually with participants coming from the United States, Canada, England, and New Zealand. GISetc has developed a training model that is effective for beginners to advanced users of computer technology in geospatial and general technologies. I
I see that another of our US GIS colleagues, Barbaree Ash Duke is also a contributor to the GISetc.com site. Barbaree does some great work concerning GIS in the classroom and has a great blog called “GIS in Education and Curriculum Integration”. Barbaree’s blog is certainly worth following to go through her substantial archive.

Their website, GISetc.com is full of resources and good ideas to support the use of spatial technology in the classroom. As they say on the site, the mission of GISetc.com is to:

“provide cutting-edge GIS professional development, curriculum and software support to K-12 and post-secondary educators and students. Our goal is to advance education, improve quality of curricula, provide authentic research and learning projects, and to provide teacher training and skill development in an atmosphere of discovery.”

It certainly lives up to this aim by providing links to:

*free resources

* GIS games and fun

* Conference presentations

* GIS Happenings

* Books and resources via the GISetc.com shop

I have just highlighted a few of the free resource links from the site here to give a taste of the sites value to the GIS interested.

* Scary maps

* Exploring super cities

* 7 Million people

* Cartography and Indiana Jones

* Last month the extent of sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean declined to the second-lowest extent on record. Review satellite data from NASA, watch videos and read about the phenomenon.

I look forward to report more on Anita and Roger’s site in the future.

It keeps on coming!

2011-10-31T14:42:00.025+10:30

Left image: Bridge over the Derwent River, Hobart, Tasmania.
Right image: Perth across the Swan River, Western Australia.

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

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

It keeps on coming! Platforms, data and curriculum materials for using GIS in the classroom

Increasingly GIS platforms, data and curriculum materials are becoming available to support the use of GIS in the classroom. Some of the following are free on the Internet or available from Geography Teachers’ Associations in Australia for very reasonable prices to support teachers in introducing practical applications of GIS in the classroom. Add recent Spatialworlds postings on Spatial Genie and Arc GIS-online, it is becoming obvious that it is not due to lack or cost of software, data or teaching materials why GIS is not used widely in our schools. As resources and platforms keep coming available for teachers, it seems that the only thing holding back universal implementation of GIS classrooms across Australia is the need for professional learning to build teacher capacity to use this amazing software. This will be the task for us over coming years I am sure.

* Quantum GIS (QGIS)

I have been increasingly hearing about this free GIS platform - it is worth a look for thsoe interested in looking around for a free GIS software option to meet their needs. Quantum GIS (QGIS) is a powerful and user friendly Open Source Geographic Information System (GIS) that runs on Linux, Unix, Mac OSX, and Windows. QGIS supports vector, raster, and database formats. QGIS is licensed under the GNU Public License.
http://www.qgis.org/wiki/Download
The current version of QGIS 1.7.1 was released on 29 September 2011 and is available on Windows, MacOS X and Linux. Quantum GIS is open source software. For testing and learning purpose, a sample dataset is provided which contains collections of data from different sources and in different formats.

* Madmappers

Madmappers is a South African site that allows GIS users of ESRI or QGIS to download topographic sheets in MrSid (multiresolution seamless image database) format. For ArcView 3.x users you can set your extensions in properties to read MrSid format. The benefit of this format is that you could attach a number of topographic sheets seamlessly and make up a map that covers areas in different graticules. You can print a topographic map with a 1:50 000 scale with grid lines and grid squares. Maps could be printed on A4 or A3 paper. If you print them on A3 paper you can add other images along with the map e.g. street view images from Google that show features on the map as well as the conventional symbols. The map can be exported in jpeg format and inserted into PowerPoint presentations.
QGIS users can add a plugin to read MrSid maps. The benefit is that these maps are available free on the net.

* GTASA’s “Taking GIS to the classroom resource”

The Geography Teachers Association of South Australia (GTASA) has recently launched a new resource to work with GIS in the classroom. The book is called "Taking GIS to the classroom", written by Ross Johnson, and is available from the GTASA ($35 for members and $85 for non-members). The resource is ideal for teacher and student use as an attractive and easy to use reference resource to learn about geographic information systems!! Data and learning videos are supplied on a CD with the book! Topics covered in the book include: GIS terms and tools, creating a map of your local area, creating your own geographic areas, thematic maps, creating buffers, using GIS to analyse, data use and dot density maps. Contact the CEASA office to purchase a copy.

* AGTA’s “21st Century Geography” GIS resource
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
The 21st Century DVD contains outstanding collection of teaching resources, including spatial technologies/GIS units. The DVD contains articles and resources on 21st century Geography and the following books on using GIS in the classroom:
* GIS skills development course
* Using GIS in Physical Geography
* Historical GIS
These books come with course process and activities chapters supported by free GIS data. To order a copy for $95 just go to the AGTA site.

* GTASA’s “GIS in the Field” book

This resource was designed to provide practical classroom application of GIS. Although the book is written for ESRI ArcView 3, the processes, data and activities can be translated to other software programs and has been a very important product in Australia for the meaningful and achievable use of GIS in the classroom.
Content of the “GIS in the Field” book includes
• Introduction to using GIS in the classroom.
• The basics of ESRI ArcView GIS.
• Getting started with ArcView GIS: Thematic mapping.
• Skate park location.
• Pest plant location.
• Bushfire application.
• Real Estate application.
• Streetscape application.
• Wasp nest application.
• Environmental management: revegetation.
Contact the CEASA office at ceasa@ceasa.asn.au to purchase a copy of this resource.

TinkerPlots
Not GIS but something of interest to those wanting students to understand and analyse data visualisations. TinkerPlots software is designed to get students in grades 4-8 excited about what they can learn from data. Students can analyze data by creating colourful visual representations that will help them make sense out of real data and recognize patterns as they unfold. TinkerPlots can be previewed for a 20 minute sessions with print, save, copy, and paste disabled. You will need to purchase a license to unlock the full feature set!

* Great population personalisation and visualisations from the BBC
The world's population is expected to hit seven billion in the next few weeks. After growing very slowly for most of human history, the number of people on Earth has more than doubled in the last 50 years. Where do you fit into this story of human life? Fill in your date of birth below to find out.

* Nothing to do with GIS but … A video showing the debris from the Japan tsunami heading to Hawaii – amazing ocean currents

* Dam blown up to allow river to flow naturally again. Brilliant time lapse and has links to prior videos for this river.

* Historical Geographttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhy - Everest not highest mountain!!!! ...and Sea-view Hill at 6,500’ was the highest point in Australia. Some great old Victorian visualisations to look at.

* Earth observation site from NASA: Global Maps NASA satellites give us a global view of what’s happening on our planet. Earth’s climate system change from month to month,http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif click on the maps on the site.

* Browse the fantastic images from the NASA Earth Observatory site

A spatial-centric view of the Australian Curriculum: Geography

2011-10-21T13:50:00.007+10:30

Left image:.Sydney CBD.
Right image: On the tarmac, Sydney.

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??
Hobart, Australia: S: 42º 50' E: 147º 20'

Draft Australian Curriculum: Geography goes up for consultation

Last night, the draft Australian Curriculum: Geography scope and sequence went live for public consultation on the ACARA Curriculum portal. After months of working on the aims, rationale, content, skills and achievement standards, we finally have a curriculum available for everyone in Australia to comment on – not just those targeted few in the form of the writers, advisors, geography associations and jurisdictions. Such selected input is the only way to go during the frantic stages of development, but now it is time to hear from everyone interested. The purpose of this Spatialworlds posting is to have a selected glance with an eye on the spatial. Such a spatial-centric look does not devalue all the other components of the curriculum but it is an attempt to identify the extent and quality of the reference to spatial thinking and the promotion of the use and application of spatial technology. What would one expect from this blog?

* Spatial orientated excerpts from the Rationale

“Geography is a structured way of exploring, analysing and explaining the characteristics of the places that make up our world, through perspectives based on the concepts of place, space and environment. Students of geography investigate the effects of location and distance on the characteristics of places, the consequences of the interconnections between places, the significance of spatial distributions, and the management of the space that is the surface of the earth.
Fieldwork, the mapping and interpretation of spatial distributions, and the use of spatial technologies are fundamental geographical skills. Through their inquiries students also develop a wide range of general skills and capabilities, including information and communication technology (ICT) skills, an appreciation of different perspectives, an understanding of ethical principles, a capacity for teamwork and an ability to think critically and creatively. These skills and capabilities can be applied in everyday life and to a variety of careers.”

* Spatial orientated aims of the curriculum

• the ability to think geographically, based on an understanding of the concepts of place, space, environment, interconnection, sustainability, scale and change
• the capacity to be competent, critical and creative users of geographical inquiry methods and skills

* Inquiry and skills in a spatial context

A glance through the F-10 skills sequences described in the document for each year level shows that there is adequate reference and emphasis to the use of spatial technology, application and analysis. I am sure these will be fine-tuned and made clearer and more overt as a result of the consultation processes over coming months.

For example in the structure of the curriculum section it is said that:

“There is an emphasis on the techniques that geographers use in the field and in the classroom. Students learn to think critically about the methods used to obtain information, analyse and interpret it, in order to communicate their findings.
Key skills which are progressively developed throughout the F-12 draft Australian Curriculum: Geography include (but are not limited to) formulating a question and research action plan that is of a specific geographical nature, developing observation recording skills including diagrams such as field sketches, interpreting and developing maps, tables, photographs, satellite images, diagrams, graphs and other data, using a variety of spatial technologies and communicating with appropriate and relevant geographical vocabulary.”

* The Inquiry model outlined in the document

The place and importance of spatial technologies, applications and analysis plays a central role throughout the inquiry model forwarded in the paper i.e.

Observing and questioning: Developing questions about something that has been observed, experienced or thought about.
Planning, collecting and evaluating: Deciding how to investigate a question or find an answer to a problem, and identifying possible answers to test; collecting information from a variety of primary sources and secondary sources, such as text-based resources, statistics, images, maps, aerial photographs, satellite images, samples and objects, fieldwork, sketches, interviews, and reports; and evaluating information for reliability and bias.
Processing, analysing, interpreting and concluding: Making sense of the information gathered through textual analysis and interpretation, by processing it into maps, tables, graphs and diagrams. Identifying order, diversity, trends, patterns, anomalies, generalisations and cause and effect relationships, using quantitative and qualitative methods appropriate to the type of inquiry; and interpreting the results of this analysis and developing conclusions.
Communicating: Communicating the results of investigations using combinations of communication methods (verbal, audio, graphical, visual, mapping and text-based), which are appropriate to the subject matter, purpose and audience.
Reflecting and responding: Reflecting on the findings of the investigation and relating these findings to existing knowledge; reflecting on the process of the inquiry, and on the strengths and weaknesses of the method of investigation chosen; deciding what action is needed in response to the results of the investigation, by applying the criteria of environmental sustainability, economic costs and benefits, and social justice; and reflecting on the actions.

* Space as a key concept in the curriculum

“The concept of space, in geography, is the three-dimensional surface of the earth. … geography studies difference across space and the rich diversity of environments, peoples, cultures and economies that exist together on the surface of the earth.”

Students develop a progressively deeper understanding of the role of space by:
o investigating the spatial distribution of geographical phenomena and explaining them, often by looking for a similarity between several distributions
o learning how to evaluate the environmental, economic, social and political consequences of particular spatial distributions
o studying the influence of absolute and relative location on the characteristics of places and on people’s lives
o investigating the ways that space is structured, organised and managed by people for different purposes

* Implications for teaching, assessment and reporting
“Students’ interest in geographical learning should be stimulated by a wide variety of activities, such as field trips, interpretation of remotely sensed images …”

* Content at a glance

Foundation: Where we live
Y1: Not everywhere is the same
Y2: Links to our world
Y3 and Y4: How we live
Y5: Climate and activities
Y6: Going global
Y7. Why do people live where they do
Environmental resources: Water plus
Y8: Personal and community geographies
Landscapes
Y9. Biomes and food security
Navigating global connections
Y10. Global well-being
Environmental challenges and geography

* The reference to spatial in the Content and Elaborations

The F-12 content identified above is obviously of great interest to teachers and as stated on-line; the content is to be explored by developing the ability of students “to see the relationships between geographical concepts (place, space, environment, interconnection, sustainability, scale and change.
Naturally many in the world of spatial thinking and spatial technology would have liked to see more in the curriculum which overtly refers to the use of spatial technology and applications. As Mick La w recently commented on this blog:

“It goes without saying that I think a much stronger emphasis should be placed on spatial technologies, particularly given the role they play in the workforce today.”

I think that the references to things spatial and associated technology in the curriculum, cited in this posting, gives plenty of license for the promotion of such in the teaching and learning programs which are to be developed for the Australian Curriculum: Geography.
An enlightened view on such matters is particularly evident in the Year 10 Unit titled: Environmental challenges and Geography when it is stated that students are to be taught that:

“Spatial technologies can be employed to visualise, map and analyse the distribution, causes and possible solutions to the environmental challenge”
and as an elaboration students may:
* investigating spatial technologies used by geographers working on environmental challenges
* analysing the causes of the challenge and to develop possible, probable and preferred futures
* recognising the value of spatial technologies as a geographical tool in geographical inquiry and in a wide range of practical applications
* investigating and discussing how professional geographers use geographical tools, thinking and skills in their work.

Let’s see what the consultation, which is open to February, says on this question. Hopefully we have plenty of comments on the need to have spatial technology, applications and analysis “up front and centre” in the curriculum and that modern geography needs to explore the spatial and use all the technology and applications used in the vocational and community world of geography – as I have referred to as Spatialworlds in this blog.

The place of place in space?

2011-10-20T12:19:00.010+10:30

Left image: Red dust, strata and vegetation, Flinders Ranges, South Australia.
Right image: Sunset across the plains, Flinders Ranges, South Australia.

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

Where am I??
Hobart, Australia: S: 42º 50' E: 147º 20'

Place and space: the difference?

In previous postings I have explored the nature of the concepts of place and space. An outcome of such discussion is usually a need to articulate the difference between place and space for the non-geographer (and geographer in fact). What essentially is the difference?

The following work from Massey and Cresswell is a very useful delineation of the difference between place and space:

“Space and place are often merged together in the geographical imagination but space is more abstract than place. We begin with undifferentiated expanses of space and then we identify with certain parts of space, get to know them better endow them with value, then name and identify them as places. It is people that form place. Space is a locale that is made into a place by human intent. A place is given its personality by human relationships across space. It is produced through connections to the rest of the world, particularly the movement of people but also commodities and ideas (Massey,1991, Cresswell, 2004).”

Most importantly it is the humanistic interpretation of place that is at the centre of place study for the cultural geographer. This sense of place is fundamental when exploring the connection of people to place and their sense of place. However the term sense of place has been defined and used in many different ways by many different people.

“To some, it is a characteristic that some geographic places have and some do not, while to others it is a feeling or perception held by people (not by the place itself). It is often used in relation to those characteristics that make a place special or unique, as well as to those that foster a sense of authentic human attachment and belonging.”

Others, such as geographer Yi-Fu-Tuan have pointed to senses of place that are not inherently "positive," such as fear.”

The work of Yi-Fu-Tuan is particular interesting in this area. His work called “Topophilia: a study of environmental perception, attitudes, and values” had significant impact on the area of human geography since the 1970’s and is an area I would love to see geography classes engage in.

Topophilia means literally love of place. It is a term used to describe the strong sense of place or identity among certain people It can be defined widely so as to include all emotional connections between physical environment and human beings.

In 2001 I conducted a GIS project with my students, called Streetscapes, which on a small scale I tried to get students to determine through specific criteria why every street has a different feel and sense of place.

In fact, to add or clarify the confusion about place and space, Yi-Fu-Tuan contends in his book Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, that:

“… place is defined as a particular part of space that can be occupied, unoccupied, real, or perceived.”
“a space requires a movement from a place to another place. Similarly, a place requires a space to be a place. Hence, the two notions are co-dependent.”

Yi-Fu-Tuan went on to say that:

“…the ways in which people feel and think about space, how they form attachments to home, neighborhood, and nation, and how feelings about space and place are affected by the sense of time. He suggests that place is security and space is freedom: we are attached to the one and long for the other.”

As what often happen in this area of geographical conceptualisation, one can get more confused the further one reads. Can I suggest that a read of some of Yi-Fu-Tuan’s work is well worthwhile to see that place and space are more than just dimensions and patterns to be mapped but are determined by human perception, sense of belonging and attachment. It certainly enriches the study of the key concepts of place and space in the Australian Curriculum: Geography. The following edited extracts from the draft Australian Curriculum: Geography released this week clearly shows that the writers have been influenced by the modern geographical work on place and space outlined above. For example:

Place

“A place is a specific part of the Earth’s surface that has been named and given meaning by people, and these meanings may differ. The concept of place, however, goes well beyond the study of places and is about a way of understanding, explaining and thinking. In particular in involves exploring people’s aesthetic, emotional, cultural and spiritual connections with places; the role of places in their own feelings of identity, sense of place and belonging; and the ways they experience and use places. It is to be recognised that places may be altered and remade by people, and that changes promoted by one group may be contested by others.”

Space

“Space in geography is the three-dimensional surface of the Earth. While history studies change over time, geography studies difference across space, and has a particular interest in understanding the rich diversity of environments, peoples, cultures and economies that exist together on the surface of the Earth.
The study of space in geography recognises that people perceive and use spaces differently, and may feel accepted and safe in some and unwelcome or unsafe in others.”

Citing sites: worth a look!

2011-10-17T16:30:00.016+10:30

Left image: Just rocks!
Right image: Adelaide from the air: grid patterns.

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'

Some geography sites to have a look at.

* Strange maps: Something different
This blog collects and comments on all kinds of intriguing maps—real, fictional, and what-if ones. His map "US States Renamed For Countries With Similar GDPs" has been viewed more than 587,000 times. An anthology of maps from this blog was published by Penguin in 2009 and can be purchased from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. An amazing array of different maps to get the mind going and thinking out of the square about maps.

* Mission: Explore, a project to engage young people with geography in new ways has recently been relaunched. On the site at http://www.missionexplore.net you will discover over 100 activities, a Geography Awareness Week badge and much more. Your organisation can even become a partner challenger and create your own activities and challenges on the site if you would like.

*Geo Tweets worth following:
http://twitter.com/geocollective
http://twitter.com/missionexplore

* Our Cool School site at brings sustainability and environment into the classroom - providing educators with engaging, fun and informative learning activities on a whole range of topics.This site is an Australian first and is free to use. Learning activities are year level specific (years 1-10) and linked to curriculum standards, including physical, personal and social learning. Discipline-based learning as well as interdisciplinary learning are also addressed. Complete units of work can simply be downloaded from the Cool School and taken straight into the classroom. There is a strong emphasis on ease of use for educators. The Cool School encourages students to work on what they can do to help our environment, without being overwhelmed by the greater challenges we all face. The site concentrates on helping students have a positive impact on their own world so they can apply their knowledge with confidence to the broader community.
The site is updated daily to bring educators the most relevant news on our environment with an emphasis on ease of use and quick understanding.

* Educational resources from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Latest curriculum related teaching resources, student activities and statistical tools that have been developed by ABS Education Services as well as other ABS resources that are useful for schools
The 2011 data tables for CensusAtSchool are now available on the CensusAtSchool homepage. You'll find links to the National summary tables and National time series under the red 'Data' section.

* Geography Teachers Asssociation of New South Wales have some excellent resource links up on their site at http://www.gtansw.org.au/resources.php In particular have a look at Pat Beesons recent presentation at the GTANSW conference on population resources for geography teachers is worth a look at http://www.gtansw.org.au/files/resources/2011/Beeson_P20110903.pdf
While on the topic of population, here are some interesting articles recently published in the Washington Post and New Scientist.

Part 4 of Watch this space: Space, more than just spatial science

2011-10-12T12:38:00.019+10:30

Left image: Petrel Cave, Victor Harbor.
Right image: Setting sun over Sydney Harbour.

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'

Space, more than just spatial science

Nick Hutchinson, AGTA's “thinker in residence”, contends in his excellent paper, Space: moving beyond spatial science to engage Australian students with Asian geography that “geography is much, much more than the branch of science concerned with identifying and describing the Earth, utilising spatial awareness to try and understand why things exist in specific locations.”

In the paper Nick highlights the current debates about space in contemporary human geography and suggests that such a perspective/s should have significant implication for geography teachers and the Australian Curriculum, Geography.

Nick has for some time been discussing the nature and complexity of space beyond the mechanistic view. In his paper Nick describes and analyses the myriad of perspectives which have been developed by academic geographers to discuss the nature of space in geography. At the beginning of his paper Nick provides a view of the space concepts as many of us see it.

“Space is one of the more important geographical ideas. It is a highly complex term
that is used and understood in a variety of ways (Crang & Thrift, 2000, 1). It is most commonly thought of as a great expanse extending in all directions, a vast canvas on which geographers work to describe the earth, and an expanse that extends from personal space to the global. Within this vast space, or over portions of it, all material objects are located. This is the space of explorers, map makers, field study, and of Geographical Information System analysis. This is the geographer’s palette where they work on the assumption that where things are located in space has some significance.”

Nick highlights the criticism of spatial science which focusses on our desire to construct human geography as an autonomous science of the spatial. There is a growing need for geographers to emphasise the importance of incorporating social relations and processes into spatial analysis. Indeed, space has began to be thought of as something that is produced by human activity. By the 1980s space was ‘seen not merely as an arena in which social life unfolds, but rather as a medium through which social relationships are produced and reproduced'. (Gregory & Urry, 1985, 3).

It is the human perspective of space that Nick considers needs to have greater credence in our thinking about space. Nick actually quotes the definition of space I developed in trepidation in a previous Spatialworlds posting. I agree my definition is very mechanistic in nature and after reading Nick’s article I feel that there is room to move the definition out of the science approach to a more humanistic perspective.

As Nick says:
“geography is much, much more than the branch of science concerned with identifying and describing the Earth, utilising spatial awareness to try and understand why things exist in specific locations.”

In no way could I do justice to Nick’s well researched and analytical article (will try to give a reference to it when Nick puts it on-line) but I think it is useful to highlight and provide links to some of the key space concepts and subordinate concepts Nick highlights in his discussion and articulation of space.

Absolute space (subordinate concepts: spatial patterns, location, spatial association, spatial interaction, movement, network, nodes, hierarchies, spatial distributions, spatial structure and organisation, spatial, relationships, directional orientation, distance, relative position)

Social space (subordinate concepts: socially-produced space, conceived space, spaces of representation, perceived space, spatial practice, lived space, representational space)

Thirdspace (subordinate concepts: spatiality, Firstspace, Secondspace, Thirdspace, ‘making of geographies’, ‘out of place’ people) Thirdspace is to be explored spatially, ‘to improve the world in some significant way’. The concept of thirdspace can be broadly used to highlight the ‘othering’ of geographical space and social spatiality.
Read more on thirdspace

Space given meaning by human endeavour (subordinate concepts: ‘time–space compression’, space of flows, Dreaming spaces and learning tracks, personal space, virtual space, real space.)

Relative space (subordinate concepts: relative space, topological space, relative space, ‘time–space compression)

Relational space (subordinate concepts: fluid space, social space, Cartesian and
Euclidian space, the nature of space, conceptualisations of space, space as a Conjuncture

Nick's article focusses on a new way of looking at space, with the subordinate concepts: spaces shaped by social relations, social relations shaped by space–‘geography matters’, power geometries, ready-made space, space in the making, hierarchies of power in space, scaled space, heterogeneous space, space under construction, bodily space and performative space being fascinating areas to investigate for teh geographer. For example, the authors of Living Geography look at futures, in terms of sustainable development, global dimensions: living in the wider world, applying geographical thinking to life, death and disease, as well as advocating the use of digital and spatial technologies to explore space.

So in summary, traditionally contemporary school geographies have dealt 'primarily with ‘absolute space’, the space that is broadly taken for granted in western societies and naively assumes sense of space as emptiness – but it is only one way in which space can be conceptualised.’ Nick contends that this more complex, humanistic and open-ended view of space would provide a wonderful opportunity for school geography to develop a more sophisticated treatment of all that we study.

My question, as I struggled to understand some of the intellectualising on space; is how do we translate to the teachers and in turn students the complexity of this work on space without creating great confusion and irrelevance?

I agree with Nick when he says:

“Let us continue to scratch our heads, theorise and change our minds about the concept of space and the spatial…”
The fact that we have trouble creating a definitive definition for space is strength and adds to the richness of the discipline, a discipline always evolving and being re-interpreted. Such debate and discussion on a key concept can only add to the quality of geography in schools but we must keep touch with the realities of everyday teaching and learning in school geography.

Spatial Citizenship: Why not?

2011-10-10T10:49:00.013+10:30

Left image:The River Murray from the air, near Murray Bridge in South Australia.
Right image:Sydney Harbour on a busy and sunny Friday afternoon.

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??
Sydney: S: 34º 0' E: 151º 0'

The spatial capacity: An ignored competency / essential learning / capability

"Location-based services are becoming pervasive. Spatial awareness and geo-understanding are core competences which need to be developed to enable citizens to contribute meaningfully to these shared digital environments. Critical evaluation of the information available is also essential where maps and other visualisations frequently tell lies at their worst and half-truths at their best." Donert 2009

There are more than just vocational and learning objectives reasons for the use of spatial technology and applications in schools.

It can argued, the development of spatial literacy/thinking and the associated use of spatial technology is equally about the development of the citizenship capacity of young people.

Increasingly, there is research and commentary on the importance of “the spatial” when we look at the suite of citizenship skills required to develop a functional, positive and empowered citizen in a democracy. I know it is yet another term but the area of spatial citizenship and the expression itself is beginning to gain currency in the geography community. Many see the concept as serving a useful purpose in promoting the importance of spatial thinking and spatial technologies in the curriculum. However the expression spatial citizenship is not about using spatial skills and technology to map politics as discussed in a previous Spatialworlds posting, it is about building citizenship capacity via an awareness, use and application of spatial thinking and associated technologies – both good and bad. Because of the power of spatial thinking and pervasiveness of spatial technology in our society in the 21st Century it is in beholden upon education to ensure that young people are fully aware of and skilled in the way of spatial thinking and the use of technology which can impact greatly upon them as citizens.

Spatial citizenship capacity has become especially acute due to the georevolution over the past few decades , as evidenced in these two quotes:

“The capacity of spatial systems means that over 80% of all data is now attached to place.”

“ … over the past 15 to 20 years there has been a massive revolution happening in both the private and public sector, as geography has proved to be a fundamental part of the processes on which these commercial and non-commercial organisations rely. Roy Laming ESRI (UK) CEO

Although spatial citizenship is a new expression, what we are talking about is hardly new when we consider the importance and application of geography for young people (as citizens now, not what some talk about suspended citizenship for young people). The following quotes from the UK highlight the shifting focus for geography to be seen as an important subject for citizenship and community cohesion in 21st Century societies.

“We live in a constantly changing and interacting world – geography is the study of how political, economic, social and environmental processes shape, differentiate and change places and regions.” Dr Rita Gardner.

"Geography, in the way it brings together the human and the natural – physical, the social and the environmental, people and place, equips a 21st geography curriculum with the power of integrative thinking that will allow them to navigate the ethical dilemmas our era of supercomplexity presents.”
Curriculum Development: Producing Geographers for the 21st Century B Whalley 2011, Journal of Geography in Higher Education

The role of geography as a potential community cohesion builder is further supported by the site which states that:

“Increasingly Europe is seeing spatial knowledge, awareness ands skills as a core dimension of citizenship – learning to live positively with difference and diversity.”

Through their Living Geography” initiative the GA in the UK continues to promote the idea of geography promoting community cohesions.

“… the area of COMMUNITY COHESION: something which has been in the news recently, and an area which geography should make a major contribution towards.”

Another angle on the reasons for spatial thinking and spatial technology use in our schools is the desire to ensue that citizens are fully aware of the power and potential of the technology to do good and bad in our society. To be aware of a technology is to be armed against its mis-use and/or mis-representation of what the data or visualizations are showing. Just like statistics spatial representations and analysis are only as objective and fair as the person carrying out the application. There needs to be a degree of critical analysis by citizens to ensure that it is not abused or used for the wrong purposes. Potential “Big Brother” or “Nanny State” technologies such as spatial technology must be accountable by citizens to be used for the “common good”.

The importance of spatial citizenship (maybe not as that expression) is certainly recognized in the Australian Curriculum: Geography when we quote one of the 5 aims of the Australian Curriculum: Geography
* as informed, responsible and active citizens who can contribute to the development of a sustainable and socially just world.
ACARA Australian Curriculum: Geography draft scope and sequence

If geographers in Australia believe in this aim as a fundamental reason why we are teaching geography, then we should begin to talk about spatial citizenship, and use it as an expression, as core rationale of what, how and why we want students to develop their spatial thinking and capacity related to the world they live in now (not just the world they will enter at 18 as an Australian citizen).

The following 2010 definition of spatial citizenship by Gryl, Jekel and Donert is a good stating point in our attempt to clarify the concept. We may need to add such a definition to the geography glossary in the future as we continue to promote the idea of spatial citizenship as a major driver for the inclusion of geography and the use of spatial technology in the curriculum.

“A spatial citizen should be able to interpret and critically reflect on spatial representations, communicate with the aid of maps and other spatial representations and … express location-specific opinions using spatial technologies and/or geo-media.”

More than a tool!

2011-09-30T11:35:00.024+09:30

Left image: Working on GIS with geography teachers at the high school in Madang (learning AEJEE program to get started). One computer in the school and no Internet - a different education setting. Throw in a data projector and GIS can happen for classes. Hope to get one to the school next year to make it happen.
Right image: Daily market in Madang; smells, taste and life.

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'

Spatial applications is what it is all about!

When talking about spatial matters we often speak about spatial technology and applications. As mentioned in a previous posting there are some concise descriptions of spatial technology; but what is meant by the expression spatial applications? After searching for a concise definition of spatial applications I found the actual definition is quite fuzzy but for our purposes we can suggest that:
“Spatial applications refer to the use of spatial technology, skills and techniques to address a ‘real world’ issue, problem or phenomena. Another way of looking at it could be the applying of spatial tools, techniques and analysis to a wide range of environmental phenomena and human pursuits.”

Probably the best way to demonstrate what is meant by spatial applications is to showcase a range of uses of spatial technology.

“Spatial information is found within applications as diverse as ambulance dispatch services; bushfire management; and commercial asset mapping - these are all core business for the SI industry.”

In this posting I am going to profile several Internet sites which demonstrate powerfully the application of spatial technology. In fact, the reason most of us who are so keen to get spatial technologies, such as GIS, into schools is not just for students to play with the technological tool. Rather, we see the potential of spatial technology to apply the use of the technology, as an inquiry and/or problem solving tool, to various issues, problems and phenomena which they come across in their everyday life and study. As a result, it can be used in geography, science,
history and many other learning areas as a tool to enhance learning. Here are some applications via the CSRI SI, ESRI and GIS Zone sites.

1 The Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CSR SI)is a joint Australian venture of government, academic and private sector organisations using spatial technologies to solve complex problems of national significance. The site showcases the use of spatial technology for:

* Bike recreation
* Decision making and planning
* Disaster response i.e. Chrischurch example
* Health care
* Climate change impacts
* Mining
* Environmental mapping i.e turtles
* State planning

The site also contains some excellent videos on:

* Geospatial Industry
* Spatial and Government
* Spatial and Security
* Spatial and the world

2. The ESRI Australia site also profiles a diverse list of spatial application from bushfire management, cemetery mapping, local council asset management to cultural sensitive mapping

A few other ESRI sites also are useful to show the limitless application of spatial technology in our society

* Crime mapping
* Spatial applications case studies
*Law enforcement
*Industries using GIS
*Geotech

3. GIS Zone

This is a great site from the UK Ordnance Survey for students to get an understanding of the application of spatial technology to floods, shopping, wind power, ambulance services, farming and crime. Created as missions, this is by far the best “student friendly” site around to drive the point home in regards to spatial applications. The site is also supported with teacher notes and other GIS resources/knowledge for students.

4. GIS career sites

Sometimes the best way to show application is to profile those who work in the spatial industry. Here are several sites which may be useful to “join the dots” on this topic.
http://edcommunity.esri.com/im/videos/
http://geoinfo.sdsu.edu/hightech/GISCareerLinks_li.htm
http://gislounge.com/gis-career-resources/

Whilst talking about careers and spatial industry it is worth looking at the Surveying & Spatial Sciences Institute’s site.
The site gives a worthwhile insight into the industry applications of the technology.

I hope this posting has highlighted that the use of spatial technology in schools is more than playing with the tool. The focus in schools should be on the application of the tool for meaningful inquiry and/or problem solving as well as students being aware and proficient in the use of the technology. Only then can we truly justify the expense, teacher time and curriculum placement we require to integrate spatial technology in the classroom.

As the draft Australian Curriculum: Geography says:

“The unit provides the opportunity for students to use their geographical thinking, skills and technological tools to examine some environmental challenges that will affect their future lives, and to find out how geography contributes to the understanding and management of these challenges. Students are to recognise the value of spatial technology as a tool in geographical inquiry and in a wide range of practical applications”

Hurdles almost too high!

2011-09-28T18:25:00.010+09:30

Left image: GIS students at a Washington School.
Right image: Students at work on GIS in a Toronto school, Canada.

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'

We are not computer whizzes but…

Working with spatial technology can throw up some challenges for teachers who are not ICT experts, and that is plenty of us. Even if the teacher is very proficient at ‘driving’ the software, that does not mean that they have the ICT expertise to fix the engine when there are problems. Once we decide to play in the spatial technology space we come across issues and problems which need to be mastered, whether that is operating the platform or installing programs. I came across one such problem this week which I thought it worth sharing. It is such a simple thing for the ICT savvy but often a hurdle too high for the classroom teacher.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, it is good to start with a simple and free program such as ESRI AEJEE to get teachers, especially in the primary school, engaged with GIS. Good plan but… The problem was that I had no trouble installing the program on computers running Microsoft XP but it just did not happen when trying to install on Windows Vista or Windows 7. Naturally that was the operating software at the primary school I was working in and I had a problem! Nothing is ever simple and straightforward when working with ICT! After much trial and error I did get the program loaded and was able to help the teachers to get started with GIS. I hope this blog entry saves you the anguish and the hours we spent solving this problem. I am sure an ICT person would have solved it in no time but for many of us that person is not around or just not savvy with the uniqueness of GIS software. Having said that, an ICT person was brought into the school and could not get the program working – answer was that the program did not work on the school network! However I knew it would but how!!

Here is the story of how to get out of the ‘paper bag’ when installing the ESRI AEJEE software.

1. Problem: program installed perfectly on Windows XP and previous Windows versions. On Vista it seemed to install OK but had no functionality – that is, could not get up Attribute Tables or do Thematic mapping etc (could only view Shapefiles). On Windows 7 the installing process happened but then nothing – no AEJEE program!

2. After many hours of installing and not getting the program functional, even after the computer said it was installed, I decided to go to the ESRI Education Blog.I then found a posting and chatter about how to load the program on Vista.

3. Why didn’t I do it 20 hours earlier? Anyway, it told me to right click the ‘Install’ icon and open the ‘Compatibility’ tab.

“In the Compatibility tab, check the box next to “Run this program in compatibility mode for” and select Windows XP using the pull-down menu. Click on OK. Double-click on the installer and use the installation wizard to install the program. When installation is complete, you will find AEJEE under All Programs > AEJEE.”

Easy and it worked on Vista … but what about Windows 7. It still did not work!! Time for a drink!!

4. However for AEJEE to work on Windows 7 I could not find a blog entry to tell me what to do. Only through trial and error and a lot of time I found that I needed to go through the same process but this time go to the compatibility tab and select “Vista Service Pack 2”. Why didn’t I know that? Anyway it all worked and I could get down to working with the teachers to use GIS with AEJEE.

All was a sensational success after these ‘teething problems’ and I now have 5 keen and enthusiastic teachers from F-7 at the primary school, proficient in using GIS via AEJEE and ready to do some great spatial technology work with their students using the draft Australian Curriculum: Geography (once it is released on October 10th). It will be interesting to see what they come up with as F-7 teachers using GIS in their classroom. However without someone to come in and solve the problem they may have never got past the installation stage! We need support for teachers to embark on the GIS learning curve within the education and curriculum setting.

I have already talked about this in previous blog postings – I am sure there will be plenty more to say as we enter the implementation stage of the Australian Curriculum: Geography.

This is just one example of ICT anxiety, expertise problems and hurdles almost too high! We must reduce the hurdles and provide support to make spatial technology such as GIS happen in the classroom.

Hope this blog entry helps those thinking of using the ESRI AEJEE program. Go to http://edcommunity.esri.com/software/aejee/ to download. This is just one of many frustrating stories I am sure – do they all have happy endings?

Why don’t they get it?

2011-09-24T22:03:00.020+09:30

Left image: Main sqaure, Brussells.
Right image: Along the Thames at night.

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'

Why is the spatial message not getting out into the community?

“It is estimated that the geospatial job market right now is growing by 35 percent annually.”
Dr. Christopher Sutton, professor of geography at Western Illinois University: Geography Matters! The Importance of Geographic Literacy in Liberal Arts Education.

“With the explosion of access to spatial data and spatially enabled tools, such as cellular phones and vehicle navigation systems, these technologies are also quickly becoming an essential part of everyday lives and have a rapidly growing need for a workforce skilled in Geospatial Technology” says Mr. Sarvis.

Such statements are frequently stated by those involved in the spatial industry or teachers promoting the use of geospatial technology and applications in education. It is as "clear as the nose on our face" that the spatial industry is a growing industry and deserves to have a place in the education of the young as a vocational entitlement and as a citizenship capacity builder. The question that keeps on being asked by some of us is; "why don't others get the fact that there is a huge industry linked to this technology we can and should be using in schools??"

One of the basic problems is that we have many terms for the same thing. Maybe we need to settle on a definition for what we are talking about and clearly articulate and promote the agreed definition consistently across the school, tertiary and industry sectors. I recently came across this definition from the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology in the central Pennsylvania region. It certainly is clear and concise as a description of the technologies and applications we are on about.

"Geospatial Technology is a collective term referring to technologies that collect, store, query, analyze, visualize and present spatial information. The three primary technologies that comprise Geospatial Technology are Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Remote Sensing. With these core technologies spatial data can be captured and used across a wide variety of disciplines including environmental, commercial, political, social, medical, military, and emergency response. In fact over 80% of all data has a spatial component that can benefit from, and be integrated within, Geospatial Technology."

These issues came home to me with a bang on Thursday when I attended the
Surveying and Spatial Science Institutes’ National Spatial Education and Careers Summit in Canberra. The meeting was a think tank and planning event attended by the key stakeholders in the spatial inhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifdustry. Many of those attending have been working for years to get the community aware of the industry and the educational and career opportunities available. Unfortunately, I think all would agree, that despite the all pervasiveness of spatial information and technology available and readily used by the community, the community does not identify or indeed recognise that there is a spatial industry, let alone aware of the opportunities available. A previous Spatialworlds posting (after I had attended teh last SSSI Summit in April 2008) described the worth of the industry.

The discussion paper by the Cooperative Research Centre - Spatial Information (CRCSI) presented at this year’s summit may be useful for the spatial promoter to spruke when arguing for curriculum time or resources for geospatial technology and applications. Here are just several relevant extracts:

“The workforces of Australia and New Zealand are suffering from a critical shortage of spatial professionals. Both Australia and New Zealand tertiary education sectors that are not producing sufficient graduates to meet demand and are struggling to maintain adequate levels of funding for long term viability. This is compounding Australia and New Zealand’s long term skills shortage.

Recent estimates by the Spatial Industries Business Association (SIBA) Australia put the current labour shortage of spatial professionals in the Australian workforce at up to 3,000 to 4,000 people. The Allen Consulting Group (2010) estimated in a report to the Department of Sustainability and Environment that the number of full-time equivalents of spatial professionals in the Australian workforce was about 51,000 people and about 13,400 for New Zealand. The shortage of spatial professionals is compounded by two factors; an aging workforce and a lack of new graduates.

There is good evidence that the spatial industry, both domestically and internationally, is growing at a sustained rate of 10 to 15% per annum. ACIL Tasman (2008) estimated that the Australian spatial industry currently contributes about $10 billion to Australian GDP and in a similar study for New Zealand also in 2008 estimated the industry was contributing about $1.2 billion to the economy. There is substantial evidence that the spatial industry in Australia and New Zealand will continue to grow at its current rate for at least the next five driven by innovation in the technologies. This will be fuelled by new spatial technologies that are known to be on their way to market and by known lack of penetration of current technologies in many market areas in Australia and New Zealand. The skilled capacity shortage is therefore likely to worsen.
Despite this shortage the tertiary sector is not producing enough spatial science graduates to satisfy the needs of industry. Other than continuing to employ people from overseas, the only solution is for the academic institutions to increase their graduate output. Ironically many universities in Australia and New Zealand offering a professional education in the spatial sciences have been experiencing difficulty for many years in attracting adequate numbers of students into their programs from both secondary school leavers and mature age workers. This is true despite the strong external industry demand for graduates and the efforts of various groups and organisations to encourage secondary school students into spatial science programs at the tertiary level.
There is an expanding demand for people with spatial skills in a growing number of disciplines that are not explicitly spatial in their own right. This demand has sprung from the ‘mainstreaming’ of spatial information and the increasing dependence of industry and the community more broadly on spatial information for a wide range of business, social and personal activities. The increasing demand for spatial information throughout the community and across many industry sectors gives rise to an opportunity to “mainstream” spatial information education. Spatial skills, at varying levels, need to be taught to students in a wide variety of disciplines at university level.”

The forum heard that the reasons students are not choosing a career in spatial science are:
1. Ignorance of the diversity of the spatial profession and what it offers
2. Lack of attraction (e.g. popular appeal, job satisfaction, career esteem, ill defined industry
3. Perceived limited career prospects- through unwareness of the industry by careers and subject counsellors in schools
4. Lack of industry identity (what is it - surveying, geomatics, spatial science, geospatial science, spatial information science?)
5. Lower real wages than some of the better known alternatives such as engineering, planning and architecture

With an understanding of the human resources situation facing the spatial industry, the threats to spatial science departments in universities due to low enrolments, the low profile of spatial technology and geography in schools and the unfathomable lack of awareness of the industry and its opportunities in the community; the summit set about finding some answers.

I can't report that the answers were “nailed down” but they were certainly identified. Following the summit a high level group is to be formed to develop a strategic plan to address the situation. Naturally whatever plans are made the major task of this group will be to access funds to have people on the ground to actually carry through the strategies. The day was a very positive start and I look forward to hear about what is to happen next. I feel positive after the day. The summit was particularly interested in the Australian Curriculum: Geography and its engagement with the spatial industry and technology. We hope that the Australian Curriculum: Geography will give a “leg-up” in schools to the awareness of spatial technology and the associated industry. Throughout the curriculum in terms of skills and understandings, the concept of space and spatial technology are evident. As I said in the paper presented to the summit:

The curriculum is based around seven concepts, one of which is space. Two important components of the curriculum advocated by AGTA is the inclusion of the use of spatial technology and spatial analysis as key skills and the expectation that fieldwork is to be an integral part of a geographical education.

As quoted from the Australia Curriculum: Geography rationale:

“Fieldwork, the mapping and interpretation of spatial distributions, and the use of spatial technologies are fundamental geographical skills.

Of particular interest is the Year 10 unit on Challenges which provides the opportunity to use spatial technology and examine the relevance of geography to the spatial industry."

The unit provides the opportunity for students to use their geographical thinking, skills and technological tools to examine some environmental challenges that will affect their future lives, and to find out how geography contributes to the understanding and management of these challenges.”
“Students are to recognise the value of spatial technology as a tool in geographical inquiry and in a wide range of practical applications.”

In conclusion, the summit agreed that we need to address “... what can be done to lift awareness and appeal amongst school age children, their parents and teachers? This question needs more thought – not more of the same.”
Here’s hoping!!

“I’m a geographer, frankly, I’m proud of that fact ..."

2011-09-20T09:21:00.016+09:30

Left image: Duncan Chessell, adventurer and explorer; is he a geographer through action?
Right image:Are these characters geographers? The answer is yes; geography teachers at the January 2011 AGTA conference in Adelaide. What an advert for being a geographer!?

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'

Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be. John Lennon (a famous geographer?)

I read on a blog from a Geography Associate Professor in the US today that:

“I’m a geographer, frankly, I’m proud of that fact even if I have to explain when I meet someone exactly what it is a geographer does.”

I then came home and my son who is studying geography at Adelaide University told me he just does not know where it is taking him and he wants to do a course which he can see where he is going. Hence this blog entry! As geographers we face the challenge of explaining to the community and young people in our schools that modern geography is going places (sorry for the pun) and that if you do geography then there is an exciting future. For this blog I have gathered a range of Internet sites and YouTube videos to provide guidance for those asking:
* What is geography?
* Where can a geography qualification take me?

What is Geography?
http://www.rgs.org/GeographyToday/What+is+geography.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHFaMnbcTcs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwbToV-FvsU

Investigating geography
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG3I1seYryY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIin5ds9ne8

On a previous Spatialworlds blog posting I had a go at discussing the question; What makes geography geography? Interestingly, even this rather “safe” dissertation on what is geography is somewhat contentious when one considers the emphasis on Place in modern geography. As you can imagine my take was very much focussed on the spatial (as is the angle that from Harper College that I quote below).
As the work on the concepts in the Australian Curriculum: Geography has shown, the answer when defining modern geography lies in creating a conceptual basis that embraces the concepts of Place, Space, Environment and the other key concepts of Interconnection, Change, Sustainability and Scale. More on that in another posting when the scope and sequence is released next month.

When looking around for a definition of geography I came across the following very spatial angle from Harper College when they said:
Geographers try to answer three questions:
1.Where?
2.Why there?
3.Why do we care?

“Geographers can study anything that has a significant spatial component. Geographers concentrate on the "where" and by doing this they may be able to gain a better understanding of what is being studied than if the "where" were ignored. This is the "Spatial Perspective" that is peculiar to the study of geography. This perspective is useful in a wide variety of fields and therefore you have a wide variety of sub-disciplines in the field of geography (like political geography, cultural geography, physical geography, etc.). Businesses use geography when they decide WHERE to locate a new plant. Real estate developers use geography when they decide WHERE to build a new housing development. You have used geography when you decided WHERE to look for a job, or WHERE to go on vacation, or WHERE to go to school. If the WHERE is important, then geographers can study it.”

Whilst on the spatial and spatial literacy, here is the latest Powerpoint from Sarah Bednarz and Karen Kemp called ‘Understanding and Nurturing Spatial Literacy'. Challenging Questions.’ Worth a read and some of the thinking and questions are excellent.

As the Australian Curriculum: Geography has been written, we have also struggled with creating a concise and accurate definition of modern geography.

The January 2011 Australian Curriculum: Geography Shape Paper said:

“Geography is the investigation and understanding of the earth and its features and the distribution of life on earth, including human life and its impacts. It is the study of the many different “places”, or environments, which make up our world and is described as “the why of where”. Places are specific areas of the Earth’s surface, and can range from a locality to a country to a major world region. Geography answers our questions about why places have their particular environmental and human characteristics; how and why these characteristics vary from place to place; how places are connected, and how and why they are changing. Geography examines these questions on all scales, from the local to the global, and over time periods that range from a few years to thousands of years.”

When the draft scope and sequence is released by Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority(ACARA) on October 10th it will be interesting as to whether the definition has changed and if so, in what way/s. More on that on October 11th!! What is important, is that we must clearly articulate all the nuances and characteristics of modern geography before we can talk about where it takes us. Such clarity will help us enunciate all the areas of human endeavour which can be illuminated by geography and in turn be seen through the work of geographers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbgai3dK16Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM4Q4yuSUPk

So when my son comes home from cricket practice tonight (he thinks cricket will get him somewhere but geography won’t!! - who knows though!), I will point him in the direction of the great resources which have been developed by universities, geography associations and individuals around the world. It may not help to change his mind but could be useful for geography teachers struggling to promote geography in their school and amongst their students.

Profiles of geographers from the Royal Geographical Society
* Geographical
* New Vistas

From the Geographical Association in the UK

From the Association of American Geographers

Geography jobs
http://www.geographyjobs.com/
http://www.geog.mcgill.ca/other/jobsingeog.html
http://geography.about.com/od/careersingeography/a/jobsgeography.htm

Going places with geography
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27p2k1oot80
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExB7-xzAVLc&feature=related

Specific career skills related to GIS
http://www.prweb.com/releases/GIS/Webinar/prweb8798132.htm

The Australian Geography Teachers Association (AGTA) has also had a go at profiling geographers on the Geocareers website.

As the site says:
“The GeoCareers website is a resource especially designed to provide students with information about careers based on the study of Geography at secondary school or a tertiary institution such as a university or college.”

Finally, I came across this site of geography jokes. As they say; “any publicity is good publicity” but geography jokes just reinforce the old view of what geography is and what geographers do! But some are fun!

All about spatial literacy... and free on-line

2011-09-12T18:51:00.012+09:30

Left image: An English village streetscape in Suffolk, United Kingdom.
Right image: Somewhere but nowhere to go: milling around a Paris railway station.

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'

Have a play with these two – all about spatial literacy

ArcGIS Online - a way to go on-line
* ArcGIS Online is a cloud-based geospatial content management system for storing and managing maps, data, and other geospatial information. Built on Esri's cloud infrastructure, it gives you access to geographic content shared and registered by Esri and GIS users around the world.
With ArcGIS Online, you can
• Create and share maps that can be accessed by anyone through a browser, a mobile device, ArcGIS for Desktop, or a custom application.
• Access and discover thousands of free maps, datasets, services, tools and other geospatial content.
• Manage geospatial content through an easy-to-use catalog of items or groups.
• Share your content publically, with specific groups, or keep it private.

* Have a play with ArcGIS Explorer on-line. Well worth the time to see that here is a GIS viewer with street basemaps, satellite images, aerial photography and the capacity to digitise, import Shapefiles and much more. All on-line, with no required software to load up on your computer and all free – all you need is the internet to do some amazing GIS. This is the new world of GIS delivery; on-line and user-friendly. You will also find pre-made map projects on the Brisbane floods, active hazards in Japan, glacial retreat in Alaska, to name just a few.
* In particular make you own map following the instructions
* ‘How to us it’ videos are available free on the ESRI site to support your exploration of ArcGIS Explorer on-line.
* Think about signing in to the on-line ESRI environment to get even more functionality.
* Even go the extra yards and play with the featured maps and apps from the ArcGIS Community

A new dimension

A great resource for developing spatial awareness. Interesting to apply to your area or known world landmarks. All about spatial literacy. In particular it is an interesting tool to incorporate spatial literacy and awareness with historical and contemporary things students are familiar with or studying.
Dimensions is an experimental prototype for the BBC. They want to bring home the human scale of events and places in history. The D-Day landing beaches measured from London to Norfolk in the UK. How far would the Titanic stretch down your street? Dimensions simply juxtaposes the size of historical events with your home and neighbourhood, overlaying important places, events and things on a satellite view of where you live. Certain "Dimensions" can be transformed into short walks, so you can get a physical appreciation of the distances involved.

Onward in the right direction with geography

2011-09-06T12:17:00.001+09:30

Worlds apart

Left image: Madang coast near Billi Billi.
Right image:Out of Wilpena Pound, Flinders Ranges, South Australia.

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

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

Australian Curriculum: Geography on track

I thought it opportune to do a posting on where we are at with the Australian Curriculum: Geography. Over recent months, a group of 13 writers and advisors have been busy in Sydney, on-line and via teleconferencing developing the draft scope and sequence for the geography curriculum.

The draft follows the January 2011 Geography Shape paper and will outline the geography curriculum from Foundation to Year 12, including an introduction, concept outlines, content descriptions and elaborations for each year level, skills and inquiry progressions and achievement standards. At this stage the plan is for the draft to go on-line for consultation from October 10th until February 29th 2011. The on-line consultation period is a critical time for geographers in Australia to provide their views on the curriculum and participate in a real way in shaping the curriculum. After the consultation period ACARA will review the comments and the advisors and writers will redraft the curriculum in response. Presently the publication date is September 2012.

So we have just on a year to go! It feels to some of us like a curriculum marathon when one considers that we started on the process way back in October 2008 with the 'Towards a National Geography Curriculum' and commenced work with ACARA on the curriculum in September 2009.

As mentioned in a previous Spatialworlds posting the identified concepts for the curriculum are: Place, Space, Environment, Interconnection, Change, Sustainability and Scale. Much work recently has gone into clarifying and producing the words to describe the concepts. These concepts have been critical as the curriculum is designed and written and will, I am sure, play an important part in the professional learning to be conducted as the curriculum is rolled out.

As for the focus for the year levels an effort has been made to give appropriate coverage for physical and human geography whilst keeping true to the holistic and integrated approach of geography. Naturally I cannot provide details of the year level focus in this blog but assure all readers of the Spatialworlds blog that every effort has been made to provide stimulating and engaging geography for each year level in-line with the capacities and interests of students as they progress through their schooling.

Over recent months there continues to be some hotspots for discussion which have provided for some lively and informed debate amongst the advisory group. Some of these have existed since we first started back in 2009; others have raised their head as the work has progressed. The hotspots involve questions about:

* The nature of place and space.
* The nature of sustainability in geography.
* Geography and citizenship capacity.
* The appropriateness of integrating fieldwork at each year level.
* The aim of engagement versus essential coverage.
* The physical/human geography balance.
* The vocational focus of geography.
* The role of geography to inform students understanding of the economy and the world of work.
* Spatial technology and its use as a core issue to be mandated in some way or not.
* The need for the language and terminology of the document to be understandable to non-geographers.
* Geography in the primary setting – suitability and achievability.
* What concepts and content should be included in a 21st Century curriculum of geography?

There is plenty of work still to go before the curriculum is published. I hope when geography teachers in October see the draft curriculum that they will consider that we are heading in the right direction in creating Australia’s first National Geography Curriculum. Many of us in geography associations around Australia are doing our best to ensure that the curriculum reflects worlds best practice, is relevant and engaging for students and meets the hefty expectations of geography teachers around Australia.

The Genie is out of the bottle!

2011-09-01T11:52:00.000+09:30

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

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

Spatial Genie goes live

Check out Spatial Genie, an Australian education system developed GIS platform of massive significance to the promotion of GIS in Australian schools. Spatial Genie is a recently released GIS platform from Education Services Australia (ESA) and is available for free use at http://www.spatialgenie.edu.au/spatialgenie/.

As mentioned in a previous Spatialworlds posting, ESA has morphed out of The Learning Federation, Curriculum Corporation and EDNA as the resource development arm of the Australian Curriculum initiative. The development of Spatial Genie by ESA is important because for the first time the education system in Australia, via ESA, has invested in the development and promotion of GIS in schools in a practical way. Although only the first version (with a few bugs still), Spatial Genie: Mark 1 is a great development and sets the scene for the continued development of a free, Australia-wide, system supported, data rich and customized to schools GIS platform.

Have a look at Spatial Genie and see how it may be used in your classroom. Michael Gehling at ESA would love to hear your views on how it has performed and what can be done to improve the platform for school use in the future. Regardless of some of the platform problems we may experience as Spatial Genie is developed and improved, this development is especially important for the geographer wishing to use GIS in their classroom because of the data access function of the product. ESA has worked hard at acquiring data from government and private providers for use in Spatial Genie. Such a data bank acquired by a government organization such as ESA is just what Australian geographers have been looking for to make data access, storage and configuration on a national scale a reality. In time Spatial genie will also have data associated student activities and support materials integrated into the site.

Spatial Genie has a huge potential to promote GIS in Australian Schools (and beyond) by providing a stepping stone for teachers to start using spatial data in an meaningful way via a free education system developed on-line platform. No longer can those skeptical or unfamiliar with the use of GIS say that there is no system support in Australia for the use of GIS or that it is too expensive, data is too hard to acquire and that GIS is not accessible for every classroom in Australia. Watch the Spatial Genie space as it continues to be more stable, improve functionality and gather data sets. Michael is presently working on the next stage of development for Spatial Genie in 2012.

Any feedback we can provide can only help to make this a world leading educational resource for geography (and the other subjects such as science, history and mathematics). Geographers in Australia should support this development as a move in the right direction to get spatial technology into every Australian school.

What can one say about the diversity of place?

Spatial literacy and things to look at.

2011-08-26T11:54:00.000+09:30

Left image: Madang estuary.
Right image: Port Moresby harbour.

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'

Spatial literacy: Some more reading and ideas about spatial literacy.

* Spatial thinking Powerpoint from Bednarz, R., Jo, I., Metoyer, S. (2008) Spatial
Thinking Research at Texas A&M University. Some great synthesis and diagrams to help explain the nature of spatial literacy.

* Spatial Literacy Pathfinder

* New Spatial Literacy course in US

* Spatial thinking book

* Great for risky geography: The latest Terrorism Risk Index (TRI), released by risk analysis and mapping firm Maplecroft, rates 20 countries and territories as ‘extreme risk'.*

* The nine VAACs (Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers) have been designated by the International Civil Aviation Organization to provide their expertise to civil aviation in case of significant volcanic eruptions. The centres are a basic part of the IAVW. (International Airways Volcano Watch)

* An interactive map of all agglomerations of the world with a population of 1 million inhabitants or more

* Space Shuttle cockpit: No reason but just having a look.

* Sustainable futures talk by Lex Steffen.

* Great blog on GIS in education and curriculum integration. Plenty of linked resources and sites.

* Visualising geospatial data in 3D. DataAppeal is a recently launched web-based visualization application which enables users to produce three- and four-dimensional data maps and animations. It is based on concepts emerging from the 2010 book "The Exposed City: Mapping the Urban Invisibles" by Dr Nadia Amoroso

Mick Law: the Australian GIS go-to-man

2011-08-16T12:53:00.000+09:30

Left image: Approaching Port Moresby area from the air.
Right image: Coral reefs between PNG and Australia.

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

Where am I??
Sydney: S: 34º 0' E: 151º 0'

Mick Law: Contour Education: Championing for Australian GIS education

Many of us know Mick Law for his work over recent years providing GIS professional learning opportunities for teachers. Whatever conference one goes to, where geography teachers gather, Mick is there with his banner and table showcasing the great GIS classroom resources he has developed for schools. Mick is an ex-Brisbane geography teacher who made the plunge several years ago to establish his GIS education business after working for a year with ESRI Australia. Mick has written a wide range of targeted classroom activities and placed them on his website at http://www.contoureducation.com/ for free use by teachers. Here are just some of Mick’s resources:

* Spatial from Scratch Booklet
* Advanced GIS Georeferencing Overview
* GIS GPS
* Geoscience Australia Sentinel Activity Online GIS
* Google Maps Weather Activity Online GIS

Mick has also gathered a listing of really useful links and videos and games

The major component of Mick’s business is working with teachers to help them tackle the spatial technology and GIS learning curve. He has built up quite a reputation as a patient, empathetic and highly experienced adult educator who can translate the complex world of spatial technology into a purposeful and achievable pursuit for the classroom teacher. Unfortunately there are very few expert and classroom experienced providers of professional learning in the area of spatial technology application. Increasingly schools are requiring someone to come into their school; to hold their hand as they negotiate the learning curve. Mick is the man – go to his site for details.

Out of small things, big things grow

2011-08-15T10:05:00.000+09:30

Left image: Housing straight out of old geography textbooks
Right image: Jungle vista, Madang Province.

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??
Sydney: S: 34º 0' E: 151º 0'

Using the ESRI AEJEE as a stepping stone to using GIS in the classroom

For those trained and competent with GIS it has always been a temptation to “go for the jugular” with GIS when working with teachers. Yes, being able to use GPS, geocode, register images and create your own databases are indeed what the use of GIS is all about for the user of experience but for time poor teachers with limited ICT knowledge or application and possibly only teaching geography as one of their assignments in a school, learning GIS is indeed problematic. It is the daunting steepness of the GIS learning curve is what puts teachers off even starting to learn. It is simply too much to take on in one jump and because of the demands of daily classroom life, one jump is often all that can be spared. Since 1997 I have been working at developing resources and professional learning for teachers which reduces the hurdles and reduces the gradient of the learning curve. Between 2002-2006 the uptake in schools using ESRI ArcView GIS was steadily growing through initiatives such as the “Making GIS achievable” professional learning program in South Australia, the Innovative Technology centre in Queensland and the “Making GIS happen” resources available from TECHGEOG. These initiatives were based on the KISS (Keep It Simple S...) principle and those involved considered that slowly but surely teachers were taking up the use of GIS. However with the advent of ArcGIS as the designated ESRI software for schools in 2006 (The simpler ESRI ArcView software was no longer available to schools because of its incompatibility with the new server software and Microsoft Vista) the learning curve just became too steep for most teachers.

Anecdotally, schools, whilst using spatial technologies such as Google Earth and others, are less involved in the intricacies of using GIS platforms than they were only a few years ago.

There are a range of reasons for this but I suggest the major one is the lack of comfort of teachers with the complex GIS software as a starting point. In response to this I have been experimenting in several South Australian schools with using the simple and user friendly free ESRI GIS product called AEJEE.

Although the product has been free to download for some time it has not been actively promoted as a way to start in the secondary setting and as an adequate product for the needs of most primary school classes. In these trial schools for the Australian Curriculum: Geography I am working with primary and secondary school staff to learn the software in as much detail as possible and then to develop programs using the functionality of AEJEE. AEJEE can do almost everything required for initial use of GIS in the classroom (thematic maps, layer applications, layer customization, attribute table viewing etc). My premise in this work is that once teachers get confident with software which has a much more gradual leaning curve they will then gain the confidence to learn the more complex GIS platforms such as ArcGIS, MapInfo etc.

Most importantly they have become conversant with GIS language, software applications, GIS commands and most importantly the possibilities of GIS in the classroom. Such awareness prepares and provides teachers with confidence to negotiate the next step having had a good experience with the AEJEE program. The experience also, hopefully, will convince them that the time spent in learning GIS to the next level will be time well spent for their teaching and their students learning. Although I have focused on AEJEE in this posting and the trial schools I am working in, maybe Spatial Genie and other webserver GIS application such as ArcGIS Explorer
could be the base starting point for such an approach in the future. As the posting states, out of small thing, big things grow – when applied to the use of GIS in the classroom, from a simple achievable start using a product such as AEJEE, teachers can grow into using more complex GIS platforms in the future. They will not fall at the first hurdle as I feel is happening across Australia with teachers being overwhelmed with fully professional products such as ArcGIS. More on how the trial has gone in a future posting. I may be wrong but …

Spatial sites: All in one place!

2011-08-07T19:44:00.000+09:30

Left image:Harbour living, Hong Kong.
Right image: High-rise living, Hong Kong.

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 visit the Spatialworlds archives of classroom useful applications

Since October 2007 this blog has been posting a range of websites to support the use of GIS, visualisations and spatial technologies in the classroom. Quite understandably it is a pain to sift through the blogs archives looking for these postings amongst the general blog postings related to commentary and discussions on a range of geographical themes. This posting provides the direct link to practical spatial technology postings for ease of access. Enjoy!

Role of site repository
Spatial sites and images for the classroom
Webmapping
Practical fun sites
Sites from Walis Forum
Hazard sites
Oz links for spatial education
Everything can be mapped
Using GIS in Science
GIS and citizenship
Communication technologies

Internet and GIS
Why we should use GIS in the classroom

Teaching ideas
Historical GIS sites
Some neat websites
The spatial and war
Real time pirate sites
Visualising data
Data visualisation sites
Free GIS downloads
A mobile world diminishing in size
Sites to play with
Just sites

My favourite things
Spatial and Data Genie
Always more sites
Power of the blog
A mixed bag
Geography: building understandings
The justice of spatial

Where is what?
Where is it?
Disaster sites
Where are you?
Worth a look!
Everything you wanted to know about Geography but too afraid to ask!

Just a click of the mouse
Exploration time
Data visualisation revolution
Sifting resources
Networking resources

Stuff and nonsense

2011-08-01T12:42:00.000+09:30

Images above: Madang Province, a slice of paradise!

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'

Bits and pieces to have a look at!

1. What can one say? The images just continue to come of the Japanese tsanami.

2. A visualisation which puts the US debt into perspective.

3. State of the Sea Turtles: an interesting interactive map application of spatial technology.

4. Disaster simulation game using interactive maps

5. Great weather site called Weather underground

6. Spatial literacy sites of interest

* FAQ on Spatial literacy

* A practical spatial literacy exercise

* A useful spatial literacy orientated Facebook page: Geomatica

7. World name profiler: Putting the Geo into Genealogy: A great Spatial Literacy project out of the University College London, the University of Leicester and the University of Nottingham.

World name profiler now active
Go to this site and type in a family name and get a thematic map of the world showing the range of the name across the world. Click on a country to get an even more detailed thematic map (especially for England, Europe, Australia and the US). Fantastic! A more detailed UK search profile is the Great Britain Public Profiler which investigates the geography of surnames in Great Britain, both current and historic. It allows users to search the databases that have been created, and to trace the geography and history of their family names.

Associated with the Public Profiler site are:

* The Onomap software tool classifies any list of names into groups of common cultural ethnic and linguistic origin using surnames and forenames. It can be run in a standalone version that requires no installation or internet connectivity, making it a valuable name coding tool for secure operating environments.

* The Censusprofiler Website presents a comprehensive picture of Great Britain's neighbourhoods in a national context using a unique open source mapping interface to the 2001 Census of Population.

* The London Profiler which visualises a London neighbourhood's profile using different area classifications through the Google Map interface.

Scale: fundamental to geography

2011-07-29T22:16:00.000+09:30

Left image: Madang from the air.
Right image: Water settlement in Port Moresby.

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? Brisbane, Australia: S: 27º 29' E: 153º 08'

Scale and geographical understanding

The final concept being developed for the Australian Curriculum: Geography is that of scale. Scale is fundamental to the understanding and functionality of geography. Although in essence scale is a mathematical concept (and is treated significantly as such in the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics curriculum) as geographers we recognise that the use and understanding of scale is critical to our work. Scale is the great enabler for representation of the earth’s surface and features and provides the unique zoom capacity for the study of geographical features and phenomena. Space and change are closely related concepts to scale but scale relates to all other concepts identified in the Australian Curriculum: Geography due to its nature as a tool during investigations. In particular, the geography explores related issues such as perception of size and distance when exploring perceptions and changes to scale. To this end the influence of technology is having a significant impact on the nature of representing scale and the perception of scale. In a globalised world is there really such a thing as a local scale?

Naturally in map making the concept of scale is fundamental and all-important as the geography attempts to develop accurate representations and visualisations of the world we live in.
To non-geographers the concept of scale provides a challenge to understand and use and considerable work will be required during the implementation phase of the curriculum to provide support and clarity on the concept.

Here are a few attempts to define the term and its application in the geography classroom:

* Scale is about the hierarchy of divisions from the personal to the local, regional, national, world, regional, global and sometimes, universal. Map making and scale ranges of study are the applications of the concept of scale in the classroom.

* Scale' refers to the geographical extent of a study. A local-scale study is a study of a small area (for example, a neighbourhood, village or small town.

All of the above representations rely on an understanding and application of scale to create a cartographic representation of spaces that make up our earth, in this case focussed on the location of Madang.

As with the theme of the previous Spatialworlds Madang postings, the place of Madang can also be viewed through the concept of scale. Despite the difficulties of finding scale representations of Madang when I was there, the student of geography can develop map representations of the Madang area from small to large scale. Such representations could be a map of the world showing the Asia-Pacific region with Madang identified (a global small scale representation), an Asia- Pacific map locating Papua New Guinea (zone) to a map of PNG showing the location of the Madang Province (national), to a map of the Madang Province showing Madang (regional), to a city map of Madang (local) to a map of a street in Madang (a large scale suburban representation) etc.
All of the above representations rely on an understanding and application of scale to create a cartographic representation of spaces that make up our earth, in this case focussed on the location of Madang. Related to these representations are questions of perception of distance and space by those viewing and occupying the space represented. In the case of Madang, such perceptions have been changed in recent times by the building of a main road from Lae, the regularity and accessibility of air travel to Madang and increasingly by the introduction of communication technologies such as the mobile phone and Internet. Mobile phones are already shrinking distance for the population of the area and as the Internet becomes more common throughout the Madang Province in future years, the perception of isolation and access and in turn perception of scale by the people of Madang will change.

Saving the Humanities

2011-07-25T08:39:00.001+09:30

Images above: Ibrahaim Primary School Madang, July 2011: Love of books and learning about the world.

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??
Canberra: Australia: S: 35º 15' E: 149º 08'

THE THREAT OF FOCUSSING ON UTILITARIAN EDUCATION

With today’s global competition, there is increasing concern about the nature and quality of education– should it be primarily practical and utilitarian and equipping students to be competitive in the workforce or should it rather a liberal education with broad ideas and values to prepare a well-rounded student with the capacity to be fully functional democratic citizens, prepared for life in contemporary society? For students to be successful in today’s global economy, it should be seen that utilitarian and liberal education need to be tightly coupled, and that students’ academic, developmental, interpersonal and experiential lives are entwined. Schools should move towards developing transformational learning for students and not just focus on providing knowledge and understandings based on employability. Such questioning of the utilitarian trend in education around the world is critical when we consider the decrease in curriculum time for humanities in schools and the significant drop off in the number of students studying geography in particular in the senior school in Australia and around the world.

“Transformational learning means that the “whole student” has to develop so as to prepare him or her as a thinker and citizen for a challenging world; to question and affirm or change what she or he believes; and come to a greater understanding of the complex questions of his or her own life and the lives of others than they otherwise would. By attending to both leads to transformational learning and the development of the whole person into a flourishing individual and citizen.”

Traditionally in our school system the humanities’ (history, geography, studies of society etc) have developed those capacities referred to as liberal education. Ironically, it was the liberal subjects that dominated early education! In the present economic and educational environment the humanities in the senior school are being devalued and squeezed out of the curriculum in face of utilitarian demands. In Australia the humanities is declining in schools in terms of numbers, prestige and general influence. Many young people now leave school with a scant knowledge of history, geography and our society in general (law, government etc). The impact is particularly serious in the senior secondary year that provides a sophisticated understanding of the humanities for young people. The utilitarian demands on a young person when choosing subjects has resulted in significant reduction of the perceived ‘non employment direct’ subjects such as history, geography etc (in fact these subjects do have significant and much needed career pathways but often not seen as direct and thus not promoted as getting a student a job). As this blog has highlighted and discussed over the past 4 years, the opportunities in the spatial industry is enormous and subjects such as geography and history have an important role to play in developing student knowledge, skills and capacities in-line with the needs of that industry.

Australians hold what appear to be conflicting aspirational and practical notions of the purposes and value of a schooling. Economists and corporate leaders refer to this function of education as the development of human capital.
“…education is more than preparing for a job; it should be for acquiring the knowledge, skills, competencies, values, dispositions and capacities for many life roles in a world of inevitable change and that this is ultimately the more “practical” preparation for life.”
Anecdotally the trend away from the liberal humanities in school education, towards the demands of a utilitarian education, in particular in senior secondary, is common throughout the western world and similar OECD countries to Australia. There is a need to get quantitative and substantiated data on the trend away from the humanities and to research what other countries are doing to arrest the trend away from the humanities as highly respected (in number and prestige) subjects in schools. Those involved in humanities education consider that the trend away from the humanities towards utilitarian education in our schools (and universities) is undermining and threatening the development of a ‘well-rounded, thinking, socially analytical young citizen ready for the demands of the 21st Century globalised world.
Here are two really interesting articles from the UK re: importance of geography and diminishing numbers. Seems that the drift to utilitarian education is happening everywhere. Geographers need to be strategic and work towards reversing this trend.

1. "Without geography, the world would be a mystery to us"
Geography is the subject that contributes more than any other to young people’s knowledge of the world, writes David Lambert.

2. "History and geography 'diminishing' in schools", says head
Subjects such as English, history and geography are being marginalised as schools ditch academic rigour in favour of “accessibility”, according to a leading headmistress.

The irony is that geography and the associated spatial technology tools it uses are seen as a non-vocational area of study and just a nice subject to do for those interested. As this blog repeatedly highlights, geography is a great humanities subject for young people to do as citizens now and in the future but it also is a subject with increasing vocational opportunities in the branches of geography (climatology, economic analysis, planning, environmental management, disaster mitigation etc etc) and the related areas of the spatial industry which continues to say that they have a human resources shortage. Geography is also a subject which goes somewhere in the world of employment. There is a lot of work to be done with subject counselors, vocational consultants, parents and the community to get the message across that geography and all the knowledge, skills and capacities it develops in young people is and should be promoted as a learning area with great (and increasing) vocational opportunity.

Knowing by going!

2011-07-23T08:49:00.000+09:30

Left image: End of day commuting.
Right image: Arrival at Ibahaim Primary School.

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??
Sydney: S: 34º 0' E: 151º 0'

My visit to Madang on the north east coast of Papua New Guinea was a wonderful experience and opportunity to meet many students and teachers at the schools in the Province of Madang. As with any place on earth such an area is distinctive, identifiable and unique. This uniqueness is often demonstrated to the visitor thorough the senses and impressions they develop of the environment and people. Whilst such impression may be quite subjective, they provide the visitor with something that the virtual visitor is not able to experience. The smells, heat, dangers, sights, warmth and surprises, to name just a few, are what makes actually visiting a place always superior and more rewarding than just reading, viewing (regardless of the sophistications of the spatial technology) and talking to those who have a visited a place. The personalising of the experience cannot be replicated and is what continues to drive people to visits other places, despite the virtual opportunities now available. Having said that, if it is not possible to visit, the virtual on-line visit is still worthwhile to develop our geographical understanding of a place.
These are my top 10 impressions of the Madang visit that I could never have gained from a virtual, “Knowing without going” exploration of the Madang Province. Quite personal and subjective but impressions that provide a rich multi-dimensional view of a place.

They are;
1. The feeling of claustrophobic heat and humidity walking though a small jungle path leading up to the village of Bongu, 30 kilometers north of Madang.
2. The overwhelming smell of burning arriving in Port Moresby. A smell replicated across the Madang Province as the crops are burnt.
3. The sound of torrential rain falling from the sky for hours on end.
4. The warmth of the people, adults and children, as we arrived at the Ibrahaim and Male primary schools.
5. The carefree attitude to life by the people as we headed out to sea to Male in a small aluminum boat with no lifejackets, flares, radios, enough petrol etc. A liberating (but stupid) feeling in comparison to the safety concerns of our society.
6. Becoming aware of the paucity of resources as I sat and talked to Timothy, the geography teacher at Tusbab Secondary School. Very few books, computers, equipment (compared to what our schools have in Australia). This impression was naturally even more evident at Male and Ibrahaim Primary School.
7. The tranquility and awareness of the cycle of life at the end of the day as villages return to the islands and coastal villages enmasse crowded in tiny boats. A beautiful setting as the boats scuttle at sunset across the Madang bay on their daily journeys, to be repeated again tomorrow and the next day etc.
8. The impression of innocence and welcoming nature of the people as they ask for their photos to be taken as I walked around Madang. Also those who just call out "hello" and come up to shake ones hand.
9. The refreshing sense of pride of the children as they sang their national anthem on our arrival at Ibrahaim Primary School out of Madang. A great sense of pride of PNG’s independence and the future of their people.
10. Flying over the Owen Stanley Range on a clear day and getting a sense of the scale, isolation and ruggedness of the Papua New Guinea landscape.

These are all impressions and experiences I could not get out of a book; unique, precious and always to be remembered aspects of my journey – these are the things which keep people wanting to travel beyond hearing from others, the books and computer.

Despite the wonderful safe experience I had in visiting Madang, very few tourists travel to PNG. The tourist industry does exist, offering resort accommodation, diving, fishing and adventure experiences (Kokoda walks) but it is really on a small scale compared to its potential. It puzzles me why Australians in particular are so reluctant to visit PNG, our nearest neighbor and a country that we have greater linkage with in the 20th and 21st Century than any other. Maybe more about that later.

Creating the picture through other no less important concepts

2011-07-17T16:39:00.000+09:30

Left image: Bongu; Mikloucho-Maclay's paradise.
Right image: Ashore at Bili Bili, home of the pottery in the Madang Province.

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

Madang through the concepts of Change, Interconnection and Sustainability

In the last posting I painted an initial geographical picture of Madang, PNG through the concepts of Place, Space and Environment. In this posting I will add to the complexity and richness of the geographical picture of Madang through the no less important concepts of Change, Interconnection and Sustainability. As mentioned previously in the Spatialworlds blog, these are three of the seven concepts identifed by the draft Australian Curriculum: Geography which will soon be on-line for public consulatation(August-September 2011). In the meantime I have been writing these blogs on Madang to see if these concepts provide the richness and coverage as key geographical concepts for valid, elaborate and interesting geographical thinking.

More questions than answers but worth of geographical exploration and thinking

* Change

• Human contact with the New Guinea mainland has extended through the past 50,000 years
• The first European to spend any length of time on the PNG mainland was Russian biologist Nicolai Miklouho-Maclay. He arrived at Astrolabe Bay, south of the present site of Madang, in 1871 and stayed for 15 months
• Madang was first colonised by the Germans in 1884 (German New Guinea Company) arrived and tried to establish a base at various locations including at present day Madang but were continually beaten by malaria. They eventually moved to Rabaul. When in the province they established a settlement, developed plantation and built roads (the German presence can still be seen in the remnant plantations, old deserted settlements and various place names). The Lutheran Mission arrived during this time and Finschhafen remains a Lutheran base.
• The Commonwealth of Australia assumed a mandate from the League of Nations for governing the former German territory of New Guinea in 1920.
• The Japanese invaded and captured Madang without a fight during World War II in 1942. In September 1943, Australian forces launched a sustained campaign to retake the Finisterre Range and Madang. The town was captured on April 24, 1944. During the occupation and fighting the town was virtually destroyed and had to be rebuilt afterwards.
• Due to changes caused by outside contact over the years, cultural loss has been great but isolation of many groups has caused that rate of change to be diversely uneven.
• Australian administration had an enormous impact on Madang with Australian administrators, companies, patrol officers, health workers and teachers contributing to the growth and welfare of the country. This influence, with the continuing influence of the Lutheran Mission as a legacy of the German colonisation are clearly seen in aspects of Madang life today. Non-religion overseas volunteer organisations such as VSA also continue to play an important role in the life of the Madang Province.
• PNG and subsequently Madang gained independence in 1975 and has been challenged to maintain services and growth for its people since. PNG still receives % of Australian aid and Australian companies continue to be active in a diverse range of industries.

Interconnection

• The 2007 opening of the spur to the Highlands Highway between Lae and Madang linked Madang by road to Lae and the mountain spine of the PNG Highlands. This connection has had a great impact on the nature and population of the area and the movement of people between the Highland mines and Madang. It has meant that villages from the Madang province can more easily come in to Madang for supplies and gatherings and Papuan New Guineans from others centres and areas can easily migrate to the town. This has put pressure on services in Madang and many consider peaceful and safe Madang may be blighted with some of the crime and lawlessness experienced by centres such as Lae. The highway linkage has also had the impact on people from the Madang area traveling and working in the mines and timber industries in the Highlands with the associated changes to family, community and economic structures in the Madang Province.
• Sea transport still remains a crucial link for villages traveling from coastal areas to Madang. The movement of people by sea is a prominent and visible industry in the Madang area.
• Foreign investment and the connections with foreign nationals including Australian and Chinese.
• PNG still has strong connections with Australia through AusAID and the churches still operating missions, schools, colleges/universities etc in areas such as Madang.
• Even though most of the population lives in poverty (or subsistence) many have mobile phones due to the inroads of the Irish company Digicel. This is an amazingly cheap communication technology where a person can buy a mobile phone for 20 Australian Dollars with phone calls of only 20 cents/minute locally and 60cents/minute to Australia (no connection fees or monthly bills). What is the status, economic and social impact of such connections for people with little possessions other than a mobile phone. There are Digicel advertisements and top-up places everywhere in Madang!
• Internet is only in two places in the Madang province; The Divine Word University and the Madang Resort (not even at the high school yet but they say it is coming next year). The lack of Internet for local in 2011 in such an area except for foreigners is surprising. What will be the impact on Madang Province in terms of interconnections when it is available?

* Sustainability

The issue of environmental, social, economic and political sustainability of the Madang province is influenced by factors such as:

* Environmental sustainability
• Volcanic and earthquake activity. Offshore islands, in some cases volcanic, with Karkar, Bagabag and Manam being notable. In 2004/2005 the population of Manam Island was evacuated due to an eruption of the volcano. Bagabag and Karkar have had no major volcanic activities in recent years. This active volcanic region is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire and has created crater lakes, smoking volcanic cones and black sand beaches.
• Timber milling and the clearing of forests.
• Erosion of soil by the clearing of forests for Palm Oil production.
• Slash and burn technology still used by villagers to sustain the soil. Constant smell of burning evident.

* Economic sustainability
• Infrastructure – pot holes, rubbish, limited public works and facilities (including education resources and provision).
• Impact of foreign investment and companies.
• Impact on subsistence agriculture of land being used for commercial crops such as Palm Oil.

* Social/cultural sustainability
• Outside contact over the years has led to cultural loss in major settled areas of the province. However due to isolation many groups has caused that rate of change to be diversely uneven.
• The cost of education and the opportunity for employment.
• Impact of males leaving province seeking work.
• Impact of employment opportunities for women in resorts.
• Impact on social structures in villages if subsistence agriculture is threatened by commercial crops.
• Impact of almost everyone having a mobile phone on social structures.

*Political sustainability
• Governance – implied corruption

Madang geographically

2011-07-09T16:50:00.000+09:30

Left image: View from the classroom at Brahaim Primary School, 20 kms out of Madang, PNG.
Right image: Children with the world in their hands at Brahaim Primary School.

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??
Madang, Papua New Guinea: S: 5º 13' E: 145º 47'

A Place, Space and Environment look at Madang PNG

I have been in Madang for the past week, visiting schools, talking to geography teachers and just looking around. It has been a wonderful experience and over the next few days as I travel home I will try to put down my thoughts on Madang through the geographical lens. In the last posting I discussed the conceptual geographical pre-thinking I had on Madang. In this posting (and maybe a few following)I will try to summarise my thoughts and impressions on this amazing place through the geographical lens (in accordance with the concepts of the Australian Curriculum: Geography) discussed previously.
I intend to write an article on my journey to Madang for the geography teachers’ association journal in Australia in coming weeks and as a result will make this blog posting a dot point summary of my observations/information under the key concepts of Place, Space and Environment from the draft Australian Curriculum: Geography. Note that I have combined the concepts of Place and Environment because of the obvious entwinement of the two. More about that issue in a later blog.

Place and Environment

The Madang Province:

• is one of the largest region of Papua New Guinea
• is primarily covered in dense tropical rainforest vegetation.
• major central place is the city of Madang (population 27419)
• has a population of 365,106 (2000 census). The 2011 census is presently being conducted
• has 40% of its population under 15
• has a Crude Birth rate of 28.76 births/1,000 population, Death Rate of 8, Infant Mortality rate of 93 and life expectancy of approx 60 (58 for men and 60 for women). AIDS (208 000 in PNG will be living with HIV in 2012) and Malaria (40% of population infected) are two serious diseases in PNG.
• has a population primarily of Papuan New Guineans comprising islanders, coastal people, river people and mountain people
• is a mixture of peoples i.e. tall lithe coastal people from Karkar Island, short nuggety highlands men from Simbai and river people from the Ramu
• is on a plate boundary and has frequent earthquakes and is surrounded by volcanic islands to the North
• is composed of seven designated districts, with each district having one or more local level governments
• people have limited income with employment opportunities small, wages low and education costly (limits opportunity for those in villages who cannot afford to go to costly secondary education in centres such as Madang). Missions still play an important role in providing opportunity through education
• has the major rivers of the Ramu, Sogeram, Gogol and Malas
• the influence of missions is still evident. Signs of Christianity are quite overt in schools, shops and other institutions
• is the third leading producer of cocoa and copra and second producer of cattle. Ramu Sugar, Coconut Oil Production Manang Ltd and Jant/Gogol woodchip mill are amongst PNG's biggest employers
• seems to have few Asians in the population and the number of Europeans is minimal today. An expatriate community does still exist, working in major industries and some of the services but this is extremely small compared to the past. Most English, Europeans and US citizens living in Madang province are involved with missions or voluntary overseas aid services
• people outside of the Madang township still live in traditional houses built from natural materials and are dispersed as village settlements
• people are primarily involved in subsistence agriculture (95%). The crops grown are taro, sweet potato, betel nut, bananas, coconut and mustard plant
• major villages are along the coast and inland along the rivers and main roads. The major villages often have a primary school attached, either run by the missions or the government. Although these schools are staffed by trained teachers(most trained in Madang Province), they lack resources such as books, equipment such as computers and adequate buildings and furniture. I found that computers for student use (and teachers in most cases) are a world away and that books and writing material remain a luxury in Madang Province schools. I spent a great morning with the geography teachers at Tusbab Secondary School introducing them to GIS on their single computer in the school
•and it’s people have a strong allegiance to Papua New Guinea and are proud of their independent PNG identity. Their national anthem has pride of place in their schools
• people have the reputation of being friendly and happy. I found this to be true with nothing but hello’s, smiles and handshakes – they even asked for the photo taken! As the Russian anthropologist Mikloucho-Maclay, who lived in Male area of the province for 15 months in 1871 said, the area of Astrolobe Bay was the “Archipelago of contented people.”

Madang:

• has a Tropical climate with average temperature of 26.6 °C (average range of average monthly temperature of 1 degree) and a yearly rainfall of 3440mm with the greatest amount falling from October – May (152 days annually on which greater than 0.1 mm). April is the wettest month (439mm) and driest month.
• is fringed by volcanic material on its shore which plummets directly to the deep ocean floor. A lighthouse (memorial to the World War 2 Coastwatches) has been built on the Madang foreshore to warn shipping of this hazardous geomorphology. Along the coast of the Madang Province, the beaches are of steeply sloping weathered grey sand. Dense vegetation comprising jungle and coconuts fronts the beaches
• is the Madang Province's major port for shipping goods
• people live along the coast and surrounding islands and regularly travel by small boats (25 crowded in no more than a 8 metre fiberglass dingy powered by an outboard)
•people describe themselves as coastal people and consider that they are somewhat different to those from other areas of PNG, in particular the Highlands
• has limited infrastructure and is challenged in maintaining what it has i.e. severely pot holed city bitumen roads, transport networks (dirt roads) to villages and rubbish removal (terrible litter everywhere in Madang city) and dilapidated school buildings, to name just a few indicators
• has to the south the Bismarck Range with heights ranging over 4,000 metres. Mount Wilhelm, PNG's tallest mountain at 4509m, is found in these ranges
• is a focal point providing essential services such as banks, hospitals, schools, shops. In the countryside food markets are common place selling the subsistence crops of the villagers. These markets are also the transport hubs with villagers being trucked in by vans, utes, and trucks
• is claimed to be the tourist centre of PNG with several resorts and tourist orientated services (diving and fishing tours). Even so, due to the cost, lack of publicity and perceived ‘non-safe’ nature of PNG the tourist industry is small compared to other part of Asia and the Pacific. Although the cost was expensive, I found the people friendly, conditions safe and services adequate. Interestingly at no time as I walked around Madang or the villages in the province was I asked for money, asked to buy something, not greeted warmly or waved at
• is an aesthetically very beautiful place with sea, harbour, mountain and jungle vistas.

Space: observations related to location and distribution

Madang Province:
• is a large region of approximately 300 kilometres long and 160 kilometres wide with four large and many small offshore islands
•is to the North of Port Moresby, the capital of PNG
• is linked primarily by air and sea to Port Moresby
• has the sea on its Northern perimeter and the Bismarrck Range on its Southern
• has major rivers criss-crossing the province from south to north as they drain from the Bismark Range (Ramu, Sogeram, Gogol and Malas Rivers)
• has long term major villages evenly spaced along the south eastern coast of Astrolabe Bay (Male, Bongu, Gorendi, Garagasi, Koliku), and on the northern eastern coast of Astrolabe Bay(Bili Bili, Bogadjim, Gorima and Erima)
• the population in Madang Province is concentrated along the rivers, on the coast and on the hilltops. The population was not and is not evenly populated. Even today there are uninhabited areas of the province
• there are over 20 languages spoken just in the Astrolabe Bay area of the province which correspond with the major populated areas. Linguistically, Madang province is typified by a large number of very small language groups
•population is denser in the highland areas than in the coastal zone.

Madang:

• is located on the Northern East shore of Papua New Guinea
• is located on the Northern West shore of Astrolabe Bay
• is an indentation in Astrolabe Bay which provides a natural harbour and estuary
• is linked to Lae by a East- West road.

Pre-thinking on geographical thinking: preparing for inquiring

2011-07-01T10:31:00.000+09:30

Left image: Madang in Papua New Guinea.
Right image: Satellite image of Madang PNG.

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'

Using key geographical concepts for pre-thinking on Madang

In the Spatialworlds June 7th, 2011 posting titled ‘Thinking, not things to learn’ the key concepts in the draft Australian Curriculum for geography were discussed and their importance to develop geographical thinking in the classroom was discussed. This posting builds in practical terms on the discussion from that posting.

On Sunday, July 3rd I am heading to Madang in Papua New Guinea to deliver discarded textbooks to schools who have a severe shortage of reading and writing material. A teaching colleague of many years ago (1979) has arranged for 2 tons of discarded text books to be sent to Madang and we are going to spend the week delivering the books (and other bits and pieces) to the schools along the Papua New Guinea northern coast. Having never been to PNG, I thought it was a great opportunity to test the geographical concepts identified as core to geographical thinking and do some pre-thinking about how, as a geographer, I can explore this area of the world. How, as a geographer do I use the conceptual lens being developed for the Australian Curriculum: Geography to guide my geographical inquiry? More importantly to the development of the Australian Curriculum for geography; do the concepts ‘work’ in developing congruent, interesting and worthwhile geographical thinking? Will I be able to use the concepts for my ‘pre-thinking’ about PNG to guide my inquiry of the Madang area of PNG?

What follows are the pre-thinking steps I have developed for some recent presentations to teachers (primary and secondary) to get across the idea of a geographically thinking classroom (thinking before going or studying a geographical place, phenomena or event – in this case a place) using the key concepts to guide inquiry in the geography.

Step 1: Prior knowledge: What do I know about the place already?
Not a lot beyond tsunamis, earthquakes, cargo cult, World War 2 happenings, humid, wet, malaria, isolated cultures (National Geographic type of images), German colony, jungles, Bird of Paradise, mineral wealth, AIDS and Australian protectorate. A pretty jumbled list of perceptions and isolated information!

Step 2: Knowing without going.
Check out the spatial technology, visualisations and information available on the Internet to glean as much visuals and knowledge as you can about the place. Here are just a few of the sites I used:
http://maps.google.com.au/
http://www.google.com http://www.maplandia.com/papua-new-guinea/madang/
http://travel.yahoo.com/p-map-487684-map_of_madang-i
http://cruises.about.com/od/southeastasiacruise1/ig/Madang-Papua-New-Guinea/

Step 3: Question the concepts to prepare for geographical inquiry and thinking when there.
The following listing uses the Australian Curriculum: Geography concepts and a range of associated inquiry questions – not an exhaustive list but just a start prior to visiting or in the case of the classroom prior to the inquiry commencing.

Place
Questions about:
• the site conditions of Madang: i.e. vegetation, rainfall, temperature, seasons, industry, settlement, transport, indigenous and non-indigenous population, agriculture, trade, government, hazards, cultural norms and customs, developments, iconic sites, health conditions, GDP, Income and living conditions, demographics (CDR/CBR/IMR/LE).
• Perception and identification of locals with place.

Space
Questions about:
• where Madang is situated (location).
• distribution and related patterns of settlement, vegetation, rivers, industry, agriculture, transport networks etc

Environment
Questions about:
• the nature of the biophysical and non-biophysical environments.
• connections between human and physical environments
• degree of diversity
• threats to the environment
• sustainability

Interconnections
Questions about the nature of relationship between Madang and:
• its people and environment (interdependency)
• its hinterland
• Port Moresby
• Indonesia
• Australia
• Asian/Pacific countries

Change
Questions about how Madang has changed over time focussing on:
• Pace and consistency of change
• Influences on change (Germany, World War 2, Australian mandatory control,
• Nature of change
• Impact of change on contemporary Madang
• Modelling the future

Sustainability
Questions about the environmental, social, political, cultural and economic sustainability of the Madang area.

Scale
Representation of the area (satellite imagery, maps), perceptions of distance, distance by modes of transport, view of the world by locals- global context), isolation issues etc.

Step 4: Go to the place and/or commence the geographical inquiry to find the answers to these questions inspired by the concepts and to view the place thorough the eyes of a geographer.

Future blog postings I am sure will be the result of my trip and I hope we will be able to build a view of Madang and PNG though the geographical inquiry lens using geographical thinking guided by the key concepts of the Australian Curriculum: Geography.

Geographical bits and pieces: Networking resources

2011-06-27T21:06:00.000+09:30

Left image: Perfect Sunday in Central Park, New York.
Right image: Grand Central Station, New York.

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'

Geographical bits and pieces: Networking resources

The sites of interest keep on coming. However they don’t just appear! They are the result of an incredible networking of geography teachers around the world who are keen to share what they find. The geographical bits and pieces of this posting are accumulated from the South African Google Group postings, the Geography Teachers Association of South Australia website newsletter, the Geography Association of the UK blog page and the ESRI Community blog from the US. All fantastic sources of Internet sites, resources and inspiration regarding geography. What the Spatialworlds blog tries to do is consolidate the resources into one site and if possible give them a theme. This posting has no theme and hence called ‘bits and pieces’. If you have any links or resources don’t hesitate to pass on via the comment section below. There have been over 1500 hits on this site over the past two months but no comments – it would be great to hear from those reading the blog and even get some resources which Spatialworlds has not come across! Well, here are some sites of interest and I am sure of great use in the geography classroom, some using spatial technology, while others just some great geography.

1. The Guardian Teacher Network: A great repository of teaching resources. You will need to register (free) but well worth the trouble.

2. Crime data released:
A site to help show what crime has been committed in neighbourhoods across the UK. Crime information can be shown on a map shaded to show crime rates in each area compared to the average across London, or as text

3. Human Planet Explorer Discover amazing human stories from around the world through television and radio clips from BBC programmes such as Human Planet, Amazon with Bruce Parry and Tropic of Cancer. Human Planet Explorer enables you to browse a selection of clips that showcase man's relationship with the natural environment.

4. Chilean Volcano:
Thousands flee their homes and flights are grounded as Chilean volcano sends plumes of ash showering down. Booming explosions echoed across the Andes as toxic gases belched up from a three-mile-long fissure in the volcanic complex .

5. The Chocolate Map:
Features over 2000 chocolate shops and growing each day! Whether at home or on the road, it's easy to find a chocolate shop near you.

6. National Public Toilet map:
The National Public Toilet Map (the Toilet Map) shows the location of more than 14,000 public and private public toilet facilities across Australia. Details of toilet facilities can also be found along major travel routes and for shorter journeys as well. Useful information is provided about each toilet, such as location, opening hours, availability of baby change rooms, accessibility for people with disabilities and the details of other nearby toilets.

7. Sentinel:
A national bushfire monitoring system that provides timely information about hotspots to emergency service managers across Australia. The mapping system allows users to identify fire locations with a potential risk to communities and property.

8. Cyclone tracking:
An archive of tracked severe weather activities. A site for those fascinated and wanting to observe severe weather occurrences.

9. Visualising Projections: A short video on projections. The projections morphs into another to show drastic differences in how we see the world geographically

10. Google Earth Outreach Showcase:
Explore how other non-profit and public benefit organizations are using Google Earth and Maps to visualize their cause. You can see both Earth and Maps projects, and read about the impact the organizations have had using these different mapping technologies.

11. Mapping the future of countries
Parag Khanna - Geopolitical expert Parag Khanna foresees a future with maps. Many people think the lines on the map no longer matter, but Parag Khanna says they do. Using maps of the past and present, he explains the root causes of border conflicts worldwide and proposes simple yet cunning solutions for each

12. Collecting data with the latest mobility devices:
Use iGPSGIS to easily collect data for utilities, wildlife, natural resources, land management and other applications. Tag the data with date, time, GPS coordinates and pre-defined descriptions. Organize the data in topic layers displayed with colorful symbols and text labels. iGPSGIS will import data in Shapefile format. You will also be able to digitize points, lines and areas on top of a background map. You will be able to view the area and perimeter of an Area Feature on the spot. Please keep in mind that continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life. iGPSGIS lets you easily toggle the GPS on or off. Following the release of the iCMTGIS for the Apple iPad, Corvallis Microtechnology, Inc. has announced the release of the iGPSGIS application software for use on the Apple iPhone. Like the iPad app, iGPSGIS allows the creation of GIS data in the field, including the export and import of shp files. The app has several useful features, including creating sampling grids, displaying a Google Map as the background map, collecting multi-layer GPS/GIS data, digitising points, lines and areas, assignment of symbols and attributes to features. You can of course view/edit any collected data from the device, and view the area of an enclosed region.
The free iGPSGIS Version 1.0.0 is available from the App Store at: And the iPad version is available. For additional information.

13. Realtime weather: check out the local weather conditions. Maps and charts weather conditions.

14. Environmental case studies galore:
A website from the American University which has published case studies since 1997 about major environmental issues affecting regions around the world. Topics include climate change, impacts and role of nature, conflicts over use and pollution of rivers, wars and environmental impact, border disputes, nuclear energy, forest depletion, etc.

15. The S.A. Weather and Disaster Information Service(SAWDIS: Images of Eritrea’s Nabro Volcano. This service is made possible by amateur radio operators and private citizens around the country that volunteer the use of their weather and radio stations, weather and disaster photographs, data and information for educational and research purposes.

16. Just nonsense but fun:
Sometimes the networking involves a little pressure release –just some useless fun activity. Give theses a try. Nothing to do with geography or spatial technology but how can resist swatting a fly – an environmental act!
http://www.majman.net/flyswatter/
http://www.dishtracking.com/forum/touch-his-noce-if-you-can-t-13531.html

The phenomena of technology anxiety: sifting resources of worth

2011-06-22T07:57:00.000+09:30

Left image: Protest American style, Washington, USA.
Right image: Pefect mountain scence in South Korea.

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

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

Addressing technology anxiety: sifting resources of worth

It never ceases to amaze me that spatial technology sites suitable for geographical education I have never seen keep turning up. The problem is not the dearth of sites but rather the need to just check out their quality and application potential. In fact, sifting through all the available sites can create a degree of technology anxiety amongst teachers who are searching with limited time for useful (and exciting) sites for their teaching. The anxiety grows considerably when the site is not user friendly (although disputed, some say that most people only want to click a maximum of 3 times before giving up on a site) or when the site requires downloading or locating plug-ins. I can feel the anxiety growing already!

It is important that as we seek resources for the Australian Curriculum: geography that someone – maybe Education Services Australia, jurisdictions or geography teachers associations- sift through the sites available free on the Internet and give a quality rating, provide an application guide, reduce the technology hurdles and provide guides to make it easier for teachers to access and use. We do not have to write new resources to any extent to service the new curriculum but just create a user friendly environment for teachers to use the plethora of great spatial technology sites (and other great geography sites) available to be used for free on the Internet. It is the application of these resources via quality geography pedagogy for the areas of study identified in the Australian Curriculum: geography that should be the focus of resource development – not the creation of new resources; they are already there in buckets! The last thing we want is for teachers not to engage in using spatial technology because they are overwhelmed by the number of sites to review and that they cannot see the forest for the trees! Technology anxiety must be averted by a considered and coordinated approach to the location and use of spatial technology and geography sites readily available for schools.

This posting just highlights a few of these wonderful sites which are perfect for exciting learning for students when the Australian Curriculum for geogrpahy is up and going.

1. Mapnificent is a useful and clever spatial technology site: Mapnificent is an application that shows the area one can reach with public transport from any point in a given time. Watch the video which explains the application

2. Mapumental is a realtime version of journey time maps.

3. OpenStreetMap creates and provides free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them. The project was started because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive, or unexpected ways.
OSM Australia is just a basic website to gather all the various Australian-related output from the OpenStreetMap project, and make it available from one place.

4. GeoCommons is the public community of GeoIQ users who are building an open repository of data and maps for the world. The GeoIQ platform includes a large number of features that empower you to easily access, visualize and analyze your data.

5. Quantum GIS is open source software available under the terms of the GNU General Public License

6. Volcanic Ash Advisory Centres (VAACS) site: Interesting spatial technology site regarding the volcanic ash hazard. Nine VAAC's have been designated by the International Civil Aviation Organization to provide their expertise to civil aviation in case of significant volcanic eruptions. They are a basic part of the IAVW(International Airways Volcano Watch). The area covered by the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre includes Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and part of the Philippines. This area has seen some of the biggest eruptions known to history.

The data visualisation revolution: coming to geography!

2011-06-17T10:55:00.000+09:30

Left image: Ancient data: Rosetta Stone, British Museum, London.
Right image: Government, home of data! Parliament House Canberra, Australia.

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

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

The data visualisation revolution: making sense of data, any data in the information culture

It is often cited that “85% of data in the 21st Century is attached to place”. Regardless of the source of this quote, few would argue with its truth. It seems that tables alone of data does not ‘rub it’ any more for us. People expect to either see the data associated with a visualisation or in some cases just the visualisation will do to give an idea of what is happening. To meet this trend software developers are working on creating free visualisation tools for us to turn data into visualisations using just a few clicks. This data visualisation revolution has huge potential for geography classes to tap into a plethora of unique data (often citizen entered data sets) and to turn the data into visualisations across space at a range of scales depending if the data is local, national, regional or global. This posting highlights just several of the newly created data table repository and visualisation sites which are increasingly accessible and functionally friendly (still a way to go though!). As the on-line data visualisation revolution continues I am sure they will become more extensive and user friendly with greater functionality. It is worth those interested in spatial technology and geography to get a start with these sites now and think about their application in the classroom.

In relation to this revolution, Alex Howard, government 2.0 beat writer for O'Reilly Media says:

"One of the biggest challenges government agencies, municipalities and any other body has is converting open data to information which people can take knowledge from. One of the most powerful ways humanity has developed to communicate information over time is through maps. If you can take data in an open form - and CSV files are one of the most standard formats available - then you have an opportunity to tell stories in a way that's relevant to a region and personalized to an individual. That's a meaningful opportunity.”

Here are just some of the sites to get started.

1. Factual: constantly evolving data on thousands of topics.
Factual provides simple application programming interfaces (API) for building Web and mobile apps. For instance, it provides data on local geographies. According to Factual, the datasets include businesses and points of interest (parks, airports, theaters, tourist attractions, etc.), and attributes include: name, address, phone, category and latitude/longitude

2. Yahoo pipes: Pipes is a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web. Learn How to Build a Pipe in just a few minutes on Yahoo!

3. Google Fusion Tables Google Fusion Tables http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2009/06/google-fusion-tables.html is a Google Labs project. It is a data management tool to host, manage, collaborate on, visualize, and publish data tables.

“Fusion Tables is a service for managing large collections of tabular data in the cloud. You can upload tables of up to 100MB and share them with collaborators, or make them public. You can apply filters and aggregation to your data, visualize it on maps and other charts, merge data from multiple tables, and export it to the Web or csv files. You can also conduct discussions about the data at several levels of granularity, such as rows, columns and individual cells.”
Here is a brief Youtube and tutorial on Google Fusion – as it grows, just watch this sopace as a great resource for schools to thematisise data.

4. OpenHeatMap: Custom heat maps for geodata: turning data into maps.
OpenHeatMap has been called 'YouTube for maps'. If you have location data in an Excel spreadsheet, you can save it out as a CSV file, upload it to OpenHeatMap and get an interactive online map that you can customize, share and embed.

“Curious about where people around the world are Tweeting about a particular topic the most? Want to see world income levels as reported over the last 100 years by the World Bank, playing forward like a little movie map? Got your own data set you want to put on a map? That's what OpenHeatMap can do."

As with all these tools a degree of computer expertise is required (re: uploading apps, downloading plug-ins etc). This video may help the learning curve.

5. Socrata is one of a handful of companies and organizations that are shaping the open data movement in government. The company provides ways for federal, state and local governments to make data available online in a simple-to-use. No wonder freedom of information is such a hot topic in our society these days!

It is also opportune while on this topic to refer to the Educational Services Australia (ESA) Data Genie which is a great data resource for geography and the fact that the ESA is about to launch Spatial Genie next week. Will keep you in the loop when it is live.

A one-stop 21st Century geography resource from AGTA now available

2011-06-14T18:57:00.000+09:30

Images: Buddhism and stacking rocks in South Korea.

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

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

The new AGTA Exploring 21st Century Geography DVD resource

AGTA has released a resource to support 21st Century geographical thinking and approaches.

As you can see this site does not normally dabble in advertising any products. However because of the role of the Australian Geography Teachers Association (AGTA) as a non-profit organisation in promoting geographical education in Australia I have made this one exception. Hope you don’t mind.

AGTA has recently released a DVD titled ‘Exploring 21st Century Geography’. The DVD was produced for the AGTA 2011 conference in Adelaide in January 2011 and is now available for purchase on-line on the AGTA site. The DVD costs only A$95 (including GST and postage for Australian purchasers) and A$105 (including postage to anywhere in the world) for overseas purchases. The DVD comes with an unlimited site license and copying rights for an educational institution.

The DVD has been developed to support educators and schools to explore 21st Century geography. Such exploration involves considering ICT use in geography, spatial technology integration and capacities, discussions on the nature of the 21st Century learner, classroom, pedagogy and curriculum for geography and access to resources and approaches available for the teaching of a 21st Century geography. To these ends the DVD contains:
* three books and interactive CD’s on the use of GIS in geography (GIS skills development processes, GIS in Historical geography and GIS in physical geography)
* an interactive CD on the use of technology in geography
* articles on 21st Century geography pedagogy and curriculum
* Internet links to hundreds of resource and teaching sites to support 21st Century geography
* a 21st Century audit tool
* Internet links to geography curriculums around the world
* student project samples and processes.

AGTA is proud to launch this product to support the teaching of a quality and engaging geography in our schools. Most importantly it is hoped that the resource supports schools as they grapple with the demands and directions of the geographical thinking and ICT capacities stimulated by the development of a 21st Century Australian Curriculum for geography.
Go to the Geography Teachers Association of South Australia (GTASA) to view a user guide and flyer for the DVD. For more information on the resource email manning@chariot.net.au or comment on this blog posting – happy to answer any queries on behalf of AGTA.
Naturally AGTA would love to have any feedback on the resource to inform any future resource development to promote quality geographical education in the 21st Century.
Just a reminder, go to the AGTA site if you wish to purchase a copy of the DVD.

Thinking, not things to learn!

2011-06-07T19:18:00.000+09:30

Left image: A wordle of the heirarchy of geographical concepts - an insight into geographical thinking.
Right image: Questioning geography?

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??
Sydney: S: 34º 0' E: 151º 0'

Thinking geographically via SPECISS

As the realisation dawns in schools that geography is part of the Australian curriculum and in turn will be taught in all Australian schools from F-10 I have started to think; what does that mean for the non-geographically trained teacher? In my day job I am frequently working with primary teachers and society and environment teachers in secondary schools who feel somewhat uncomfortable with delivering a rigorous discipline based geography curriculum. They have obviously been teaching the place, space and environment strand of SOSE but they have been able to manoeuvre content and approaches to suit their expertise, interests and geographical understanding. ACARA consistently says that the Australian Curriculum for geography being developed is based on discipline expertise and rigour requiring an understanding of the concepts, skills and content specific to geography. Such a statement will understandably create a feeling of unease amongst ‘non-geography’ teachers. Yes, there are geographers in our schools who feel very comfortable with the expectations of a disciplined based geography but it is fair to say, compared to other learning areas in Australian schools, including history, geography is an area which will face significant challenges to deliver the curriculum for geography to the level expected by those writing the curriculum. The question being repeatedly asked by geographers is how do we support teachers to not necessarily know the content but to think geographically when working with the content. As mentioned in a previous Spatialworlds posting, when we talk about the teaching of geography, it is not so much about the content but how we approach the content. The science, history and geography teachers may be teaching the same topic but will do so in quite different ways. For example, in regards to the teaching of earthquakes and volcanoes teachers tend to be in agreement that the history and science teachers will treat the topic quite differently. However the teachers I have recently worked with seem less confident about how the science and geography teachers will treat the topic differently.

So then, what makes geography geography? What is the lens a geographer views and works with the content. This is lens of geographical thinking I wish to explore in this posting.

Inextricably tied up with geographical thinking is the conceptual thinking associated with the way geographers view any event, phenomena or even actions of an individual or group. This conceptual thinking involves the interplay of key concepts which resonate with the geographer. As mentioned previously, the listing of the key concepts is contestable amongst geographers around the world but there tends to be agreement on what the broad range of geographical concepts are.

Geographers really are arguing about how long the list is and what concepts nestle within others or are a key concept in their own right. After viewing a range of geography curriculum around the world, with trepidation, I propose a list of the 12 most popular key concepts.
1. Space
2. Place
3. Sustainability
4. Interconnection
5. Change
6. Earth processes
7. Systems
8. Scale
9. Environment
10. Diversity
11. Relational thinking - cause and effect
12. Values and valuing

After mush debate at the Advisory Panel level of ACARA, a draft list of 7 (this could change as the consultation process proceeds) has been developed. They are: Space, Place, Sustainability, Interconnection, Change, Scale and Environment. As we always want to do, maybe the acronym for geographical thinking in Australian schools could be SPECISS or even PISSECS? Anyway, the important thing is that these concepts provide us with the lens to develop geographical thinking. In the following summary of SPECISS you will see that other concepts are nestled within related key concepts i.e. risk is nestled in environment. As professional learning is developed there will be nothing stopping us highlighting these second tier concepts and even elevating them when appropriate as fundamental to an understanding of what is studied. For example when geographically studying earthquakes and volcanoes and the interplay of the physical and human environments, the concept of risk becomes of first order significance.

Since these are the 7 being proposed by the ACARA writers, when we talk about geographical thinking in Australian schools these 7 should provide the conceptual lens for teachers when they are developing and teaching geographical content in the classroom. I would also suggest that an understanding of these key concepts (and their ‘dovetailed’ related concepts) should underpin the professional learning to be conducted with teachers tackling the geographical thinking learning curve. Whatever content being explored during such professional learning should be through the lens of the key concepts. Only then will teachers be thinking geographically as they explore the topics of the Australian Curriculum: geography with students. The focus must be on thinking geographically and not just learning things.

Peter Jackson’s discussion in is his excellent article titled, “Thinking Geographically” says that:

“… to think geographically provides a language – a set of concepts and ideas – that can help us see the connections between place and scales that others frequently miss.”
So it may be suggested that to think geographically we are required to view everything we study through the following key concepts (note that the related concepts really provide a practical insight into the nature of the key concept):

* Space: The examination and exploration of an area or space of the earth’s surface through the spatial observations of location, distribution and pattern.
(related concepts of absolute location, relative location, distance, association, proximity, agglomeration, time-space convergence, distribution, diffusion, interdependency, spatial pattern, density, clustering, dispersal, segregation, diversity, spatial justice, urban and environmental management, representations of space).

* Place: The observation and analysis of identified localities on the earth’s surface (across and in space) which have been given a particular meaning, shape and perspective by humans. People identify with places, using and experiencing them in response to cultural perceptions and human needs(related concepts of region, territory, boundary, perception, identity, interconnection and interdependence, sense of place, cultural understanding, diversity and similarity).

* Environment: Involves examining how we perceive and experience environments, how people and environments are interconnected, and how we think about our relationships with and responsibilities towards the environment(related concepts of human environment, human-physical environment, change, dynamic, cultural environment, landscape, earth processes, natural environment, management, mitigation, perception, biophysical environment, interdependency, relational thinking (cause and effect), risk and sustainability).

* Change: The perception that the world is complex and dynamic and that various rates of change is natural and expected in a complex interconnected world(related concepts of dynamic, equilibrium, interdependence, risk, relational thinking (cause and effect), time, technological impact, globalization, pace of change and societal change).

* Interconnection: Awareness that geographical phenomena, people, places and spaces are connected to each other in complex and often reciprocal ways – that nothing can be viewed in isolation(related concepts of process, interaction, relational thinking (cause and effect), scale, regional, global, interdependence, system, enabling technology, scale, sustainability and flow).

* Sustainability: To view a location, environment or phenomena in terms of their capacity to maintain human life and system quality into the future(related concepts of values and valuing, economy, long term/short term perspectives, social/economic/political/environmental sustainability, generational equity, development, social justice, contestability, globalisation, world views, change, interdependence decision making, technological change and capacity, planning, management, diversity, relational thinking (cause and effect), risk, renewable resources, technology, non-renewable resources, modeling, perception and preferred futures).

* Scale: To study and map geographical phenomena at various levels of scale from the local to the regional, national, world regional and global - the zoom tool perspective(related concepts of local, global, national, regional, small/large scale, impact of technology of scale perception, time-space compression, spatial perception, distance and map representation of the earth surface and geographical phenomena).

If we modeled geographical thinking when studying a volcanic event, students would explore the human attachment and perception of the place where the volcanic activity was occurring (place), the location, distribution and pattern of the volcanic activity (space), volcanic activity frequency, amplitude and impact over time (change), the capacity of humans to live in the volcanic zone (sustainability), the relative scale and reach of the volcano (scale), the relationships and interdependency of the volcano with local, regional and global biophysical and human environments (interconnections) and the impact on the environment of the volcanic activity (environment). Needless to say, it is the role of the scientist to go into great details on the working and origins of the volcano –such knowledge is background for the geographer but not their core business.

How do we explain and model such thinking to the primary teacher attempting to get their head around geographical thinking before embarking on teaching the Australian Curriculum: geography. It is not that they have not been doing some great work related to geography in their classrooms over the years but has it involved ‘deep’ geographical thinking to the level required by the curriculum which is being written. The writers are not shying away from using geographical terms, concepts and approaches because that is what makes geography geography. I am sure the English, science, mathematics and history writers were not open to a suggestion that they should not include discipline specific language, skills and approaches because teachers may not have understood or been familiar with them. Such characteristics are what makes a subject a discipline and should not be watered down to accommodate those who are not familiar with the discipline. The need to support teachers in moving along the geographical thinking learning curve is the challenge of professional learning which faces us. The premise for the professional learning we develop and conduct for teachers should be informed by this piece of writing by Peter Jackson again:

“The public perception of geography is as a fact-based rather than conceptual discipline. Geography enables a unique way of seeing the world, of understanding complex problems and thinking about inter-connections at a variety of scale. Demonstrating the power of geographical thinking might be one way … of increasing our confidence to take more risks in what and how we teach.”

It is this dynamic conceptual view encapsulated by geographical thinking is the professional learning in geography required for the implementation of the Australian Curriculum: geography.

Exploration time

2011-05-31T09:13:00.000+09:30

Left image: Dallas skyline.
Right image: Adelaide from the air.

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'

Unlike the postings of recent weeks, this posting has no theme and just contains some great spatial and geographical sites to explore. They are sites related to GIS materials, great images, cultural diversity, mashables, time zones, population and global trends. Here they are:

* EarthPulse, a visual guide from National Geographic looking at global trends. EarthPulse explores these global connections with vivid and informative imagery, maps, diagrams, and inter-actives that illuminate where we are today, how we got here, and how our actions may affect the future of life on Earth. A great resource.

* Tag Galaxy: Can be used for conceptualizing and a visual association Tag Galaxy is a very good flash application that uses Papervision3D with beautiful transition effects to explore Flickr photos via virtual planetary systems. You enter a tag and related tags appear with beautiful planetary systems.

* Images and activities on yet another natural disaster. This site is a collection (comment, photos, maps... ...) of the recent tornado in Missouri.

* An article on a city built for a million people - but no one lives here: The Mongolian metropolis thrust into the 21st Century in a storm of steel and concrete

* The world at night – amazing night photos from around the world

* Free GIS theory course for secondary schools

* Some wonderful images of awesome earth: Grimsvotn, Iceland’s most active volcano is up to its old tricks.

* A website for population statistics, including population pyramids - just select the country and the year.

* A site looking at world demographics from 1950 to 2050.

* NationMaster, a massive central data source and a handy way to graphically compare nations. NationMaster is a vast compilation of data from such sources as the CIA World Factbook, UN, and OECD. Using the form above, you can generate maps and graphs on all kinds of statistics with ease.

* The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 266 world entities. Our Reference tab includes: maps of the major world regions, as well as Flags of the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, and a Standard Time Zones of the World map.

* Don’t Gross Out the World – A fun quiz on cultural diversity.

* Population Exposition – a creative interactive resource looking at population.

* A brief history of time – BBC news looks at time zones.

* The Mashable: a bit of everything is available from the Mashable website. Explore tab on Mashable makes it easy to discover and explore content on Mashable. Click on topics that interest you most to find relevant and resourceful stories. From guides to popular resource lists, Mashable Explore enables seamless discovery of stories that matter most to you

*Images of the globe – some great images of our world.

* Where are the limits of digital photography and its application to geography?
Sevilla 111 Gigapixels is a huge panoramic and interactive photograph of Seville city, which consists of 111 thousand million pixels. A new worldwide record since December 2010. Browsing the biggest photograph in the world from home and observe inch by inch La Giralda's belfry, La Torre del Oro's merlons, the details of the Cathedral's walls, and more than one thousand little details and corners of Seville is now possible thanks to the cutting-edge capture technologies and Internet, which allow us to immerse ourselves in this huge panoramic image and explore virtually all the places in the city, by scrolling and zooming in/out throughout it.

Are we there yet?

2011-05-23T09:10:00.000+09:30

Left image: Korean food delight.
Right image: Wind farm in South Korea.

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

Where am I??
Sydney: S: 34º 0' E: 151º 0'

Progress with the Australian Curriculum: geography

In a posting some time ago (September 2009) I gave a quick rundown about how the Australian Curriculum: geography was progressing. Much has transpired over the past 21 months. In this posting I will attempt to give a rundown of progress, where we are and what is to come before we have a curriculum for geography to play with in Australian schools.

Some background
The linked Powerpoint titled "Are we there yet?" was presented at the recent (May 27th) GTASA conference in Adelaide. It contains a past, present and future focus regarding the AC: geography. As you will see from slide 39 we are in a targetted consultation stage of the process.
"During the first part of the writing stage from February-June 2011,
ACARA will be conducting targeted consultation processes with state
jurisdictions and geography teachers associations (coordinated by
AGTA). These bodies will be asked to respond to the work undertaken by
the writers re: scope and sequence in particular."

Where we have come from?

Following the outstanding work of the Toward a National Geography Curriculum project during 2008 and 2009, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) commenced work on developing the geography curriculum for Australian schools. From October 2009-March 2010 an ACARA Reference Group comprising leading university and school geographers developed an initial advice paper to guide the development of the geography curriculum. Following a period of on-line consultation and a national forum of key geography stakeholders in 2010 another group of geographers were invited in May 2010 to work on a shape paper to be the basis of curriculum development for the scope and sequence. The Advisory group released the ACARA Shape Paper for geography in January 2010. Since February 2011 the ACARA Geography Advisory Panel and a group of appointed curriculum writers have been working on developing the rationale, aims and scope and sequence for the geography curriculum. Whilst this process may seem convoluted it is necessary to provide those involved with the time to work through some important questions relating to the teaching of geography in Australian schools. Only through such a thorough process can we be confident that all angles have been covered and the curriculum has had to time to grow and mature through discussions between those who should know what a 21st Century geography curriculum should look like.

To demonstrate the need for such a process, the following areas have been ones of contention (often referred to as hotspots) between those involved in developing the curriculum (some of which are still being debated after 18 months of intense work by advisory groups):

• What is Geography?
• The nature of place and space.
• What does Geography in schools look like?
• Defining the term environment.
• The balance between physical and human geography.
• The content v’s process debate.
• How important is the spatial concept in comparison to the concept of place?
• What are the core concepts?
• The nature of sustainability in geography.
• The degree of focus on sustainability in geography.
• The importance of the spatial perspective.
• Spatial technology and it’s use as a core issue.
• The mandating of fieldwork.
• The uniqueness of the inquiry process in geography.
• How should the curriculum be structured/formatted.

Where are we?

The ACARA Geography Advisory panel is presently working on developing the rationale, aims, key concepts and scope and sequence for the geography curriculum. The panel of 16 geographers and curriculum officers from around Australia has met face to face three times in Sydney to discuss many of the hotspots mentioned above and to respond to the work of the 6 appointed curriculum writers (not named). It is envisaged this curriculum writing phase will be for about 20 months (February 2011-August 2012). These face-to face meetings have been supported by numerous teleconferences and a flurry of email and sharepoint discussions on the proposed aims, rationale, concepts and scope and sequence. The work of the panel has been primarily concerned with:

• making sure the rationale provides a coherent and relevant definition of school geography and the reasons why geography is important to the 21st Century citizen.
• writing a concise listing of aims for geography which are understandable, achievable, relevant and engaging for young people
• identification of key concepts (5-7 in number) from the expansive list in the shape paper.
• defining these key concepts and identifying the relationships between concepts
• developing a view on the progression of concepts F-12
• deciding on the structure of the scope and sequence
• developing a scope and sequence and the related progression of skills and understandings from F-12.

I assure you, no easy task. Despite the excellent communication between geographers across Australia, there are some differences in opinion and views which must be worked through to develop a coherent and not compromised final product. I am sure, with the help of geographers from around Australia via forums and on-line consultation, we will reach such an end in coming months. We all want the same thing – a relevant and inspiring geography curriculum so as to ensure students want to study geography beyond the years of compulsion.

Where to next?

Note the following sequence of events is the one proposed by ACARA as of May 2011. Naturally, depending on circumstances, it could change as time goes by.

* During the first part of the writing stage from February-June 2011, ACARA will be conducting targeted consultation processes with state jurisdictions and geography teachers associations (coordinated by AGTA). These bodies will be asked to respond to the work undertaken by the writers re: scope and sequence in particular.
* Following this targeted consultation, in August 2011 a National Forum of key stakeholders is tentatively planned to be held in Sydney to view and discuss the work to date. This should involve the viewing of the draft rationale, aims and a scope and sequence.
* It is hoped that a draft scope and sequence containing content descriptions (including elaborations) and achievement standards will be released in September 2011 for national consultation. This on-line consultation is tentatively planned to be held between September-December 2011. This consultation period will be followed by another phase of curriculum writing guided by the advice provided from the consultation.
* A second National Forum is tentatively planned for February 2012 to discuss the revisions post-on-line consultations in 2011.
* Another national on-line consultation is tentatively planned to be held between May-June 2012, followed by revisions by the writers.
* At this stage ACARA is saying that the Australian Curriculum: Geography will be published on-line during September 2012.

So in answer to the question of this blog posting; are we there yet? No! We have a long way to go and the involvement of geography teachers across Australia is critical if we are to get the product geography students (and teachers) in Australia deserve. It should be an interesting journey.

Free historical GIS downloads

2011-05-17T08:08:00.000+09:30

Left image: Amien Cathedral.
Right image: Villers-Bretonneux, battlefields of northern France.

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??
Sydney: S: 34º 0' E: 151º 0'

The discussion in a recent Spatialworlds postings leads us to the question;

“how should curriculum developers and teachers proceed to connect geography with history in the curriculum?”

Curriculum writers could begin the connection by mapping geographical concepts against historical content and in fact even historical concepts. For example we could map for any historical topic the:

* five geographic themes, presented in the US guidelines for geographic education: location, place, relationships within places, movement, and regions (the National Council for Geographic Education, the Association of American Geographers, and the National Geographic Society have endorsed these five themes as foundations for geography education in schools)

* seven concepts of the UK National Curriculum for geography: place, space, scale, interdependence, physical and human processes, environmental interaction and sustainability development and cultural understanding and diversity.

Increasingly, concepts are being adopted by developers of curriculum to develop the contextual framework for a curriculum. In fact the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA)is presently looking at what are the key concepts (page 6 of January 2011 Shape paper for Geography)for the geography curriculum presently under development. It will be interesting how closely they reflect the US and UK ones listed above.

An example of how curriculum writers in California have linked history and geography (using the US geographical concepts) is seen in the following treatment of the voyages of Columbus

Each of the five major themes of geography education is stated and described below in connection with key questions about a major event in world history.

* Location: People and places are positioned variously on the Earth's surface. Where in the world are places located? What are the locations of places in Europe and the Caribbean region that were linked by the Columbian voyages? How did the relative location of these places affect the events of the Columbian voyages?

* Place: Physical and human characteristics distinguish one place from other places. What makes a place special? How have the distinguishing characteristics of a place, such as Cuba, Santo Domingo, or Spain, changed because of cataclysmic events of the Columbian voyages?

* Relationships within Places: The interactions of humans with their environments shape the characteristics of both people and the environment. How do people change the natural environment and how does the environment influence the activities of people? How did human-environment interactions affect the physical and
human characteristics of the Western hemisphere region during and after the Columbian voyages?

* Movement: Human interactions on the Earth--people, products, and information affect the characteristics of places. What are the global patterns of movement of people, products, microbes, domestic animals, seeds, and information that developed as a consequence of the Columbian voyages?

* Regions: The earth can be divided into regions to help us understand similarities and differences of people and places. How did the Caribbean region form and change during and after the Columbian voyages? How did the regions of Western Europe and Western Africa change because of the Columbian voyages?

As can be seen above the geographic themes are indispensable aids to understanding of major event such as voyages of Columbus. Such a treatment of geographical concepts can be applied to whatever historical topics studied. Indeed, such a concept mapping exercise would be a very useful and indispensable activity when designing any of the following Australian history topics: the colonisation of Australia, World War 1, Australian migration in the 20th Century, Australian Federation etc. When we get the geographical concepts for the Australian Curriculum, such an activity would be an important developmental process for ensuring that geography and history are actually entwined and not seen as ‘silos of knowledge’ but one of mutual understanding and interdependence.

Here are a few more examples of how some teachers; both geography and history, are trying to reflect the entwinement of the two disciplines to create exciting, real world and valid studies with a touch of geographical determinism.

* http://library.thinkquest.org/C006628/

* http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/17/g912/greece.html

* http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/socst/pub/sscore2.pdf

* http://www.studentsfriend.com/onhist/combine.html

* http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4033/is_200404/ai_n9373908/

* http://www.ericdigests.org/1993/history.htm

Adding to the geography conceptual mapping process discussed above, the capacity of GIS to use geographical concepts and data to elucidate historical understanding has the potential to encourage the integration of history and geography in the curriculum.

To support schools in using GIS in history teaching I wrote a resource in 2004 titled; Historical GIS: Place + Space +Time. A collection of articles re: historical GIS can be found at https://sites.google.com/site/malcolmmcinerney/historicalgis. Free activity downloads from the book can be downloaded at
https://sites.google.com/site/malcolmmcinerney/freedownloads

Here are brief summaries of the free download activities using GIS in the study of history.

* CEMETERY: This exercise aims to create a historical representation of a cemetery using the hotlinking capabilities of ArcView. Hotlinks are a wonderful way to add interest and detail to a map depicting spatial events or temporal change. This exercise involves the plotting and description of graves in a cemetery.

* EXPLORERS: Traces the journeys of early Australian explorers and provides visual data of the journeys via hotlinks to paths and points.

* BUILDING HERITAGE: Maps the houses in a suburban street in terms of age, building type, heritage value, authenticity and state of repair.

* WW1 BATTLE: Creates a historical representation of a battlefield using the hotlinking capabilities of ArcView. This exercise involves the plotting and description of trench lines and battle hot spots. The example used in this exercise involves the tracing of a soldier’s journey during World War 1 providing photographs, certificates and other relevant images via hotlinks.

* CHANGE OVER TIME: Shows change over time by the importing of aerial photographs over a time period and then doing some basic line and polygon creation (heads up digitising of the image) so as to clearly to see spatial changes over time.

The Z factor of time

2011-05-14T08:21:00.000+09:30

Left image: Stonehenge, Salisbury Plains, England.
Right image: Chruchill statue, outside Parliament House, 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??
Sydney: S: 34º 0' E: 151º 0'

Historical GIS

The recognition of the entwinement of the disciplines of history and geography and the potential to link the study of history and geography has been given considerable impetus in recent years by the emergence of amazing enabling technology such as Geographical information Systems. In fact, rarely does a history documentary on TV go by without the use of spatial technology (hence geographical capacities) to demonstrate and visualise historical themes and events. The use of GIS in history is based on the premise that history is determined by space and place over time.

Geography is the study of spatial differentiation and history the study of temporal differentiation, so “if you can read it, why not visualise it via mapping it!!”

GIS provides the tools to combine history and geography to study patterns of change over space and time. Again, as Iain Stewart showed in his series,the world of the geologist, historian, geographer and anthropologist are all entwined and almost impossible to separate. As a result, GIS is becoming the meeting ground for these disciplines blurring the divisions even more.

As mentioned in a previous posting, geography is relevant to the teaching of history in the classroom. Recently there have been attempts to inject a sense of spatial perception into history teaching. History courses have always used maps to demonstrate events and concepts. What GIS can do is involve students in creating their own unique and original maps of an historical event or time. Such spatial literacy development and student involvement in the creation of spatial representations of historical events can only make history a more practical and relevant subject to students. The use of such high level spatial technology as GIS opens many opportunities to develop creative and innovative problems for students to solve via the development of spatial representations in the form of data linked maps or images.

The wonderful technology of GIS now allows the amateur ICT user to use a high level technological tool to map both simple and complex spatial representations and relationships.

Historical GIS is proving to be a valuable research method, a framework for digital archives and a means to bringing a geographical/spatial sensibility to the view of history. Historical data has the Z factor of time and GIS adds the x and y factor of place. GIS digitally links locations and their attributes (attached information) so that they can be displayed in maps and analyzed, by their geographical characteristics, such as location, distance, proximity, density and dispersal. GIS representation involves identifying the social, economic and physical characteristics of a place at a particular time in history.

In practical terms the use of GIS by history students can involve any of the following:

*Analyzing change in space over time.

*Attaching sources/data/images to location.

*Tracking movement over space.

* Searching databases over space.

Here are some more interesting links on Historical GIS

*http://www.ahds.ac.uk/history/creating/guides/gis/index.html

*http://www.gisforhistory.org/

*http://www.aag.org/cs/projects_and_programs/historical_gis_clearinghouse/educational_and_training_resources

*http://www.tcla.gseis.ucla.edu/divide/teachers/lausd_jordan.html

As Amy Hillier, University of Pennsylvania says in her paper “Placing History: How Maps, Spatial Data, and GIS are Changing Historical Scholarship”

“In the last decade, historical GIS has emerged as a promising new methodology for studying the past. Historical GIS is the use of geographic information systems software and allied geospatial methods for historical research and teaching. We now have the opportunity to use an array of tools to visualize historical information in a geographical context.”

Fun is OK!

2011-05-10T20:43:00.000+09:30

Left image: Hong Kong Harbour, Hong Kong Island side.
Right image: North coast Papua New Guinea from the air.

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'

Using games in geography

Understanding play is critical to understanding learning
Play is the basis for cultivating imagination and innovation
Seely and Brown

So what about this play thing? For many educators play is recognized as a critical tool for children. They consider that through play they come to understand, experience, and know the world. However as we get older (and the teaching force fits into this category), play is seen as unimportant, trivial, or as a means of relaxation and learning switches to something you do in school where now you are taught.

“What we fail to fully grasp is that play is the way that children manage new, unexpected and changing conditions, exactly the situation we now all face in the fast-paced world of the 21st century. Play is more than a tool to manage change; it allows us to make new things familiar, to perfect new skills, to experiment with moves and crucially to embrace change —a key disposition for succeeding in the 21st century.”

Seely and Brown believe play as part of a new culture of learning does the above in four ways:
1) By thinking about the problem as a crisis in learning rather than teaching
2) By looking at the incredible power of new cultures of learning that are happening already and understanding what makes them successful
3) By tapping new resources: peer to peer learning, amplified by the power of the collective, which favors things like questing dispositions over transfer models of education and embraces play as a modality of exploration, experimentation, and engagement.
4) By understanding how to optimize the resources (and freedom) of large networks, while at the same time affording personal and individual agency constrained within a problem space created by a bounded learning environment.
Play provides freedom to act in new ways which are different from "everyday life" within a set of rules that constrain that freedom. Think of any game a kid creates of make-believe. It is both fantasy and it has to have rules (which may be arbitrary and even ridiculous), but what it results in is a world of imagination and something entirely new and innovative.

In short, play cultivates imagination and innovation, two capacities critical for individuals to function and be successful in the 21st Century.

Such consideration of play brings me to the idea of games and game-type activities (simulations, quizzes, puzzles etc) in the geography classroom. Here is just a selection of free game type activities/resources available on-line which could and in the view of Seely and Brown should be embraced by the geography classroom.

Fun is OK!

* Test your knowledge of world geography
http://www.geosense.net/

* Games for Change curates digital and non-digital games that engage contemporary social issues in a meaningful way. These games have been created by cross-disciplinary teams from around the world.

Ideas to inspire: Online Geography Gaming: This site contains links and background to hundreds of online games and simulations for use in the geography classroom. The site also has ideas and links to ICT and on-line collaboration tools. An amazing one-stop shop for teachers to incorporate games and fun into the classroom for students to learn.

Here is a selection from the excellent Ideas to inspire site (28 out of the 102 profiled on the site)

* Electrocity

* Stop disasters

* 3rd World farmer

* Sim sweatshop

* Darfur is dying

* McDonalds game

* My Sus House

* My abodo

* Flood Sim

* Google Flight Sim

* Sporcle: Place based games

* Place games and quizzes

* Classic Sim City

* Oil and extraction

* Free poverty

* Global rich

* Trans Aid: transport issues and aid

* Refugees: Against all odds

* Climate change Pentathlon

* Food force: Humanitarian food game

*Race against global poverty

* Climate challenge

* Earthquake: make a quake

* Urban plan

*Environmental quiz game

* Shipping

* Virtual volcano

* Map Zone games

Online and just a click of the mouse

2011-05-10T11:22:00.002+09:30

Left image:Aged Tia Chi at 6am in the morning! Beijing, China
Right image:Kindergarten in Beijing, China.

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'

Learning tools for the new culture of learning

As discussed in the previous posting, Seely and Brown consider that "a new culture of learning" is based on several basic assumptions about the world and how learning occurs:

• The world is changing faster than ever and our skill sets have a shorter life
• Understanding play is critical to understanding learning
• The world is getting more connected than ever before – can that be a resource?
• Challenges we face are multi-faceted requiring systems thinking & socio-technical sensibilities
• Skills are important but so are mind sets and dispositions
• Innovation is more important than ever – but turns on our ability to cultivate imagination
• A new culture of learning needs to leverage social & technical infrastructures in new ways
• Play is the basis for cultivating imagination and innovation

This thinking reminds me of the some of the statements of Guy Claxton, at a recent workshop I attended in Adelaide.Statements which resonate strongly when we consider the creative inquiry, student empowerment and curiosity capacity explicit and implicit in the use of spatial technology in the geography classroom:

“21st Century learning should be focused on the development of quality of mind to the challenges of the times.”

“Ability to ask questions is of prime importance.”

“To aim at all times to develop a culture of inquisitiveness.”

“To know how to flounder intelligently is of prime importance in the future.”

“Gumption will be the most valued outcome of education.”

The online space has great potentials but also some serious challenges for education. In recent years, online education has become synonymous with online college courses from the likes of University of Phoenix and Online Graduate Programs. These types of for-profit institutions pose a threat to the sphere of education by dumbing down educational standards and increasingly treating students as commodities. Thankfully, there are still numerous efforts being made to provide rigorous online education, through initiatives like Stanford's Engineering Everywhere and MIT's OpenCourseware. Additionally, there are numerous online sources for learning tools, programs and technologies.

Whilst searching for learning tools, other than GIS, to use with students in the classroom to develop, as Seely and Brown call ‘The New Culture of Learning’, I came across the fantastic ‘one-stop-shop’ Directory of Learning Tools site. This site has over 2,000 tools for learning and working in education and the workplace

To aid the review of the products on the site, there is a special page showing social tools particularly targeted at (or very useful) for the primary, junior, middle and secondary school classroom. Note that free resources are marked with a yellow free star.

The site also has a Top 100 Tools for Learning list based on the contributions of learning professionals worldwide. Go to the link to see the alphabetical list of all the tools that have appeared on the Top 100 Tools list since 2008 with their ranking each year. Note that the majority of these great sites are free.

Some free sites of interest

I gleaned the list of sites and links below by looking for what I consider as useful for the geographical learning and most importantly are free to download and use.

* Wink is a Tutorial and Presentation creation software, primarily aimed at creating tutorials on how to use software (like a tutor for MS-Word/Excel etc). Using Wink you can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons, titles etc and generate a highly effective tutorial for your users. This tool is great to put together process sheets for students to use when learning GIS or undertaking a task.

* CourseLab is a powerful, yet easy-to-use, e-learning authoring tool that offers programming-free WYSIWYG environment for creating high-quality interactive e-learning content which can be published on the Internet, Learning Management Systems (LMS), CD-ROMsS and other devices.

* Audacity is an open source cross-platform sound editor and recorder suitable for podcasting.

* MOS Solo: The simplicity of an office programme using the power of a multimedia content generator.

* Free and open-source (Drupal-based) web service that provides teachers and learners with an integrated set of social media that each course can use for its own purposes—integrated forum, blog, comment, wiki, chat, social bookmarking, RSS, microblogging, widgets , and video commenting are the first set of tool
Open source, Download

* Authoring tool for elearning courses (Free, Pro and Enterprise versions)

* Create free educational games, quizzes, activities and diagrams in seconds! Host them on your own blog, website or intranet! No signup, no passwords, no charge!

* ClassMarker's secure, professional web-based testing service is an easy-to-use, customizable online quiz maker for business training & educational assessment with tests and quizzes graded instantly - saving hours of paperwork!

* The Xerte Project provides a full suite of open source tools for elearning developers and content authors producing interactive learning materials.

* iQuiz Maker is an easy way for you to create custom quizzes for the iQuiz game for the iPod. iQuiz Maker works seamlessly so you can write, create, package your very own quizzes. Download the free application today to begin putting the world to the test.

* Academic based social educational network and academic platform.

* Chamilo is a new project that opts for open source in a radical way. It aims at bringing you the best e-learning and collaboration platform in the open source world.

* CoFFEE: Plan, moderate and evaluate collaborative activities in a digital classroom using various tools, for brainstorming, mind mapping, voting and more.

* EctoLearning is a social, collaborative, online learning environment that directly addresses the needs of the modern learning environment by making the new communication skills and competencies for content creation and sharing central to the classroom experience.

* Lets instructors make lecture notes, audio and video available to their students - or the world - quickly and easily

* Perfect for making your own quiz, online tests, training, recruitment, exams, trivia or just plain fun quizzes!

* Quandary is an application for creating Web-based Action Mazes. An Action Maze is a kind of interactive case-study; the user is presented with a situation, and a number of choices as to a course of action to deal with it. On choosing one of the options, the resulting situation is then presented, again with a set of options. Working through this branching tree is like negotiating a maze, hence the name "Action Maze".

* Qedoc: Is quiz software that not only plays quizzes, interactive lessons and revision aids; it also helps teachers create their own learning content and work cooperatively with others in the process of authoring.

* QuizRevolution offers a rich solution to create online quizzes. Embed a great looking quiz widget in any website or blog without programming.

* Games creation: An academic social learning web site that provides an environment for collaborative online learning and free flashcards and quizzes built entirely by users.

* Create a online Jeopardy template without PowerPoint

* A toolkit for producing educational simulations. The tools are written in Java and allow the user to create Java applets which can be delivered through a standard web browser

* Easily develop and publish Simulated Conversation Interactions.

* Games templates for PowerPoint

* Create interactive stories, animations, etc

The next posting will showcase geography specific games, simulations and quizzes.