Tell me a story: a map story

Image above: The very useful ESRI Story maps site.

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

Geographical thinking Scoop.it

Spatial literacy Scoop.it

History and geography Scoop.it

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

Follow Spatialworlds on Twitter

Email contact:

manning@chariot.net.au

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



Story telling through maps: Esri's Story Maps

"Map-based storytelling is fun, compelling, and helps us all better understand our world."

Several previous Spatialworlds postings have played with the idea of story in geography; geogstory in geography teaching and learning. 

This posting showcases the fantastic Esri Story Map initiative and the availability of hundreds of story maps that may be of use to the teaching of any aspect of the geography curriculum. The story maps produced are not only spatially interesting but also full of valuable information. You may even like to get your students make their own story map - details of how to do it are on the Esri Story Map page.

Story maps use geography as a means of organizing and presenting information. They tell the story of a place, event, issue, trend, or pattern in a geographic context. They combine interactive maps with other rich content—text, photos, video, and audio—within user experiences that are basic and intuitive.

For the most part, story maps are designed for general, non-technical audiences. However such maps can also summarise issues for business and decision makers. In general story maps use  the tool of GIS to present the results of spatial analysis that does not require their users to have any special knowledge or skills in GIS.

Story maps use interactive web maps created with ArcGIS Online, Esri's cloud-based mapping and GIS system. ArcGIS web maps let you combine your own data, including spreadsheets and GIS data, with authoritative content and thematic maps from Esri and the GIS community, on top of Esri basemaps. The web maps support visualization, queries, analytics, and pop-ups for map features with rich content including photos and graphs.

People who are creating story maps to tell their geographic stories include GIS professionals, planners, communications specialists, knowledge workers, journalists, activists, web designers, bloggers, educators, students, amateur geographers and hopefully school students!

The Story Map Gallery is an excellent resource for students to explore and see the power of maps to tell a geographical and/or historical story. Some fascinating and informative maps!

The Titanic Story map is especially fascinating for those with an historical bent.

Comparison across the cities of the world

Image above: The fantastic for comparison Urban Observatory site.

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

Geographical thinking Scoop.it

Spatial literacy Scoop.it

History and geography Scoop.it

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

Follow Spatialworlds on Twitter

Email contact:

manning@chariot.net.au

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


The comparison skill

"Anyone could enjoy playing with the data—and that’s the point. "This isn’t an esoteric thing for city planners. It’s meant for the population to understand themselves." says Wurman.

The Urban Observatory gives students the chance to compare and contrast maps of cities around the world–all from one location. It aims to make the world’s data both understandable and useful. The Urban Observatory at http://www.urbanobservatory.org/preview/uo//preview/uo/ (paste this link into your browser) has been brought to life by TED creator Richard Saul Wurman, RadicalMedia, and Esri, and is the first of its kind.

The creators of the interactive site say that:

"We live in a world of easily accessible maps; just tap your smartphone and you have instant access to directions, public transportation information, locations of landmarks, crime data, and neighborhood facts. But our map knowledge is limited by the fact that no two cities collect data the same way. Maps often aren’t drawn to the same scale, and up until now, there hasn’t been a way to compare data on things like income, cost of living, water distribution, and power grids."

Here are some instructions for the site - a really interesting and useful addition to the plethora of great free spatial sites available for the classroom. Click here to go directly to the comparison section of the site

The Urban Observatory city comparison app enables you to explore the living fabric of great cities by browsing a variety of cities and themes.

To change Themes, click on a theme name in the Themes list.

To change Cities, click on the city name in the Cities list, or drag-and-drop it over a map.

The TED creator has big plans for the Observatory in the future. 

"It should be 100 cities, connected to a source that updates it like an app," he says. "Cities could learn from the mistakes and failures of others."

For now, check out the Urban Observatory website, which features most of the exhibit’s city comparison functionality. Here’s a look at the youth population of Abu Dhabi, New York, and Tokyo, emphasizing areas where youth make up over 33% of the total population.

                           

And here’s a housing density comparison between Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, and Milan.

                              

Why is it so? Age-sex at a local scale

Image above: Local age-sex pyramids across the USA and Canada.

Related links to Spatialworlds  
Geogaction
Spatialworlds website
GeogSpace
Australian Geography Teachers' Association website

Geographical thinking Scoop.it  

Spatial literacy Scoop.it  

History and geography Scoop.it 

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

Follow Spatialworlds on Twitter

Email contact:

manning@chariot.net.au    

Where am I??  
Mount Gambier, Australia: 37.82° S /140.78° E

The variance of age-sex from place to place

One of the geographical features of the social landscape that varies across space is that of the age and sex of a population. As the Spatialworlds posting titled, 'Spaced out! Variance across space ' pointed out, what fascinates the geography is that no two places are the same and in turn the geograper frequently asks; "why is it so?" - to hypothesise why the variance occurs. This ESRI geo-enrichment platform is a great resource for students to identiy age-sex variance across space (albeit only the US and Canada) and to hypothesis why the variance may occur. An amazing resource for the classroom at  http://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/samples/geoenrichment_infographic/ 

The ESRI Infographic widget requests GeoEnrichment data of a given location, and visualises the results in a Infographics consisting of properly formatted charts. This particular sample allows users to click any location on the map and returns the GeoEnrichment data (an age pyramid) of a 1-mile ring buffer area.

A previous Spatialworlds posting showcased an excellent country age-sex visualisation but this site enables us, for a least two countries, to drill down further to a specific place and to see the age-sex composition on a local scale. Students can then ask the; "why is it so?" questions. 




To explore this interactive map of the United States and Canada, just click on any neighbourhood to see the local population age-sex structure and compare that to the national, state or county data?  This is a fantastic resource that lets you and your students explore the data AND ask spatial questions.


A South Australian interactive resource on housing stress

Discover your suburb using InDaily’s interactive map below.
InDaily used data from the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics census (2011) to rank South Australia’s 821 suburbs by housing stress, median weekly household income and population.
The results demonstrate the local impact of a wider housing affordability crisis in Australia.
Adelaide, as well as every other major housing market in Australia, was rated severely unaffordable by this year’s Demographia affordability survey.
No Australian housing market, large or small, was ranked affordable or even moderately unaffordable by the survey. A Federal Senate inquiry into housing affordability is currently underway, and due to report its findings on November 27.

Spatial literacy galore

Image above:  A WOW look at a walk in Utah.

Related links to Spatialworlds 
Geogaction
Spatialworlds website
GeogSpace
Australian Geography Teachers' Association website
'Towards a National Geography Curriculum' project website
Humsteach blog

Geographical thinking Scoop.it  

Spatial literacy Scoop.it  

History and geography Scoop.it 

Spatial Education and technology Scoop.it   

Follow Spatialworlds on Twitter

Email contact:

manning@chariot.net.au    

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

Spatial literacy galore
Some great spatial literacy sites to explore in the classroom.

* The ESRI Demographic Atlas

A GIS atlas of the US showing diversity, population change, ageing and housing.

* Looking at map projections in a simple way with ESRI

 Map projections are one of the fundamental concepts of geography and cartography. Selecting the right map projection is one of the important first considerations for accurate GIS analysis.  The problem with projections (and the reason why there are so many types) is that it is very difficult to represent the curved 3D surface of the Earth on a flat 2D surface of a map; some distortion is bound to occur.

* An interactive World Wind Map

A fantastic tool for understanding dramatic weather news events around the globe, the history of human civilization or how our activities may be changing the future climate.

* A World Thematic  interactive map

An interactive map showing hundreds of different criteria to create thematic maps

* Mapping personality across the US

A  multinational team of researchers led by psychologist and American expat Jason Rentfrow of the University of Cambridge in the U.K. has sought to draw the regional lines more clearly, literally mapping the American mood, with state-by-state ratings of personality and temperament.

* Births and deaths mapped in real time

An interactive simulation map of births and deaths around the world.

* Mapping World news

This visualisation shows a world unevenly aglow with television attention.

Dabbling in spatial technology for free

Related links
Geogaction
Spatialworlds website
Australian Geography Teachers' Association website
'Towards a National Geography Curriculum' project website
Humsteach blog
GeogSplace blog

Follow Spatialworlds on Twitter

Email contact:
manning@chariot.net.au

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

Using free stuff!  Minimal outlay and maximum opportunity

Now there is a way to go for teachers and schools just wanting to play in the area of spatial technology before spending money. Here are just several of the options available to anyone wanting to get started using spatial technology.

* GE Teach

Free site dedicated to help teachers educate and engage students using Google Earth.

GE Teach is designed by an teacher to bring geospatial technologies into the classroom in a way that is user-friendly. This site allows you to use Google Earth with clickable layers. With multiple data layers of physical and human geography variables, this interactive globe puts spatial information in powerful, yet fun, student-inspired platform. Video tutorial on how to use GE teach.

* Free ESRI software

In a previous Spatialworlds posting I pointed readers the way of ESRI's free downloadable software called AEJEE. Over the years this software, whilst limited and problematical with new Windows software, has provided a great free starting point for schools to dip their toe into the GIS waters and start on the GIS learning curve. AEJEE has now been superseded by ArcGIS Explorer Desktop which can be downloaded at http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/explorer

ESRI is the world leader in GIS (geographic information system) modeling and mapping software and technology.  
ArcGIS Explorer is not a full blown GIS software package but is a totally free GIS viewer, with basemaps and access to ArcGIS Online which provides an easy way to explore, visualise, and share GIS information (includes an interactive presentation capacity).
Before downloading ArcGIS Explorer you may need to update your computer by installing
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 . This is not a difficult task and is available directly from the ESRI download page. I have found ArcGIS Explorer a fairly intuitive program to find your way around and 'help' support is available within the program (just click on the 'question mark' icon in the top right hand corner of the screen - see below).

  





The following links will also provide video instruction on how to use the program:

* Getting started installing the program

* Easy Start

* Quick start

* Making a map: AddingShapefiles using ArcGIS online

* Add ins:  Part 1 and Part 2

* Functions

PS: If you can get your hands on the Mac version of AEJEE, it still works a treat on a Mac. As mentioned, the Windows version of AEJEE had considerable compatability issues which could only be overcome with quite a bit of tweaking - but could be overcome as discussed in a previous Spatialworlds posting.

* ArcGIS online

GIS projects are also now available in ArcGIS online through an internet connection, an idea and a question. 
  
* Quantum GIS

This is another free GIS option (this one an open source option).   This is a full-blown GIS, with more mapping, editing and exporting options. Quantum GIS (QGIS) is a user friendly Open Source Geographic Information System (GIS) licensed under the GNU General Public License. QGIS is an official project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). It runs on Linux, Unix, Mac OSX, Windows and Android and supports numerous vector, raster, and database formats and functionalities.

* More open source GIS sites Here are some more open-source GIS options that are free to download.

* ... and from National Geographic, a 1-page MapMaker facility

* ... and from Google Earth

Google Earth for educators: Google Earth has opened up potential for students in classrooms around the globe with its bird’s-eye view of the world. Whether you are a veteran teacher looking for new ways to teach old topics or you are a still an education student getting ready to make your debut in the classroom, these exciting ways to use Google Earth are sure to infuse your lessons with plenty of punch. Find ideas for any age student and a handful of virtual tours that will not only help you instruct your students, but might even teach you something along the way.

* ...and finally from Juicy Geography's Noel Jenkins, some ideas on using GIS in the classroom. Some great ideas.

 

Things to use, think about and just look at!

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

Humsteach blog

Follow Spatialworlds on Twitter

Email contact

manning@chariot.net.au

Where am I??

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

Field Papers: an amazing resource for the geography classroom.

This resource is worth a posting by itself. What a magnificent resource for the geography classroom. An answer to a geographer dreams! Field Papers allows you to print a multipage paper atlas of anywhere in the world and take it outside, offline, in the field. You can scribble on it, draw things, make notes.

When you upload a snapshot of your print to Field Papers does some magic on the server to put it back in the right spot on the map. You can transcribe your notes into digital form and share the result with your friends or download the notes for later analysis.

"You don't need a GPS to make a map or learn complicated desktop GIS software to use Field Papers. It's as easy as print, mark, scan."

This project is a continuation of Walking Papers, which was built for the OpenStreetMap (OSM) editing community. Field Papers allows you to print multiple-page atlases using several map styles (including satellite imagery and black and white cartography to save ink) and has built in note annotation tools with GIS format downloads. Field Papers also supports user accounts so you can save“your stuff” for later, or use the service anonymously.

21st Century Information fluency

Over recent years I have been doing quite a bit of work on the impact of the ballooning information Age on 21^st Century learning, curriculum and pedagogy. The following links and video on Information Fluency just adds gristle to the argument that we should not be only focused on content in schools but primarily about how to access, critique and use the plethora of information out there in cyberspace.

Firstly watch this video on 21st Information Fluency; fascinating!

Digital Information Fluency (DIF) is the ability to find, evaluate and use digital information effectively, efficiently and ethically. DIF involves Internet search skills that start with understanding how digital information is different from print information, knowing how to use specialized tools for finding digital information and strengthening the dispositions needed in the digital information environment. As teachers and librarians develop these skills and teach them to students, students will become better equipped to achieve their information needs. In short, Information fluency is the ability to apply the skills associated with information literacy, computer literacy and critical thinking to address and solve information problems across disciplines, across academic levels, and across information format structures. Such a focus has a huge implication to what and how we teach in geography in schools

Food security

A unit on Food Security was met with mixed responses when it came out in the recent scope and sequence of the draft Australian Curriculum: Geography. It is really a ‘no-brainer’ that food security is one of the fundamental issues facing the world in the 21^stCentury and should be part of the geography curriculum. These materials from the RIO+20 website may be able to convince some and support the inclusion of this topic in the curriculum.

As the site says

“It is time to rethink how we grow, share and consume our food. If done right, agriculture, forestry and fisheries can provide nutritious food for all and generate decent incomes, while supporting people-centred rural development and protecting the environment.”

While on the RIO+20: The Future We Want site , check out the tabs on Water, Disasters, Cities, Oceans and Energy. All great resources for the teaching of the Australian Curriculum: Geography.

Historical maps

The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection is an amazing collection of maps which can be used for historical geography. A very small sample ofhis collection is now contained inside ArcGIS Online.

While there also have a look at the World Maps-1790 and 1812 with sample explorer routes

ESRI’s ‘A world to explore’ resource

The map gallery opens the door to a number of key geographic concepts and human and physical aspects of our world. Maps include ones relevant to Latitude and Longitude, Land Change, Gross national Income, Elevation, Political Borders, Rural-Urban Population, Topography, Population and Agricultural Land Use. .

ArcGIS on-line

Whilst visiting ESRI.com, go to ArcGIS on-line and start making maps.

Watch the video at http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgisonline/evaluate/vid-demo.htmlto ascertain the value of ArcGIS on-line for the geography classroom. For example, enter a search term (like World Bank), view the gallery, or make a map from scratch. A series of videos on the site will guide you through the processes to get started.

Pure GLAT

Now for some pure GLAT (Gee Look At That): Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower. Enjoy.

SA Geographers, not South Australian!

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."