AGTA 2013 in Perth

Image above: David Lambert addressing the conference.

Sites related to Spatialworlds
Spatialworlds website
Australian Geography Teachers' Association website
'Towards a National Geography Curriculum' project website
Humsteach blog

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Email contact
manning@chariot.net.au

Where am I??
Perth: S: 31º 57' E: 115º 52'


AGTA 2013: A critical event for geography in Australia

AGTA 2013 in Perth went very well. As mentioned in the conference materials, the Australian Geography  Teachers Association (AGTA) is the peak body for professional geography teachers in Australia and considers that the conference will provide a great opportunity for geography teachers and others to learn and discuss all things related to geographical education in schools. The conference titled, ‘Geography’s New Frontier’ was a crucial event in relation to the introduction of the Australian Curriculum for geography in 2013. The work of AGTA is closely aligned to the development of the Australian Curriculum for Geography and AGTA saw this conference as pivotal to 2013 being the year of quality implementation of the  geography curriculum. To provide input on implementation matters our two keynote speakers from the UK, Professor David Lambert (past CEO of the UK Geography Association) and Professor Simon Catling (Primary Geography specialist from Brookes Oxford University) were fantastic to listen to and work with. Videos of their presentations are on the AGTA website. Their experiences in the UK with the implementation of the National Geography Curriculum were very enlightening ... and  we will learn from their mistakes and successes.

A recent article in the UK by David Lambert (written upon his return to the UK in January) is worth highlighting at this stage to reinforce the reasons why geography is so important for young people. David's article titled, "Without geography, theworld would be a mystery to us", appeared in the Telegraph in the UK on 3 February 2013. It is worth a read! 

Here are the presentations on Dropbox for the workshops I was involved in during the conference.

* Geographical thinking
* Australian Curriculum: Geography update


* Here is also the workshop presentation of Sue Jones at the conference titled: Making Sense of assessment and reporting for the Australian Curriculum: Geography. 

Many of the other workshop at AGTA 2013 will be posted on the AGTA site soon after the conference.

Feel free to look at and use these presentations in your professional learning activities, just acknowledge them as presentations by those presenting at AGTA 2013.

Geographers coming together

Image: Brisbane 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

Humsteach blog

Email contact

manning@chariot.net.au

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

GTAQ Conference, July 28th, 2012 in Brisbane

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Geography Teachers Association of Queensland (GTAQ) Conference in Brisbane.   The GTAQ conference was a fantastic event thanks to the hard work of conference convenor Rebecca Nicholas and the GTAQ team.  Of special note was the increase in number at the conference.  Hopefully this is an indicator of change and a taste of things to come as the Australian Currciulum: Geography rolls out in 2013.  As always there were some links of interest from the conference - here are just some of them.

* Presentations on the Australian Curriculum: Geography and Geographical Thinking

These are my presentations on the Australian Curriculum: Geography and Geographical Thinking at the GTAQ Conference at the University of Queensland. Feel free to use these presentations as you talk to staff, colleagues, family, children, teachers, students etc about this exciting development for geography in Australian schools.

* World Vision  resources

World Vision has a wonderful website with plenty of great school resources on global issues, aid and development.  

This site would be useful to support the learning program for Year 10 Geographies of Human Well-being unit of the Australian Curriculum: Geography.

*Destination Spatial

 The Destination Spatial initiative, managed by SSSI and SIBA, was created to establish a central repository of spatial resources and information for people outside the industry but interested in learning more about it as a career.

* Global  Understanding 

 Global thinking and global action demand global understanding. This initiative by the International Geographical Union aims to bridge the awareness gap between local acts and global effects. It will achieve this aim through research, education, and information.                      

* International Charter - Space and Major Disasters

 Following the UNISPACE III conference held in Vienna, Austria in July 1999, the European and French space agencies (ESA and CNES) initiated the International Charter "Space and Major Disasters", with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) signing the Charter on 20 October 2000.

The site contains a catelog contains no data but rather metadata describing the images acquired by a range of satellites during activations of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters.

The site also contains a real time page on the latest disasters aroung the world.

* Geographies of the Olympics

Views of the World is the blog of the personal research website of Benjamin D. Hennig based at the University of Sheffield. He has mapped this and other Olympics and has much much more on his blog related to personal and innovative geographies. Some fascinating visualisations and maps of many events and phenonmena - go to the archives to view these rich resources.