Open Education Resource Conference: Brussels

Spatial Worlds Website

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

The spontaneity of Geography

Spatial Worlds Website

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The discomfort of not knowing!

Spatial Worlds Website

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

International Geo-spatial Information Technology Workshop for School Education

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


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

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

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

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

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

Nothing is new, just better!

Spatial Worlds Website

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

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

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

PS: Recently JohnSnow's cholera map of London has been recreated using GIS. What would John Snow's famous cholera map look like on a modern map of London, using modern mapping tools? With the help of mapping tool CartoDB and using the Stamen style maps, this is how it looks with larger circles representing more deaths.

Towards a National Geography Curriculum

Spatial Worlds Website

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

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

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

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

AGTA 2008 Conference gems

Spatial Worlds Website

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

Caloundra: S:26º 81' E:153º 12'

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

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

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

Some useful sections of the site:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spatial technology: omnipresent goodness versus insidious invasiveness

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


Spatial Worlds Website

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

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

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

Spaced out over time: Historical GIS

Spatial Worlds website

Picture descriptions:
Left image: Tower of London Bridge, London.
Right image: A ruined keep in Eire.

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

Space+place+time = Historical GIS

If you can read it, why not map it!!

It can be said that history is determined by space and place over time. If so, then why not involve history students in mapping using spatial technologies? 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. Increasingly educators in the US are looking at the potential of GIS for the teaching of Historical events and concepts in the classroom.
Geography is the study of spatial differentiation and history the study of temporal differentiation. GIS provides the tools to combine them to study patterns of change over space and time.
GIS is becoming the meeting ground for historians, scientists, anthropologists and geographers, to name a few. 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 our 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, whether by their geographical characteristics, such as location, distance, proximity, density and dispersal. GIS representation will also involve identifying the social, economic and physical characteristics of a place at a particular time in history.

GIS is a wonderful tool to enhance learning in the classroom. There are examples (all too few) of history teachers using GIS in the history classroom. In essence, we need to focus on the concept that time studies have a spatial dimension that can be highlighted by the use of GIS processes and field studies. Such a premise is nothing new and has always been at the core of the treatment of many historical topics. What is new is that we now have a resource and technological tool in the form of GIS that can bring place, space and time studies alive for the students. GIS processes such as area, point and line representation and tracing, image/feature/script hotlinking and thematic representation are perfect to trace and display historical data across space.
In the excellent book, 'Past time, past place: GIS for History' (ESRI Press 2002), Anne Knowles succinctly states that “Geography is the study of spatial differentiation and history the study of temporal differentiation. GIS provides the tools to combine them to study patterns of change over space and time”. Such an association is resulting in GIS becoming the meeting ground for historians, scientists, anthropologists and geographers, to name a few. 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 our view of history. The use of GIS in space and time studies could be summarized as “historical data having the z factor of time and GIS adds the x and y factor of place.”

The literature on historical GIS suggests that the GIS processes employed by students in the classroom can involve:
* Analyzing change in space over time.
* Attaching sources/data/images to location.
* Tracking movement over space.
* Searching databases over space.

A range of simple GIS applications can be used in historical studies. These achievable historical GIS starters include:

1. The spatial arrangement of graves in a cemetery and associated hotlinked image/script data and thematic characteristics
2. Tracing of explorers routes with associated hotlinked mage and script data
3. World War 1 battle movements, data searches and hotlinked image links and data representations.
4. Map digitizing of aerial photographs to show change over time.
5. Polygon representations of a suburban block with associated created data tables showing feature thematics and hotlinked images and information.

If interested in the explorer practical which is a chapter of my book, ’Historical GIS: Space+place+time’ go to my website and download the chapter for free. Chapters on mapping change over time, building heritage, cemeteries and battles can also be downloaded from the Spatial Worlds website.

To undertake the historical GIS activities in the book, a wide range of GIS skills were employed
The skills were:
1. Adding data files to create a base map.
2. Using scanned maps to create a base map.
3. Creating Thematic maps of represented data.
4. Creating original maps with points, lines and areas on pre-existing maps.
5. Creating and customising data bases
6. Selection maps involving searching databases.
7. Hotlinking scipt, chart and image files to point, line or area themes.
8. Using GPS to plot features on a map.

I still remain excited about the use of GIS in history teaching but it continues to be a battle for history teachers to embrace the technology and commence the learning curve. Those who have are doing some great work connecting place, space and time to energise history in the classroom.

A good indicator of the lack of engagement with GIS by history educators is that the excellent 'Teaching History with Technology' website does not explore the use of GIS in history as a valid technological application. However, there are a few useful websites relating to spatial technology in history but I see that the history classroom continues to be unchartered waters for the use of spatial technology. It amazes me why a teacher studying Gallipoli would not at least use Google Earth to look at the Gallipoli Peninsula, let alone map the troop movements via GIS. For some ideas on historical mapping go to my blog entry on visiting the battlefields of Flanders.

An excellent source of aerial images on World War 2 can be found on the Scottish National Collection of Aerial Photography website. This site is a great example of the potential of spatial technology to support the teaching of history.

Why should we? The reasons to use GIS in the classroom

Spatial Worlds website
Picture descriptions:
Left image: The sinking city of Venice.
Right image: Factory spewing forth in Milan, Italy.

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

Some research ideas
Increasingly people are talking about spatial literacy and the use of spatial technology in the classroom. A question often asked is, where is the research? Whilst there is a great need to expand the research on the nature of spatial literacy and the impact of spatial technology on student learning, there is literature around which has started the ‘ball rolling’ in looking at the empirical data and research in the area. This blog post list some of the current literature on the topic. Such documentation may be of use to the teacher trying to justify their pre-occupation with the area of spatial technology and literacy. While not a definitive list it may provide a start to putting together your own research paper on the topic to convince the powers to be to spend money on spatial technology in your school and to take this vital area of education seriously.

Just a few quotes to get started:

“Getting a new idea adopted, even when it has obvious advantages, is often very difficult… a common problem for many individuals and organizations is how to speed up the rate of diffusion of an innovation”
Everett Rogers, Diffusion of innovation, 1995

“GIS represents the single biggest contribution geographers have made to society and economy since the Age of Discovery”
Patrick Wiegand, School of Education, University of Leeds

“Spatial thinking is an increasingly important skill for living and working in the 21st century, the council said, and geographic information system (GIS) technology can help schools teach this skill to their students. Spatial literacy will play an increasingly important role in today's information-based economy, and it should be incorporated into K-12 instruction”
Learning to Think Spatially (www.nap.edu/ catalog/11019.html)

“Some educators consider GIS to be one of the most promising means for implementing education reform in US schools”
Dr Joseph Kerski : ‘The implementation and effectiveness of GIS Technology & methods in Secondary schools, 2001

Publications/articles/websites

* Baker Tom: The History and application of GIS in Education: http://kangis.org/learning/ed_docs/gisNed1.cfm
* Becta 2004; What the research says about ICT in geography; http://becta.org.uk/research
* Bednarz Sarah Witham, Associate Professor of Geography, Texas A&M University Learning to Think Spatially www.nap.edu/ catalog/11019.html
* Exploring common ground: The promise of GIS in education: http://www.esri.com/industries/k-12/download/docs/xcg.pdf
* Geographical Association paper 2005: GIS in Geography teaching and learning: http://www.geography.org.uk/projects/gtip/thinkpieces/gis/
* GISAS: Geographical Information Systems applications for schools 2005: http://www.agile2006.hu/papers/a317.pdf
* Goodchild, Michael: Center for Geographic Information and Analysis and Department of Geography, University of California http://www.csiss.org/SPACE/about/docs/ArcNews_Goodchild-the-4th-R.pdf
* Kerski, Dr Joseph: ‘The implementation and effectiveness of GIS Technology and methods in Secondary schools, 2001
* Kerski: Joseph: A National Assessment of GIS in American High Schools 2001
* Rogers Everett: Diffusion of innovation 1995: http://www.zonalatina.com/Zldata99.htm
* Wiegand, Patrick : School of Education, University of Leeds: Forum GIS in Education; http://www.multilingual-matters.net/irgee/010/0068/irgee0100068.pdf
* http://www.eastmidlandscetls.ac.uk/splint/
* http://edcommunity.esri.com/
* http://ednewsbytes.blogspot.com/2006/04/schools-urged-to-teach-spatial.html
* http://www.edb.gov.hk/
* http://www.ga.gov.au
* http://www.spatial-literacy.org
* http://www.scangis.org/scangis2003/papers/20.pdf
* http://www.mansfield.ohio-state.edu/~ocosta/betha.pdf
* http://www.myworldgis.org/docs/GISinEd_Workshop.pdf
* http://andorraweb.com/bass/

Teaching ideas galore at GTAV

Spatial Worlds website

Left image: Fast train luxury, Ice trains in Germany
Right image: Athens by air.

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

GTAV Conference in Melbourne
As always, the Victorian Teachers Association of Victoria (GTAV) conference in Melbourne was a great event for geography teachers. The GTAV crew put together a conference on August 8th and 9th full of teaching ideas and resources for the new and experienced teacher. In this blog I am going to concentrate on the spatial technology resources presented by Rebecca Nicholas from Bacchus Marsh Grammar. Rebecca has been incredibly busy in Queensland and now in Melbourne being innovative in the classroom with the use of spatial technologies. In her spare time (what spare time?) Rebecca has also been organising the 2008 AGTA/STIS conference on the Sunshine Coast commencing on September 28th. The conference should be a wonderful opportunity for the spatially aware and technologically motivated to learn and share knowledge, methods and ideas.
At the GTAV conference Rebecca’s workshop was titled ‘Using Spatial Technology in the Geography Classroom’. Rebecca gave a stimulating and concise explanation and demonstration of the use of spatial technology, the nature of spatial literacy and the Internet resources available to use in the geography classroom.

The definition of spatial literacy Rebecca used in the workshop should be of interest to this blog:

“To be considered ‘spatially literate’, an individual must have the ability to capture and communicate knowledge in the form of a map, to understand and recognise the world as view from above, to recognise and interpret patterns, and to comprehend such basic concepts as scale, projection and spatial resolution.”
Goodchild (2006)

….and of spatial technology:

“Spatial technologies include any form of technology that refers to place, space and location. Specifically, they are technologies that organize and collect data, by referencing the information collected to a point on the earth’s surface using latitude and longitude.”
Nicholas(2008)

Rebecca’s workshop provided an excellent context for the use of spatial technology in the classroom and was very rich with ideas and sites to visit (not to mention the great Youtube videos on the latest spatial technologies). Here are just some of the sites mentioned. Thanks to Rebecca for giving me permission to include in the Spatialworlds blog her summaries of these sites in terms of spatial technology and spatial literacy.

Google Earth Resources for Geography Teachers, http://www.geographypages.co.uk/googleearth.htm
A multitude of resources for Geography teachers on how to use Google Earth in the classroom. This site was established and maintained by a UK Geography teacher.
Earth As Art, US Geological Survey, http://earthasart.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.htm
This site combines satellite imagery with art to provide fantastic images of the earth’s surface. You are able to view and download high resolution images, taken by the Landsat 7 satellite and the Terra Satellites Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection (ASTER). Environmental Graffiti, an online journal, produced an article on the ’30 Most Incredible Abstract Satellite Images of the Earth’ (http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/ecology/30-most-incredible-abstract-satellite-images-of-earth/1324/3
Globe At Night, http://www.globe.gov/GaN/
You will need to click on ‘map’ to view the data. This amazing website allows you to either view the collected data, or download it to suit your GIS software.
Global Land Cover Facility, http://glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/index.shtml
The GLCF is a centre for land cover science with a focus on research using remote sensing data. The site provides earth science data and products to help everyone better understand global environmental systems. In particular, it develops and distributes remotely sensed satellite data. All data from this site is available for free. To view and download the data, you will need to access it via the ESDI (Earth Science Data Interface), a web application for searching, browsing and downloading the data. The site also provides clear explanation of the role of different satellites and the types of data they collect. When on the site, have a look at the special collections. These include imagery from the 2008 China Quakes, Hurricane Katrina and Rita and the 2004 Tsunami.
NASA Earth Observatory, http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov
This site provides access to an enormous number of satellite images. The site provides featured images each day, as well as breaking news articles that feature satellite imagery. Current topical stories are also provided, with satellite imagery. Topics include climate change, natural disasters, deforestation, pollution etc. Three other tools are also available on this site. These
Woophy.com, http://www.woophy.com/map/index.php
This site is a global field trip waiting to be explored. It allows the user to interact with the site by choosing any city in the world, and look at photos taken at the site. You can even add your own photos to a point. The site incorporates the 'Hotlinking' aspect of GIS.
Globalis: An Interactive World Map, Grid Arendal United Nations Environment Programme, http://globalis.gvu.unu.edu/
This is an interactive world atlas with country statistics related to sustainable development. Globalis aims to create an understanding for similarities and differences in human societies, as well as how we influence the planet. A number of map layers are provided. Globalis also allows the user to display a number of thematic and statistical maps according to indicators. A written description appears beneath each map, explaining what it shows. To view this map you need Internet Explorer 6 or Firefox
OzCoasts and OzEustaries,
http://www.ozcoasts.org.au/
OzCoast and OzEstuaries provide comprehensive information about Australia’s coast, including its estuaries and coastal waterways. This information helps to generate a better understanding of coastal environments, the complex processes that occur in them, the potential environmental health issues and how to recognise and deal with these issues.
Health Map:Global Disease Alert Map, http://www.healthmap.org/en
This site uses Google maps as the viewing platform to provide spatial information on the world’s diseases. The site uses various RSS news feeds from medical data bases and news sites, including Google News and the World Health Organisation. Using this data, the site maps reported cases of diseases in the last 30 days. The viewer can zoom to specific countries and continents, as well as specific alerts by country. The site uses GIS layering of the differing disease, so these layers can be turned on or off.
Geocaching Australia, http://geocaching.com.au/
Geocaching Australia provides statistics and tools to analyse Australian and New Zealand Geocaches and Geocachers using details from several cache listing sites as well as providing a place for listing geocaches directly in any country around the world.
Degree Confluence Project, http://confluence.org/
The goal of the project is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location. The pictures, and stories about the visits, will then be posted here. Viewers are invited to post any of the existing confluence. Also, have a look at the antipodes, points on opposing sides of the world.