This is response to the news that climate change is to be dropped from the national curriculum.

My immediate and emotive response to this is that the government has this wrong and must immediately change their policy and include climate change within the science curriculum.

On reflection, I think that the following points should be taken into consideration.

Primarily, we need to shift our understanding of what the National Curriculum is and move back to it’s original intention. The National Curriculum is now viewed as a prescriptive measure that binds teaches, rather than laying out an entitlement for all our young people.

Should young people in this country have an entitlement that they can and learn from professional educators about climate change and sustainability? The impact of people on the planet and the choices we make? I believe firmly, ‘yes’.

The second issue is where in the curriculum these subjects should be taught. Should it be the science curriculum? Or should more emphasis be put on basic scientific processes? Participants in this debate, do not seem to have pointed out that this debate only concerns the science curriculum and not the curriculum content for other subjects such as geography. The relationship between people and planet and the processes involved could best be taught through the rigours of geography.

Last, the detractors of teaching climate change at all have used the faddish argument. Climate change is the issue du jour and as such can be included as a prescribed topic, but schools are free to include it as a topic or case study. My gut feeling on this is that far from being the issue du jour, climate chage, the increasing energy in our planet’s atmosphere is here to stay as an issue we need to understand properly.

Digital Explorer fully supports a pupil entitlement through the National Curriculum that allows for an understanding of climate change through robust, evidence-based classroom teaching. We look forward to seeing the government’s advisers recommendations for the teaching of geography.

One of the barriers to the full-scale use of Google Earth has been the need to download the software separately from your internet or web browser (software such as Internet Explorer or Firefox). This means that users will go to a website to view information, and then be redirected to download data in a separate application, with the associated 15-30 second wait for Google Earth to load.

Some of this has changed through the use of Google Maps and the ability to create bespoke maps and embed them in a web page using the ‘My Maps’ service. However, this takes away from the awesome 3D experience of Google Earth.

The most recent innovation has been the Google Earth browser plug-in, allowing for the full 3D world to be displayed within a web page. There is as yet no data as to how many downloads of the plug-in there have been. Educators and expeditions, as well as international NGOs must be hoping that the plug-in download may become as ubiquitous as browser plug-ins such as Flash and Java.

I am in two minds as to whether I think that the Google Earth plug-in should be an included download with other Google products. It is a really powerful tool, and yet I am reticent about software providers bundling products together. The other problem at the moment is that the plug-in is only available on PC. Mac users will have to wait, alongside anyone using Google’s new Chrome internet browser (oops!).

Let’s say by some time in 2009, the Google Earth plug-in will be installed on enough computers globally that we can start to make it a primary, rather than secondary mode of online communication. Where does that take us?

First, have a quick think about how much of the web content that you consume or produce is geographically located. Then, ponder how much better we can communicate what is happening in the world if instead of using the blank slate of a web page, we can start to use an interactive 3D globe as a starting point.

By using a 3D environment, web designers are not limited to placing the media we are all used to (video, photographs, text and graphics) but 3D models (using SketchUp) and 3D graphs come into play.

This development marks a exciting departure for expeditions (really take the online audience with you), education (the ability to use this new 3D world for anything from a decision-making and scenario-planning environment to locating news stories and lessons about our world), news (watch and read where it happened) and NGOs and development organisations (real-time media and statistics to encourage public involvement in development and disaster relief).

So what does geo-web 2.0 look like? We are already there in some ways. Google ‘My Maps’ allows users to create and share maps in the same way that Flickr allows users to share photos or YouTube enables video sharing. Maps have entered the media sharing/hosting aspect of web 2.0. Some blogs use geo-blogging plug-ins to show the location of a particular post on a 2D map.

The social networking side is lacking and it is in the sphere of MySpace, Facebook and friends that the real innovation and societal worth could be realised. It is accepted that we must act locally and yet think globally. The geo-web can become a tool that allows us to understand the world better and provide a platform for informed debate and action.

We can start to tell stories geographically, place media that ehance our understanding of the world and now place all these in a 3D global environment, and maybe in the not too distant future we will be able to add comments and interact more fully.

Take for instance the decision by Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, to plant 10,000 new trees in London. Wouldn’t it be great if Londoners had some say in the matter. Here’s my image of a beech tree planted on Columbia Road. Should other people have the same ability to choose the type of tree they would like and where it should go. Maybe my neighbours think it will block too much light and would prefer a shorter tree such as a rowan or willow. Can their voice be heard too? Or could I get a community group together and buy a tree online which the council would then plant?

The geo-web fully realised means a citizenship-based world, with communities making decisions about their lives and their environments using participatory technology. These stories can then be shared globally to create a web of information and positive action.

We have the technology, do we have the will?

This pilot wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Google UK and especially Kate Hammond and Liz Ericson. Also many thanks go to the pupils and staff at Eastbury Comprehensive School, who were amazing, enthusiastic and talented. Special thanks to Tracy Knight and Ruth Owen for their help and support.

This amazing film was made by the wonderful Jonny Madderson of Just So Films. Thank you for all your hard work.

Continuing thanks to Mark Thackara at Olympus for the great pupil-proof TOUGH digital cameras, that we used for photography and video during the pilot.

As always thank you to Marjan who makes sure that everything just happens, somehow, though still not quite sure how.

As part of the website designed and built by the Digital Explorer team, I have put up a project suitable for 11-18 year olds on the site.

Enjoy!

Really proud of the team – John, Ciara and Marjan for making sure the IAE expedition blog for 2041 looks so amazing, has great functionality and went live so soon after the 2041 main site.

I just love this site, but then that’s me. It’s exciting to see how far WordPress as a platform can be taken (this is the inner geek in me).

The main site for 2041 went live on Friday. For those of you who don’t know 2041, it’s an organisation set up by Robert Swan – the first person to walk to both poles – to preserve Antarctica.

The 2041 team have some amazing projects lined up this year, all coming soon. First off, the E-Base on King George Island off the Antarctic peninsula goes live at the beginning of March, broadcasting live on renewable energy. If they can live off solar and wind, etc. in Antarctica, it’s a message to us all to give it a go at home.

Then in mid-March the E-Base Goes Live team will be joined by a team from global corporations learning about leadership and sustainability on the Inspire Antarctic Expedition.

And if that’s not enough, the 2041 yacht on the Voyage for Cleaner Energy, will be engaging audiences along the West Coast of the US from the beginning of April.

Finally, a big big thank you to the teams at Digital Explorer and 2041 for working so hard to make this happen.

Through daily video broadcasts, photography and live chats, Robert and the 2041 team aim to bring the message of preserving Antarctica, promoting sustainable lifestyles and combating climate change to a wider audience.

Follow the adventure online, beginning March 1, 2008, and be sure to check out the BRAND NEW WEBSITE, going live mid-February 2008!!

Join the Facebook group to keep in touch with developments.