Google Geo Teachers Institutes announced for London and Dublin, June 2012

Great news that the Google Geo Teachers Institute will be coming to England and Ireland this summer. The two day professional development events are free and are designed to help teachers get the most out of Google’s suite of Geo tools including Google Earth, Google Maps and SketchUp.

Dates for the events are June 13-14 in Dublin and June 20-21 in London. Both events will be held at the Google offices in those cities.

Teachers can apply online (closing date for applications is 30 April) and find out more in the recent Google Lat Long blog post.

At Digital Explorer, we’ve loved using Google Earth on our expeditions from the Antarctic to Morocco. Also have a look at our blog post 40+ ideas on using Google Earth and Maps in the classroom and our range of manuals to support the use of Google Earth and Maps in the classroom and beyond.

Look forward to seeing you at the events this summer.

Expedition Websites (Content pt 1)

Content is king. Without good content, all the other effort you put into your website will be a waste of time and you will lose visitors. There are two types of content: static and dynamic. Static content describes the content that you usually type once and doesn’t change, such as information about your project and team. Dynamic content describes the updates that you send during the expedition, often in the form of a blog. A common technical distinction is that static content is contained within pages and dynamic content is contained within (blog posts). (more…)

Expedition Websites (Basics)

There is an unspoken rule that every expedition must have a website, in some ways akin to the current phenomenon that nothing actually happens unless it is posted on Facebook. However, underlying this accepted norm is something that reaches into what 21st Century exploration is all about.

If exploration is the process of discovering new knowledge about our planet and its people, should we not be in the process of training local researchers to do the job for us, gradually relegating these overseas to nostalgia. What gives the current model legitimacy?

I would argue that it is the transformative power of the journey that results in so many of those involved in exploration and expeditions becoming passionate advocates and activists for environments and issues the world over, that is crucial. Expeditions return to the UK wild-eyed and passionate, capable of exciting, inspiring and sharing their experiences and discoveries. (more…)

GIS session at the RGS

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40+ ideas on using Google Earth and Maps in the classroom

These are some teaching ideas to accompany the Digital Explorer presentations at the Playful Learning Zone at BETT this year. Come and see us to find out more.

First things first, if you don’t have Google Earth, download it for your own computer and then be sure to pester the IT office to download it for your school. See the Digital Explorer research if you need to make a case to senior management. To use Google Maps fully you will need to have a Google account, sign up if you haven’t already.

Virtual Atlas
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BETT Google Earth and Google Maps presentation

Here’s a copy of the presentation to accompany the talks at the Playful Learning Zone at this year’s BETT show.

This year, we talked about how to progress with using Google Earth and Google Maps in the classroom all the way from using them as virtual atlases to using them as a base for local area projects and recording school trips and projects.

For a range of teaching ideas across the curriculum see the post 40+ ideas on using Google Earth and Maps in the classroom.

Satellite phones, arrests and biofuel

I saw this story develop this morning via twitter. Andy Pag is 13,500km into the inspiring Biotruck Expedition attempting to travel around the world emitting less than 2 tonnes of CO2, and discovering how other people are cutting their footprint. I enjoy seeing his updates on twitter, then this morning his arrest in the Indian city of Ajmer unravelled live on the internet.

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Digital Explorer work enhances geographical understanding for 80%

A recent report on the impact of Digital Explorer’s two year programme to improve the use of technology in the geography classroom has resulted in 80% of teachers involved noting an improvement in pupil engagement and understanding.

This is fantastic news and shows the positive impact that technology can have. A full copy of the report can be downloaded.

Google Earth Expedition Gallery #4 – Marrakech Land Use

This fourth entry in Digital Explorer’s Google Earth gallery is where it all started with a study of urban land use in Marrakech with pupils from Eastbury Comprehensive in 2006 on the Toubkal ’06 expedition.

	The use of Google Earth and remote blogging received an Innovative Geography Teaching Grant from the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).
	This work is also held up as a national case study by BECTA’s Next Generation Learning project.

Download the Google Earth tour – Marrakech Land Use

You will need Google Earth to view the tour. If you don’t have Google Earth, you can download it for free:

Contact Digital Explorer, if you would like to make a Google Earth tour for your expedition or fieldwork.

Social networking – contacts or content?

The rise and rise of Twitter (a micro-blogging tool) has brought into sharp focus a division or shift in the social networking or web 2.0 landscape.

If web 2.0 can be categorised as online conversation, whether that be through the written word, images, video or a mix of the three, do we join these conversations based on who they’re with or what they’re about?

Contacts or content?

The difference is most notable when comparing a service such as Facebook and something like Twitter. Facebook replicates real world friendship and contact groups, whether professional or personal. Although some people gather ‘friends’ as those they’re life depended on it, the convention seems to be that I need to know you before I allow you to be my ‘friend’.

Conversely with Twitter, the friendship aspect is taken away. I can become a ‘follower’ of someone’s Twitter feed (the list of short comments or ‘tweets’ that are made and posted online). Becoming a follower of their feed does not make me their friend. It means that what they are saying is interesting and I would like to know what they have to say. It may be that I know this person in the real world and know that they are interesting, but there is much more opportunity to take the ‘contact’ aspect out of Twitter and keep your relations based on your interest in the conversation.