Skip to main content

Portsmouth Area Geography Network

 

RGSlogo-transparent-withweb

Yesterday marked the first meeting of the Portsmouth Area Geography Network.  The network, which is supported by the Royal Geographical Society, aims to provide an informal forum in which geography educators can support each other.

Yesterday’s gathering focussed on the use of Google Earth and Bing Maps in the classroom using three principles:

  • Google Earth is freely available
  • Google Earth is Free
  • Google Erath is simple to use

For those of you that are fans of the Apprentice, Google Earth and Bing Maps are ‘JFDI.’

The session was split into three sections:

Built in features

For example the timeline, distance ruler and sightseeing tours

Internet Available features

How to download KML, KMZ and map overlays.

Features that teachers create

Such as placemarks, tours and how to use the programme in order to support GCSE Controlled Assessment.

 

The group intends to meet once each half term. If you are in the Portsmouth Area, it would be great to see you at the next get together!

Comments

  1. Thanks for organsing this David- looking forward to the next neeting.
    Helen

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

High Impact, Low effort

This month is the start of the #29daysofwriting challenge.  I enjoyed this last year and will be using my Staffrm account to post.  I'll also be reporting here, both to give a little more detail and to keep a log of what I have written. The challenge developed a great sense of community last year, which is why I'm choosing to write on Staffrm. What I would say to those who are new to writing or don't want to run out of ideas is: Write for yourself. Clarify an idea, write something out loud. The process of distilling thoughts into writing is immensely beneficial to your practice. If other read, comment and respond, that's a bonus. Ignore the muppets who know nothing of your context, style or students. Mix it up - I like to read about real stuff from real classrooms and schools and also about other stuff.  If we always write about school, how does that work for workload? If you've nothing nice to say, don't say it. So, the following has been ...

What makes a learning experience profound? Personal reflections and possible implications for classroom practice.

I have recently begun a Leadership Pathways journey.  As part of the first core day, we were asked to reflect on a profound learning experience. This got me thinking about how many profound learning experiences I have both been involved in, and how many I have been able to give to others.  Our group came up with a huge long list, but these are my five. Emotional Connected Demanding Reflective Collaborative As always, these are personal thoughts and quite mixed up.  I put them here so that I can look back on them (plus they’d get lost inside my world-cup-free brain) 1. Emotional I can’t think of a time where deep learning hasn’t engaged my emotions.  From being awe inspired to that tingle feeling when a student gets a light bulb moment.  From this-is-the-happiest-day-ever, to I-think-I’m-about-to die.  How often do we engage the emotions of those we teach?  Here, I would argue that having a safe learning environment i...

Year 10 need your help! Can we get Twitter and Facebook in to a GCSE project?

I’ve been told that social media has no place in the classroom.  Now, this post is not to battle that argument head on.  Let’s smash it. This week, Year 10 are visiting Hengistbury Head .  They are investigating whether this piece of coastline should be protected.  They are wondering what you think? You may know the location well, you may not know it at all.  But we’d like to hear from you all the same.  This will either result in some usable data and comments, or not.  Either way, we'll know and I’m sure that your comments will help spark discussion in class! What would Year 10 like me to do? Just simply comment on this post or tweet me, with an answer to this question: ‘Should Hengistubury Head be protected from the Sea? Just answer Yes or No and give a brief reason.  It would also be useful if you could tell us whether you know the area or not. Many thanks in anticipation……   Image – my own.