David Rogers

We’re developing the idea of Year 7 students creating weather forecasts.  This isn’t an original idea by any means, however it does present an opportunity to develop the style of geographical writing required at GCSE and beyond.  Weather forecasts are a challenging activity as young people have to collect, choose, interpret and explain information in a concise way.  Therefore, every word counts.  When we zoom through to GCSE Controlled Assessments and examinations, this concise natures and use of geographical words is a core skills needed to do well.  A strong focus on literacy and examination skills from Year 7 has helped Priory Geography to maintain our sustained improvement. This is  brief description of the lesson. Firstly, I asked the class to talk about the weather outside.  They had brought in an extreme weather report with them and used this for key words. We then watched the BBC Weather’s UK Forecast Video with the sound switched off....

All teachers know how hectic a school day can be and how easy it is to get distracted and never get around to ticking off the to-do list.  Furthermore, it’s always tricky to remember those lesson insights / ideas / breakthroughs that occur during a lesson.  For example, our Year 11 sit an examination tomorrow that consists of an applied essay.  During the lesson, I came across a few barriers; overcame them and then shared with my colleagues.  The thing is, what if you forget? Also, what happens if you spot a great lesson idea or take a photograph that you want others to see easily? This is a work is progress as relies upon the fact that all of Priory Geography have iPhone 4S devices.  There are similar systems that rely upon other operating systems, and of course we use Dropbox, SkyDrive, Google Docs and Evernote.  Last week, I started using Photo Stream to share ideas quickly. As the team can choose to have push notifications, they can be prompte...

I find the short videos produced by BrainPOP UK very useful when I need to get an idea across quickly.  I’ve even used their videos in the run up to GCSE examinations for quick revision. As we try to make Geography relevant to young people our department often takes time to explore events in the news.  The Haitian Earthquake or Icelandic Dust Cloud of doom are good examples. This is where a very useful feature of BrainPOP UK comes in: their free spotlight video.  Although not as good as a subscription, this allows geographers to explore. In the caser of the Icelandic Dust cloud of doom, the video explained the different types of volcanoes.  Now this feature is available as an iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad App. The app allows you to view the current free video and take a little quiz.  Although this summative style of quiz is not always appropriate, it can provide a quick summary of a students understanding on a simple topic. This week’s video is all ...

These photographs were taken during a recent training ride along the South Downs Way, which is a stones throw from my house. We were training as we are planning to ride along Sarn Helen during half term ,while summiting Pen-Y-Fan , Cadair Idris and Snowdon . All on our mountain bikes. To get a flavour of the route click here . In order to take my mind away from saddle sore, I would appreciate your help. I intend to do two things: 1. write some Mission:Explore missions along the way that will be added to our upcoming iPhone App; 2. Complete some of the Mission:Explore missions as suggested by you! All you have to do is chose a Mission from the book and tweet the Misison Number using the #SHmission hashtag. For example, if you want to see me attempting to be a hero, tweet ME0046 #SHmission Of course, you'll need a copy of the book to take part - they are available in your local Waterstones or online from the Geography Collective website . I intend to tweet and blog across Wales...

This post is going to be quite long! The iPhone has been around for a while now. I'm often asked which Apps are useful in education, so here's the post the answer those questions. I will give a summary of the most useful Apps, and bold up those that I consider essential. I have to say, and I'm not exaggerating here, that the iPhone has transformed learning . I know this because it helps me: organise myself, and connect to other learners. As you can see from my previous post, I firmly have y feet on the ground when it comes to creating 1:1 access to the iPhone. However, I feel that there is a very strong argument for creating class sets of the device, especially in Geography field trips. Other smart phones may have the same functionality, however, I haven't gotten my hands on those yet! I can't comment on the power of these devices, and wold be interested in hearing from colleagues who have experience. In my view, budgets would be much better spent on investing...

I enjoyed an Alpine start today thanks to my little boy. I found myself looking at this list of top 100 Apps thanks to Rich Allaway . One of the Apps featured was Wikitude . After exploring the Nearest Wiki App and it's possible uses in Geography fieldwork , I thought I'd have a play. There is great potential for Geography Fieldwork by using this App. The WIKITUDE World Browser presents the user with data about their surroundings, nearby landmarks, and other points of interest by overlaying information on the real-time camera view of a smart-phone. I used the iPhone version. The first thing I did was to explore the view outside of my flat window. I found that there were more points of interest, mainly centered around commercial establishments. This was far more information than was provided by the Nearest Wiki App . The information accessed about the Toby Carvery was a review summary. This information could be useful when pre-visiting a fieldwork location, or looking f...

I try to get out with my son most days that I'm home. Yesterday, I tried out a few ideas with the Nearest Wiki App . I set out with a simple goal: discover something new about my local area . Having to push a 5 month old around simulated having a class of pupils! This activity would be suited to a group that had a ratio of 1 iPhone for a group of 3-4 young people. Of course, check that you follow your institutions off-site activity procedures. Near to my house, Goring-by-Sea train station was the closest Wikipedia entry available. However, when I arrived, I didn't find any worthwhile information! So, using Nearest Wiki again I looked for another location. The further away an entry is, the higher it will appear on the screen. This is handy when trying to plan how far to go. I decided to look at the entry for Goring-by-Sea village. On the way, I would pass other areas of interest and see if they were on the app. I found that many features did not appear. This may be a ...

Used quite a few trains to get to and from the GA Conference. A great little app that helped me to organise my journeys was 'National Rail'. Although one of the more expensive apps that I use, National Rail provided me with live updates of trains available. This could be used in the classroom - what information is needed to drive this app? Where does the information come from?