What are spatial technologies?

We’ll be looking at spatial technologies from a very basic point of view today, starting with a presentation on what exactly spatial technologies are.

To access the resources that we cover on the day and more, go to our Links page. You should also keep an eye on our main blog page to see useful sites as they are posted.

Google Maps

After Morning Tea we’ll turn our attention to Google Maps and I’ll show you a video that covers all of the basics. You will find the rest of our Google Maps for Educators YouTube playlist here. Google themselves have recently released this video called Introduction to Using Google Maps in the Classroom.

Don’t forget our Weather activity and the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines Google Maps activity.

Google Earth

Finally we’ll get to Google Earth. We probably won’t have as much time as we need, but we will make a decent start covering the basics, a few additional tips and we will import a map across from Google Maps. Google Earth themselves have put up a lot of useful YouTube videos under the ‘Learn Google Earth’ banner. Search for these to get started if you are revising. The video below shows you how to use the historical imagery tools in Google Earth.

There is also a great classroom activity that uses Google Earth, among other tools to teach students about responding to hazards. See our blog post for more information. For more resources, look for the Google Earth for Educators page or simply search online for your topic and add ‘kml or kmz’ to your search terms to see what Google Earth files you can find.

Websites

Wildfinder – the WWF animal extent mapper

MapZone – the UKs Ordnance Survey’s excellent site for online geography and GIS resources (and games!)

National Geographic MapMaker – National Geograhpic’s interactive map maker

Scribble Maps – customise your own maps, add text, shapes, drawings and images easily. GPS importing as well

UMapper – customise your own maps

Google Maps – customise your own maps, easy to share and integrate with Google Earth

Videos

Google Earth Brisbane river tour

Using spatial tech in primary schools

This resource from the UK’s Juicy Geography (aka Noel Jenkins) is a great example of how spatial technologies should be incorporated into the classroom for effective learning; they don’t comprise the bulk of the lesson but are used as a tool assist in the outcome of the lesson.

The activity asks students to respond to a hazard event on Monserrat live, that is as it unfolds. Students are given a range of resources, including a Google Earth file, to help them organise their information and the teacher is given a PowerPoint presentation that has already been set up to give students’ information at irregular intervals. In small groups the students use the information they have access to to decide on how they would respond to events as they unfold in their disaster. At the end of the lesson they review their decisions and make recommendations as to future safe zones based on the geography of the island and their experience. An excellent lesson and the teacher who alerted me to it was full of praise, so have a look!

Juicy Geography homepage

http://www.juicygeography.co.uk/index.htm

Monserrat Google Earth activity:

http://www.juicygeography.co.uk/montserrat.htm

The first is from Emergency Management Australia who, curiously, sit under the federal Attorney-General’s office. Their Disaster Mapper is a really simple tool that gives you information on the main natural disasters that have affected Australia over the years, the earliest being the 1900 drought. You can find out the numbers of people killed, the cost and other information about various incidents.

The second is a resource that focuses on preparation and mitigation of disaster impacts in Queensland. The site has been developed by Green Cross Australia and you can enter your suburb or location and be given a history of natural disasters that have affected your area over the years. The events all have information attached and you can get case studies of some of the more prominent disasters.

Don’t forget to check out our shiny, new YouTube channel for more and more videos for the classroom.

Ozri2012 will be in Sydney in September. I’ve put in an abstract so we’ll see what happens.

The site is aiming to have 60,000 maps online by the end of the year which sounds ambitious and very exciting. The maps range from 1000AD to 2010 – obvious links to the Australian Curriculum: History and perhaps some local area stuff (currently year in the Australian Curriculum: Geography.

Old Maps Online.

In here you will find all of the resources that I have referred to during the showcase in one easy location! I will also try and embed my presentation when I upload it.

We will start with the Contour Education stuff:

Main page/blog - http://www.contoureducation.com/

Links page – http://www.contoureducation.com/links

Resources – http://www.contoureducation.com/resources

YouTube channel – http://www.youtube.com/user/contoureducation

DERM resources – http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/waterwise/education/units/index.html

Then we’ll look at online spatial technologies:

Ordnance Survey GIS Zone – http://mapzone.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzone/giszone.html

Atlas of Living Australia – http://spatial.ala.org.au

kmlfactbook – http://www.kmlfactbook.org/

Scribble Maps – http://scribblemaps.com/

Animaps – http://www.animaps.com/

Sentinel Bushfire Mapper – http://sentinel.ga.gov.au/acres/sentinel/index.shtml

ShowRWorld – http://show.mappingworlds.com/world/

WorldMapper – http://www.worldmapper.org/

Finally, Google Maps:

Google Maps homepage – http://www.google.com.au/maps

Google Maps for Educators YouTube playlist – http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLABCB6F1476A5E744&feature=plcp

Google Geo Education resources – http://www.google.com/educators/geo.html

Google Maps Mania (unofficial) – http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com.au/

I believe that spatial technologies make the subject of geography much more relevant to students; an import feat given the position of our subject. Spatial technologies are modern Geography. You couldn’t go into many professional Geographers’ workplaces these days and not find spatial technologies being used. Market your subject to your students and use spatial technologies to help. Many schools run a spatial technology task in year 10 around term 3 when students are selecting subjects for their senior years. This might also be something to think about for your year 8s as Geography is no longer compulsory beyond year 8.

Also, persist! You will make errors, everyone does but once you have made the same error once or twice (or more, don’t worry…) you will know how to get out of that situation or fix that mistake in future. Believe me you will feel great when a student puts up their hand with a problem that you spent half an hour trying to fix and you solve it for them on the spot. Just remember to not let on that you were there too! And enjoy yourself. We love our subject and spatial technologies give us such great opportunities to engage with Geography as adults (as opposed to teachers). You might even find yourself hunting down geocaches for fun. Who knows?

The resources have been developed as part of the ‘Water: Learn it for life!” program within DERM and so far consists of two Geography resources for educators. The first, ‘Mapping our waterway’, examines how to use Google Maps to monitor and display water quality along a waterway while the second resource, ‘Explaining our catchment’, demonstrates how to use an online tool to create conceptual diagrams for the communication of complex catchment processes. Both can be found under the Geography sub-heading at this link.

Simple Showcase Loreto Mar 2012

Simply email Mick at info@contoureducation.com to reserve your place. Less than 10 spots are still available!

A science teacher from the US has been creating virtual grafitti adventures. Using his GPS as a paintbrush,  his bike, and I’m presuming a very big bowl of pasta the night before, he creates wonderful artworks on top of his city. Check out his website and let us know if you feel the need to get on the bike and create! Very fun stuff.