50 000 views

Been a while since I posted here, I'm over on LivingGeography now and GeoBlogs on Twitter, but the visits keep ticking up, and we just passed 50 000. Thanks for your interest.

Tweeting case studies

I'm a fan of the idea of taking a historical event, and bringing it back to life by tweeting (in real time if possible) the events that happened, and adding in images and other information to bring the event to life again...

Thanks to Tania Grigg for the tipoff to a live-tweeting event happening to retell the story of the expedition to conquer Mount Everest in 1953....

Follow the Twitter feed... or the hashtag #Everest53
What events / anniversaries are coming up that could be re-enacted ??

How about 33 years after Harry Truman tweeted... "Feeding the cats... mighty quiet here..."

Or 27 years ago today perhaps.... an engineer at a nuclear power plant in Ukraine... "we have a problem"....

Museum of Contemporary Commodities

At the start of the year, I was invited to an event at the University of Exeter, to explore ideas of trade justice, commodities and the stories behind things that are for sale in shops. The idea of MoCC starts by imagining shops as museums, and every product that is for sale as an exhibit in the museum. What would you write on the tag that goes with it to explain its story...
MoCC is the Museum of Contemporary Commodities.
Watch the video to find out more about the project.
This is something I am going to be involved in later this year, as I work on a project with Ian Cook of Follow the Things fame....


MoCC Thinkering Day from Simon Moreton on Vimeo.

What is the future of local ?

Here's Dan Raven Ellison looking moody and magnificent, and buying some bread, in a short film made in association with TED Conversations. Dan will be speaking at a TEDX event in Lausanne in March.
He asks a question about the impact of globalisation on our lives, and what the future of LOCAL is...

#futureoflocal

What do you think local means ?

For example, how local is the meat in this ad ?
70 miles ! That's not local for me....
What about your local regional TV news at 6pm in the evening ? I get news about Northampton and Southend... not really interested in that to be honest...



There are some  interesting responses already on the TED page

Why not check out the INTERDEPENDENCE mapper on National Geographic...
Or order your MESHU, which is an interesting idea.

Some useful themes for Edexcel in this CPD Day in Oxford

I have attended this event several times in the past, and it has always been a splendid occasion.

This year's event is now available to book and there are some good options for GA members to have reduced price bookings. It's a fairly stellar list of presenters.... and me....
Open to state schools as well as Independent schools.

OXFORD GEOGRAPHY TEACHER’S DAY2013

(Organised by the Oxford Branch of the Geographical Association and supported by the GA Independent Schools Special Interest Group)

AT ST EDWARD’S SCHOOL, OXFORD ON THURSDAY 7^th MARCH 2013

10.00 Coffee/Tea/Refreshments on arrival

10.15 Introduction by Dr Garrett Nagle   President of the Oxford GA Branch

10.20   Opening Lecture

Bob Digby – President of the Geographical Association

‘Geographers and some Contemporary Health Issues’

 11.00 to 1pm

Choose TWO workshops to attend (each workshop will be 55 minutes) with exception of workshop 6 for Prep school and KS3 teachers which will last the whole 2 hours 

Seminar/ Workshop 1

Professor Sarah Harper - Oxford University

Population and Old Age updates – update for teaching GCSE and Post 16 Geography students

      Workshop 2

      Peter Price   Head of Geography from Charterhouse and Ewan Laurie

      Head of Geography, King’s School, Wimbledon

      Teaching the new Post 16 Exams – Practical Workshop linking Fieldwork    

      with the new A Levels, Pre  U and IB Curriculum .

      Workshop 3

      Lead by Dr Gareth Hughes – Head of Geography at Radley College with

      Rob Morris (Geography Teacher at Shrewsbury School)- Practical   

      Fieldwork Ideas for the new International GCSE

      (This hopefully will take place outside in the school Grounds –

       weather permitting!)

      Workshop 5 

      Alan Parkinson (Geography Consultant)

      Connecting teachers - connecting classrooms
        A look at how social media and smartphone apps can help teachers to  

      connect with other colleagues, and open up possibilities for authentic  

      and collaborative learning, and prepare learners for the future workplace.

Workshop 6 for CE and KS 3 Teachers on next page

         Workshop 6   NB Double Workshop– lasts the whole 120 minutes-

for Prep School and KS 3 Teachers only

Gyles Morris  – CE/ KS3 Fieldwork ideas though ‘the Lens of a Camera

with support on how to use the skills in CE Fieldwork from Simon Lewis (ISEB Lead Setter) and Dr Andrew Lee (SATIPS Geography Broadsheet Editor)

This is aimed at giving you new ideas for inspiring your pupils to use photographs and small areas to produce excellent Fieldwork enquiry skills. 

Ideal for Prep School teachers wanting new ideas for the revised CE Fieldwork Enquiry.

(Will be outside along the Canal ) (Restricted to 12 teachers)

1.10 pm  A chance to talk with some Publishers  and look at resources over a glass of wine and a chance to browse all the latest publications.

1.45  A sit down Lunch followed by 10 minutes from Steve Brace of the Royal Geographical Society (with the IBG)

2.45 pm-  3.45pm:  Lecture and Question session

Alan Kinder (Chief Executive of the Geographical Association)

 ‘

Geography and the GA in a time of curriculum change. Where are we, where are we going and how we can support you.’

A chance to hear what Alan Kinder has to say and to question him and to let him know what support you think the GA can give to teachers and the pupils you teach.

3.45 pm Finish

You can attend for £60 if a GA member (£160 if not) and two teachers can attend from the same GA member school for just £75


Let me know if you'd like a copy of the booking form sending to you....

New Year, New Geography

Happy New Year everyone - after 10 days away, I'm now firmly back in the room....

Join me on the 8th of January at 7pm for a VITAL CPD Teachshare, the first of the new year...
New Year New Geography

It's a chance to look ahead to what you have planned, and what might happen in the world of Geography.

I'll be previewing 13 of the things that I'm planning to get up to in 2013, and some opportunities for everyone to get involved...

1. Why not start a 365 project (if you're reading this before the first few weeks of the year are over you have chance to catch up...
I'll talk about my 365 projects past and future...
This year, I'm going to carry on Blipping, and also do a literacy blog at GeoLibrary 2013
I'm also going to be opening the archives (see previous blog post on that ) and have also created some new Pinterest boards to hold those images.

2. Blogging
I'm going to be hopefully breaking through the 5000 post barrier on LivingGeography.... and heading towards a million viewers....

3. Project 1
I USE Stats in Education is underway, and I will be going to Europe at least twice this year, and also spending time creating resources and sharing them as widely as possible. The theme is statistical literacy, which is of great relevance to geography, although this is a project that has relevance across the curriculum.
I'll also continue to be involved in another EU project called digitalearth. The first course, in Salzburg at the end of February is confirmed, and I am also going to Stockholm and Helsinki at the start of February too.

4. The Geography Collective
We're going to have a fairly big year this year. Watch this blog for more details as they emerge...

5. Writing
I am going to be writing another couple of books (at least) this year for a number of publishers, including Collins. I'm looking forward to it... More details here as they emerge - I still have a few contracts to sign. You still have chance to spend your Christmas book tokens on the books I wrote last year. I've also got an idea for another book that I'm writing a proposal for at the moment...

6. CPD
I am going to be working with OSIRIS for the first time, and also leading several courses for the GA as always. I'll be visiting various universities, CPD courses, schools (including Charterhouse) and doing the Independent Schools' conference in Oxford in March. I'm also heading for several cities. I still have plenty of space in my diary (at the moment) so get in touch If you'd like me to work with you...

7. Still High and Dry
Since I was asked to do my GA lecture on flooding last year it hasn't stopped raining and there's certainly few subjects that are more topical at the moment. If you have a good flood story, get in touch and I can squeeze it in there...

8. VITAL Work continues...
I shall be creating materials for the VITAL Geography portal until at least the end of March. The portals are continuing beyond then, but looking forward to continuing this strand of support for colleagues. There were some special codes tweeted by Peter Twining over the Christmas and New Year period for free access. These might still be live....

9. Discovering the World
I have been working on a booklet for Discover the World with John Sayers, Helen Steer and Tom Morgan Jones. It's coming soon....

10. Personal Development
This is the 6th year I will have been a Chartered Geographer. This is coordinated by the Royal Geographical Society. As part of the deal, I have to submit a CPD log which means I need to evidence my involvement in CPD: my own as well other people's. To that end, there are a few things I've got pencilled in to develop my own practice...

11. Photography
As well as my Blipoto album, I'm going to try and reach a total of 10 000 pictures shared on my Flickr account this year.

12. I'm going to get out more, and do more cycling....

13. Winds of Change
Fingers crossed that we won't be unlucky in bidding for a big project that could see me working (almost) full time for a year on a major science-based project involving real-world data.... I'll let you know if and when that happens...There's also a big project bid in

Join me over on Living Geography to read it all - don't forget to subscribe to / follow the blog... or follow me on Twitter: @GeoBlogs

ICT toolkit books...

Preparing some resources for the course on Geomedia in Salzburg that I am leading next week.

You still have chance to get funding to join me for a repeat of the course in February 2013, and the course is likely to run several times during 2013 - I'd love to see lots of you there... you can get your fees, accommodation and travel paid for.

I'm going to be using several activities from two books which I edited, and were published in April this year.

You really need to have a copy of these books in your departmental library.
They have been selling well, and getting good feedback from users.
You can order them from the GA shop - click to follow the link, and remember that GA members get a discount on purchases, and free P&P

Multimedia made Easy by Paul Cornish

GIS made Easy by Bob Lang