Proposal for RGS/IBG Innovative Geography Teaching Grant 2003
Summary:
A ‘blog’ or weblog is one of the new technologies that are transforming the way people use the Internet. It allows people to have a presence on the Internet without any great technological knowledge – or personal expense.
The aim is to encourage students to post their own Geographical ‘blogs’, and to provide a ‘master’ blog, which will contain regular Geographical postings. These will be the result of investigations into the background to daily events. This will help support the newly launched RGS Geography in the News site.
Proposal Specification
One of the new technologies to be embraced by the Internet is the ‘blog’ or ‘web log’. A blog is a web page made up of short, frequently updated posts, arranged chronologically like a journal. They can be posted spontaneously. An advantage is that they don’t require any particular knowledge of web design, or software: the BLOGGER sites handle everything. They are excellent communication tools. Each ‘blog’ takes about 3 minutes to set up, and can then be added to as frequently as one likes by logging into the BLOGGER area and typing the next contribution. Previous postings can be archived.
Blogs featured as a question in the new series of ‘Mastermind’. The contestant had ‘never heard of them’ – maybe this will help change that.
I have set up a weblog called ‘GEO BLOGS’ (i.e. ‘Joe Bloggs’) Over the period of the grant I will regularly add reflections on how everyday activities and observations are examples of ‘Geography in action’: how even ‘Joe Bloggs’ actually encounters Geography on a daily basis.
This is an extension of the ‘Geography in the News’ site of the RGS, which investigates stories in the media, and the news section of my own website.
Pupils will be encouraged to produce their own blogs, or write contributions to a central blog, which is overseen by their teacher. This will allow them to begin to ‘decode’ the Geography embedded in their daily experiences. Materials / guidelines will be produced on how to get involved, and also on a secondary aim of the project: looking at the safety aspects of the use of the Internet.
The aim is to encourage students to see the geographical nature behind their lives, and to post these in a ‘blog’. This will help them appreciate the relevance of Geography. Some of the grant will be used to fund prizes for the most imaginative blogs that are brought to my attention. I am sure that other ideas as yet unforeseen will come out of the creativity of the way that young people ‘use’ the Internet.
The main GEO BLOGS site (already created at http://geoblogs.blogspot.com) will act as a signpost to some of the best blogs that I find.
Contact can be made at the e-mail address: geoblogs@europe.com I have set up.
How proposal will enhance the education of the pupils I teach
Students in my current institution will be encouraged to set up a ‘Geo blog’ in the first term of the next academic year.
Pupils will be thinking about the relevance of what they learn in their lessons. This has already been targeted by the GA and is part of the new Foundation Strategy. Preparing the postings will be used as a Starter or Plenary activity in lessons.
Year 9 students I teach will build up a blog through the year looking at the ideas of Globalisation that they encounter. There will also be a link to the GA’s Geography Action Week in October, on Images in Geography. Students will be encouraged to think about Images of Geography in the media, and to explore their surroundings. One recent story on King’s Lynn in the national press was an investigation on Chinese immigrants in the town, which was featured in a full page ‘Guardian’ article.
Year 11 students will be encouraged to focus on issues relating to their exam syllabus.
Some initial ideas for posts: