DIGITAL PROJECTOR RESOURCES (also useful for those with IWBs)

Remember the GOOGLE search tip: subject filetype:ppt or :swf for flash animations or :xls for spreadsheets or :doc for Word documents. Simple and works wonders !

Another key tip if you are using slides to 'dictate' notes: why not include a sound file of the text which has been produced using Audacity, and can be played as the words are on the screen. You should then make sure that the last part of each slide's content is then repeated on the next slide so that anyone who hasn't quite finished can finish off while the others can carry on with the new content. A simple but effective idea !

This is particularly useful in Geography as it is a very visual subject, particularly when covering mapwork and physical processes and landforms.

Scanning in images, or taking them from websites. Obtained a piece of software called 'Web Pictures Downloader' which hoovers up pictures, and there are plenty available that people have put online for people to use - thanks to the growth in the ownership of digital cameras.

There are, of course, no end of websites out there which have Powerpoint presentations available for free download, as well as some which are subscription services. A simple search e.g. "Powerpoint coasts" would bring up some relevant ones, although I've already identified some places later on this page. (or add filetype:ppt in a Google search)

There are plenty of Powerpoint presentations to be found by using appropriate search strings. Have a go! If you find some decent ones which I haven't got, let me know where you found them...

Some of the sites where I've found more FREE presentations which can be downloaded and used straight away, or 'cannibalised' using the IMPORT SLIDES from FILE option of Powerpoint, go to the following places:

SLEMISH COLLEGE in Northern Ireland has some useful presentations for use at various levels. Try Key Stage 3, GCSE and Year 12 for more presentations. For example, Year 12 presentations include ones on:

The GEOGRAPHY PORTAL: several presentations on the theme of Population such as Pyramids and the Demographic transition model

ICTeachers has advice on using Powerpoint in lessons. There is one by Chris Benson of Child's Hill School, Barnet on COASTS. Try some of the other materials too...

A subscription site is run by WILL RICHARDS and is called EDUCATION USING POWERPOINT. For £20 (or £40 for a CD) you can get access to presentations which are mainly Scientific presentations, although there are some Geography ones.

Go to these sites, and DOWNLOAD the presentations, SAVE them into a folder which is called Presentations (so that you know where to find them when you need to...) and then you can 'cannibalise' and edit them. There are also plenty of sites where you can obtain CLIP ART images.

For 'AS' level presentations (some of them quite large so be prepared for a lengthy download if you haven't got the mythical Broadband..) go to the site of R D Hall, who has produced some nicely illustrated PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY presentations. Access them from this directory.

Some good images on Keith Phipp's PUPILVISION site. GEO RESOURCES also offered some great Mystery images for Geography in Action week 2003.

Some useful presentations (in PDF format) to give you some ideas, and with some rather good content) have been posted by Dr. Peter Copeland HERE. They cover all Physical areas and are well worth viewing.

IAN MURRAY is 'the man' for images. His GEOGRAPHYPHOTOS site can be ordered through e-learning credits, but he has also offered a free CD of images of erosion at Barton-on-Sea, and in January 2004 he set up his new PHOTO GALLERY project where there is a growing collection of varied images. E-Learning CREDITS can be used to subscribe to the site, and he will also let you have a trial membership so that you can see what's on offer.

Dr. Stuart Hitch has an excellent resource looking at the use of POWERPOINT to interpret LANDSCAPE at the FERL site:

One of the biggest sources of FREE clip art (including animated images) is the MICROSOFT Design Gallery Live. Apparently there are over 110 000 images to search through. Some great images and styles here. Keep an eye out for free clip art on magazine cover CDs too. And don't forget the old scanner - get your photos out of the loft, and spend an afternoon scanning them in, then post them online for everyone to use. You may have just the image that someone has been looking for to brighten up their lesson and hammer home that point...

The important thing of course is that there is a point in using Powerpoint. It isn't just a case of it replacing the OHP, it has to be used for a reason, and to actually make a difference in the lesson where it is used. Thanks to the research I did last year, I am now more attuned to the need to use Best Practice ideas.

The FISCHER TRUST website suggests that Powerpoint was seen as a good use of software for the less-able student. The program also features on their website - perhaps GeographyPages will appear there one day.

There was a useful article published in 'Teaching Geography' in January 2001 called 'Effective Powerpoint presentations'. This is also available from the GEOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATION website.

The TLT GROUP site has a useful article on Presentation software. It has some very useful suggestions for good practice.

Remember that by plugging some computer speakers into your laptop you can also make use of SOUND.

Just before Christmas 2003 I moved into DIGITAL VIDEO. I'll be adding some VIDEO sequences to the GEOGRAPHY PAGES CD ROM during 2004 - I'll keep you posted. In fact, I did add some, but they were downloaded lots of times and have had to be removed temporarily as with the Powerpoints - I'll add some to the CD which is in production and will be available sometime in 2005.

Simple starters can be produced, again using Powerpoint, where they can show a section at a time. Text can be animated onto the Powerpoint slides so that one line or section at a time is 'revealed' on the slide. They can also form the basis for Plenaries (which are mainly starters but later in the lesson...)

3. Showing video programmes through the projector - each of our teaching rooms has a Video and TV (which is essential for a Geography room...)

This is a use which it is put to in the main school hall, and with the aid of speakers it can be used for a year group assembly of over 200 people who can all see and hear what is going on. Increasingly, outside speakers such as the Army come with this sort of kit...

For that you'll need an extra long video lead. Also need to check SCART, S-VIDEO requirements / adaptors.

There are now various locations where video clips can be downloaded to supplement the 'shop bought' ones you may have.

I have also purchased a DVD recorder: could be worth £100 of your departmental capitation. This allows me to start the process of turning our most commonly used video clips into DVD clips, which can then be embedded into lessons. It's a slow process, but it's worth it, especially if you have an IWB.

The same RGS-IBG INNOVATIVE GEOGRAPHY TEACHING grant which supported the development of the Geo Blogs project was used to support a project called WALLS TO WINDOWS.

Daniel Ellison from LITTLE HEATH SCHOOL in Berkshire has placed the results of his excellent WALLS TO WINDOWS on the school website. Check them out now, but go easy as there's some serious bandwidth involved here. There are a series of folders there at the moment.

There are clips for various topics: COASTS, RIVERS, RESOURCES (a good 6 minute 'documentary' exploring pros and cons of wind power), and some animations showing what will happen to places such as Durdle Door and Old Harry Rocks over the years. Check them out !

Interpreting photos, maps and aerial photographs is an important skill for exams. The Internet is a huge source of images, some of which would be copyright if they were republished, but which can be borrowed for use in the classroom.

Look at the image size. If it's going to be visible on the wall, it has to be a fairly large image. Look at the image file size. If its about 4K it's going to be a small image. If it's 60K or more, preferably well over 100K it will look full screen when you examine it. (This obviously assumes the image has been optimised for fast loading on the web page) In terms of size, something like 600 pixels across, or 800 across will be nice and large on the screen. You want to be able to annotate or point if necessary, and if you have to enlarge it, many images get the jaggies.

Students can then annotate certain features on the images. For example, at AS, students have to be able to identify and describe the features of limestone and granite landscapes. A quick search for MALHAM or DARTMOOR TORS will throw up useful images. Using a whiteboard pen, students can add arrows and labels to an image projected onto the whiteboard.

For coastal images, try a site which has images of one of my favourite places: STAITHES in North Yorkshire. Once spent a Christmas snowed in to the village in 'The Red House' and had a White Christmas and had to make lots of visits to the 'Cod and Lobster'. Also won the pub quiz to the chagrin of the locals....

This can also be used to create an outline for practising FIELD SKETCHING. Then take the image away (I have a handy MUTE on my remote control) and you can see the sketch... Can you tell what it is yet ?

We ask lots of questions. Often we don't generally think about them in advance as much as we should. Sometimes they're prepared in advance, or we have a 'place' that we want to get to, or a direction which we want to guide the students towards.

One of the things about questions that we've asked is that as soon as they're asked they're into the air and gone.

This also means that they've gone from the minds of some of the students we teach. IF the questions have been put onto a Powerpoint slide, or some other format, and then projected as they are asked, they can be left up on the board / screen and the students can see them for longer...

You can also take students through the stages of how they need to do a piece of work.

You can project a countdown timer on the wall - these can be downloaded from TUCOWS or some other shareware / freeware download site. Students can then know how long they have to complete a task.

Or play a motivational piece of music if the computer has speakers attached. You can play movie files and shockwave animations too. Get a FLASH GRABBER from a download software site like TUCOWS and see what you can pick up.

Go to the SLN Geography site and you'll find THIS SECTION. The Coasts Starter section features a Powerpoint presentation set up as a picture board as they have on 'A Question of Sport'. There are 9 images, which are hidden behind the numbers 1 - 9.

It's an easy job to take the presentation, produced from an idea by John Hamshaw at the SLN site, and delete the existing images and then save a blank version of the template.

You can then adapt the idea endlessly. Put some different images in the 9 boxes and you can use it in different ways, or you can put a question behind the number as well, which the person who chooses it has to answer. Try a word, which has to be defined, or an action that has to be performed. Lots of ideas...

Here's the BLANK PRESENTATION I prepared from the original, which I've used in numerous Geography and ICT lessons.. Feel free to take and adapt. That's why it was placed on SLN in the first place.

At the GA Conference recently in 2004, Chris used a 12 picture board as the basis for his keynote lecture.

A variation of this original idea with a PICTURE REVEAL option was added by me recently. This can be downloaded by clicking the link here to PICTURE REVEAL EXERCISE (POWERPOINT PRESENTATION - 137Kb)

7. Join the GA and subscribe to TEACHING GEOGRAPHY - each issue will include some excellent ICT ideas. The latest issue also features the new GA website. This is expanded, and there is new material being added at various times.

There was also Chris Durbin's excellent poster on Creativity ideas, and the October 2004 issue of 'Teaching Geography' also had a rather good article on the Geo Blogs project.

The GA have projects such as VALUING PLACES, which offers some excellent new ideas. I love 'The Atlas of Experience'. Also new projects on ARGUMENT in Geography.

There are various options for showing a SLIDE SHOW of images which are saved in a folder on your laptop.

Or you could download the creative PHOTO JAM, plus various FILTERS. The free basic download of PHOTO JAM is an essential tool in a teacher's arsenal. It's produced by SHOCKWAVE. I would also advise you to download the PRO version of this: it will cost you less than £20.

Or try the free IRFAN VIEW programme, which will show all your images. This is my IMAGE VIEWER of choice - it even plays all the FLASH files I have.

You could also consider getting a FLASH GRABBER and going a-hunting for materials. There is a free download of a FLASH CAPTURE tool at the website: FLASH SAVING PLUGIN. This is FREEWARE and will cost you nothing.

SWIFF POINT PLAYER means that you can get your animations to play in POWERPOINT. This is also a FREE download.

Download a trial version of KOOL MOVES (or buy it for around $36) to produce FLASH animations on the cheap.

PHOTO STORY 3 by MICROSOFT is also FREE. This adds the feeling of movement to your images.

In GOOGLE, type the subject that you are interested in followed by filetype:ppt : all the results will now be POWERPOINT presentations which can be plundered for goodies or style tips.

I've now got TOO MUCH INFORMATION really, and managed to get some great ideas for my teaching on LAPSE RATES (thanks in particular to some WGS students for their great ideas...)

Make sure you visit David Rayner's GEO INTERACTIVE. When this started, you had to send 2 resources you'd produced, then you got the password to the CONTRIBUTORS' section. You also need to consider SUBSCRIBING to the site! Once again, E-Learning Credits can be used - make sure you get more than your share. The CONTRIBUTOR'S section is now free to enter and has almost 600 resources for free.

You can also try creating your own Interactive activities using downloadable software such as HOT POTATOES.

BIRCHFIELD also produce a 3 pack which allows the production of PICTURE LABELLING, DRAG and DROP or WORDSEARCH style activities which work well through a projector (although with limited interactivity unless you have a wireless mouse...)

There is also a section of resources produced by people on the SLN FORUM. Do a search using the item you want and you'll probably find something.

Saw a demonstration in school of this hardware and software. It allows you to embed questions into existing Powerpoint presentations. These can be in the form of TRUE/FALSE, or MULTI CHOICE - range from A-F or 1-9, or relate to a particular numerical value. The twist is that the presentation is controlled from an infra red receiver-transmitter which is linked to a series of handsets. These are similar to the handsets which the audience have in 'Who wants to be a Millionaire'. Each student has one and they send their answers. The teacher can then print out reports on who got particular questions right or wrong, feedback can be given if necessary, reports can be produced very promptly, and students enjoy the handsets.

The ability to use Powerpoint as the interface is what makes this a viable piece of software - but does it make a difference to 'teaching and learning' ? It will need, as always, a teacher to think through situations when this would be a useful resource to use in the classroom.

The manufacturer sells Powerpoints which are ready made, but I'm sure that in time websites will appear where students can start swapping resources which have been made using the software.

Stop Press: System now in my school.... Will investigate this when I get a moment....

Here's a page where teacher produced materials could perhaps appear in future - check out the CLASS ACT SRS page. New for September 2005

Check out the IMAGINATION AT WORK scribble page. It's inspired.... Perfect for those PICTIONARY style starters or plenaries where students have to draw Geographical

Download POLLSTER from the TEACHER RESOURCE EXCHANGE. It offers you the chance to ask pupil opinion on any question, and see an instand graph which responds as each figure is intended, and rescales itself. With a little tweaking it could also be altered to suit your needs. Well done to Joe Nutt for putting on TRE, and thanks to Noel Jenkins for passing on the recommendation.

Powerpoint has the ability to play embedded movie files. These are files which become part of the presentation, rather than just a link to somewhere else. This increases the file size of the powerpoint, but that shouldn't become an issue unless you decide to embed a particularly large file.

A new COUNTRY CODE was introduced in 2004. If you go to the COUNTRYSIDE ACCESS website which has been set up, you can check out all the details. Aardman animations have provided a CREATURE COMFORTS style animation to introduce the new Country Code. It's a 5 Mb download, and runs to around 60 seconds but would make a good starter activity. I use this with Year 8 groups when looking at TOURISM in the UK. If you go to COUNTRYSIDEACCESS site you can get a teacher pack with all sorts of splendid goodies. Received this in May 2005. Excellent.

I also downloaded an excellent viral ad used by the Ordnance Survey to publicise their mapping service which allows a map to be centred on any address. This prevents the problem of falling off the edge of the map, and features a mountain biker crashing into the grid numbers having disappeared off the map surface onto the edge.

A series of FLASH animations can be added to your resource list. Use the old GOOGLE tip: subject filetype:swf to find lots, for example, these SMOOTHSTONE ones on physical processes. Change the number for more....

Earth Browser has been captivating people whenever I have shown it to them, and it will get you going too. This piece of software is something that you should download now. Head on over to JUICY GEOGRAPHY for Noel Jenkins' rather good review of the software and some suggestions for how it might be used. Just got my credit card statement, and once the exchange rate has been worked out, EARTH BROWSER costs £12. That has to be a bargain!

Just one thing: make sure you get a powerful computer! Also check out WORLD WIND: a NASA product. This is a hefty download and needs a powerful machine. New upgrades now available ! Recommended.

Take a large image and split it up into sections. Could also take an OS map with its grid reference squares. Give each pupil a square and ask them to recreate it in some medium. Put the results back together... Make a work of art. This works well from the examples I've seen.

A new tool provided by GOOGLE is PICASA. This is a FREE download (3.1 Mb). Once started it will search through all the images on your PC and produce a thumbnailed and smooth scrolling set of folders in chronological order by year. You can then create picture collages and posters.

Use a folder of your own photos to do this.... Slide shows, photo sharing etc. are all new features on PICASA.

Iceland photo collage - original images courtesy of Val Vannet. Click to enlarge.

This application arrived in late June 2005. Check out my page for more details. Also now home to the new ideas as a result of my RGS-IBG Innovative Geography Teaching grant.

It features a 3D interface which allows you to explore the earth. This is the greatest online application I have yet seen.

You can ZOOM, PAN & TILT, ROTATE and fly across the landscape exploring urban and rural hotspots.

Images all copyright Google and associated imaging partners. Image included just to show you what a fabulous thing it is! Get your own copy now...

A Viewlet is a self-contained presentation produced using a FLASH interface. The VIEWLET BUILDER can be downloaded from HERE. Try them out...

River Management on the Colorado, the Mississippi Flood of 1993 and the River Tees

Geology on Coasts, Longshore Drift and Spurn Head, Coastal protection in Norfolk and some coastal STARTERS - these can be adapted to make a good idea (see IDEA 6)

Handy Tip (sent in to the SLN FORUM by Noel Jenkins....)

Let's say that you want to have music playing in the background through a POWERPOINT presentation and then still have other sound files playing at the same time.

Insert the music you want to play throughout in the starting slide (in custom animation mode) - make sure the pane is on the right hand side.

Right click on the sound in the task pane and choose 'effect options', and 'stop playing after' (or use drop down once sound is inserted)

Add the number of slides in the presentation in the 'stop playing after' box and the music (or whatever) will play throughout...

Also, if you want to add other sounds, such as RIGHT and WRONG ANSWER sounds.

Create a button shape, right click and choose 'action settings' - under mouse click select 'none' in the action on click button and 'play sound' then choose sound file. The sound will play when the button is clicked, but the slide will not advance.

Genius!

Other handy tip (as demonstrated by Kate Russell during SLN Field Weekend...)

Press the full stop key while a Powerpoint is playing on the data projector and the picture will go black - press it again and the picture comes back. Handy for 'muting' the image during a discussion on one of the slides.

Another resource that we've had in the department for some time is "ICT ACTIVITIES IN GEOGRAPHY" by David Gardner. This is a folder and CD ROM. It has some rather good resources and ideas for looking at Websites, CD ROMS and using Powerpoint and other software. Has some useful examples, such as Meadowhall and Monks Cross Shopping Centre for a retail case study - my GCSE group were impressed by it. Recommended.

For more ideas, check out JUICY GEOGRAPHY. Noel Jenkins has placed online the link used in his presentation at the DfES Roadshow Nov 2004 on Embedding ICT in Geography. Also some other useful Powerpoints and ideas. Check back regularly.

Do you know more sites with Powerpoints that could save people time ? Let me know....

DIGITAL PROJECTOR

BRIGHT IDEAS FOR USING DIGITAL PROJECTORS IN THE CLASSROOM