SAGT Conference 2005: Magic Realism Seminar

MAGIC REALISM: VIRTUAL GEOGRAPHY & ONLINE COMMUNITIES

A SEMINAR DELIVERED AT SAGT CONFERENCE: UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE: OCTOBER 2005

“The habit of giving only enhances the desire to give.”

Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)

Update April 06: Many thanks to Malcolm McDonald for sending me a copy of SAGT CD4 which features many of the resources kindly donated for the workshop.

A document which includes a booking form for the Conference can still be downloaded from the SAGT WEBSITE.

The conference broke all records with a total of around 350 delegates (close to a third of all Scottish geography teachers)

Go HERE for a full description of the seminar, as included in this booklet.

The seminar ran twice during the day, along with the other 5 seminars which were offered. Delegates had a chance to choose 2 seminars from the ones on offer. Some delegates volunteered to miss their lunch to have a 3rd seminar instead.

Background

Every day, thousands of geography teachers plan lessons.
Every evening and weekend, thousands of geography teachers spend time which they could spend with their family and friends producing materials, searching the Internet for images, putting powerpoints together, performing Internet searches in the hope that they will find 'the exact thing' they were looking for..
Every year, geography departments pay educational publishers hundreds of pounds for materials which they then find are not completely as expected, or are not necessarily relevant to their existing Schemes of work.
When the internet was first developed, it was thought that it would need a KILLER APP: a particular usage which would mean that ordinary people would then find a use for it, and allow it to spread.
That KILLER APP was considered to be E-mail. The KILLER APP for me is the ability to do collaboration.
SAGT and LT Scotland have already done a lot on this collaborative area, with Malcolm McDonald and others distributing CDs of resources. I am grateful to Malcolm for sending me 2 of the SAGT CDs which are sent to Scottish schools. They are very useful.

This has developed into Bulletin boards and Forums (which were always around...) and now collaboration via weblogs and other interactive projects...

RESOURCES TO BE USED / IDEAS TO BE TACKLED

Photo Stories: With a little help from my friends / Kibera Shanty Town / Clouds at 12 o' clock / The Road to Dundee / Dan Ellison's 'Learning through Windows'... Flickr Magazine cover maker

TEMPLATE for use with the FLICKR MAGAZINE COVER MAKER site by FlagrantDisregard.

ACTIVITIES

Consequences - chain writing

Speech bubbles - relating to the work of Ji Lee's SPEECH BUBBLE PROJECT in New York

See more on this project at his PLEASEENJOY website.

Links to various issues, such as AfL, Valuing Places etc.

CD ROM

To see the list of resources I was sent by delegates, you can download the list in EXCEL FORMAT by clicking below

RESOURCES CONTRIBUTED TO SAGT WORKSHOP

The CD was also available for a short time to delegates who had been unable to attend the seminar. This offer is now closed. Thanks for the interest.

I have since been contacted by Lynne Walker, who has made available the 2 resources below:

QUESTIONING TYPES OF S GRADE

SYNOPTIC CHART HOMEWORK EXERCISE

WEBLINKS to sites mentioned in the seminar

See COLLABORATE page for a more exhaustive list

SLN GEOGRAPHY FORUM: the best place for geography teachers to share ideas and have their problems solved - collaboration goes on here every day, and you can start by registering and making your first posting today!

FLICKR: online photo-sharing site - you'll need to have some images in digital format - scan your prints, or get a cheap digital imaging device and you're ready to share your images with the world...

FLICKR MAGAZINE COVER MAKER

FLICKR POSTCARD IMAGE FINDER

Now with other FLICK tools....

JUICY GEOGRAPHY - Noel Jenkins site - he has added a comment about the positive aspects of the conference, and the

GEO INTERACTIVE - David Rayner's resource sharing site

Tony Cassidy's MY WORLD IS A GEOGRAPHY WORLD - author of the CLOUDS at 12 o' clock video has now moved to RADICAL GEOGRAPHY. He has since added a whole range of extra videos, including the classic 'HENSHAW FARM' video.

GEOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATION website

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY website

NEXT STEPS

Things that I hope you do having attended the workshop....

1. Sign up to SLN or SAGT and post / join the community / contribute to a discussion

2. Get a FLICKR account and start sharing your images

3. Experiment with GEOTAGGING or GEOGRAPH and images with Google Earth

4. PICASA and HELLO - free downloads - photo organisation / editing and sharing

5. Get GOOGLE EARTH and export your placemarks to another person or to the bulletin board

6. Send some images to IAN MURRAY's GEOGRAPHY PHOTOS site.

7. Share a resource with colleagues.

Work in progress...

RETURN TO INDEX PAGE

RETURN TO COLLABORATION PAGE

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