Enhancing Teaching and Learning in Geography using ICT

Rob Chambers AST – ICT Across the Curriculum St Ivo School Geography Department Enhancing the teaching and learning of geography using new technologies www.igeog.wordpress.com www.geobytes.org.uk

Source: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aEFKfXiCbLw

Websites, VLEs, Blogs, Podcasts & Wikis “ Becoming part of the online revolution” “ Instead of making kids power down when they enter school, why don’t we let them use their mobile computer devices and ipods to continue their high powered learning”? Ewan MacIntosh Why not make use of the technology that more and more of our students have readily available and join the online revolution? “ When I go to school I have to power down” ( Marc Prensky )

“ e-Learning delivers many enhancements to the teaching and learning experience; the biggest impact occurs when the technology enables social and collaborative interaction where all parties actively build their understanding” Steve Lee & Miles Berry (2006) – “Learning through collaboration” (Coming of Age – An introduction to the new world wide web)

GeoBytes – St Ivo School Geography Departments Online Portal

VLE Pages Online Courses and Communities E-mail – staff / students Blogs GCSE support KS4 Coursework support Individual class support Advanced Extension Support Podcasts Online Web Materials Interactive Games Departmental & Professional Development Resources Future Technologies? St Ivo School Geography Department www.geobytes.org.uk GEOBYTES – The department website – online portal An overview . . .

A department website Developing an online presence for your department….

Why have a Department Website? The aims of our department website…. To promote the subject within the school & to highlight the work of the department. To provide support to students for coursework / homework activities To celebrate student successes by showcasing work To promote independent learning To centralise and share teaching resources and good practice between staff www.geobytes.org.uk

What information may a Department Website include? Revision Materials Coursework Materials Promoting Geography Homework Case Studies Students Work Fieldwork Write ups Weblinks Quizzes Staff Resources Web Enquiries Podcasts Department News Prof Development Photographs SOW GeoNews Competitions

Effective use of the department website in Teaching and Learning SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS – 1. Homework

Effective use of the department website in Teaching and Learning SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS – 2. Revision

Effective use of the department website in Teaching and Learning SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS – 3. Supporting Independent Learning

Effective use of the department website in Teaching and Learning SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS – 4. INTERACTIVE LEARNING

Effective use of the department website in Teaching and Learning PROMOTING THE WORK OF THE DEPARTMENT / SHOWCASING WORK

Effective use of the department website in Teaching and Learning PROMOTING FIELDWORK OPPORTUNITIES

Effective use of the department website in Teaching and Learning SUPPORTING STAFF: Staff Resources Portal

What Next? Where can you go from here? For those of you who would like to explore the possibilities further…` Look at existing websites for ideas (see handout) Talk to the rest of your department and decide on what your aims of a website would be Speak to technicians and colleagues in school Speak to a department with a website already up and running Look at the advice and support available from professional organisations – (e.g. the GA and LT Scotland. Plan out your ideas – think about structure and content and plan for the future! See online handout “Tantalising Ten” – 10 things to consider in developing your own department website

Also known as Personalised Learning Environments Virtual Learning Environments Developing personalised learning experiences…

The DfES in their e-strategy document set the following target: A personalised learning space with the potential to support e-portfolios to be available to all schools by 2007-08. What is a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)? “ A virtual learning environment is any electronic space where learning can take place or where interactions occur.” Source: http://www.ukcle.ac.uk “ It is an environment that is accessed via the Internet for teaching, learning and communicating.” Source: http://www.kirklees-ednet.org.uk The VLE currently used at St Ivo is called DigitalBrain . www.geobytes.org.uk

Possible Functions of a Virtual Learning Environment – e.g. Digital Brain 3. File Sharing Each user has an online storage area – files can therefore be stored and shared. – e.g. students handing in work or staff making available resources from lessons. 1. Electronic Communication All digitalbrain users have an e-mail account. Threaded discussions can also be set up – to encourage debate. A live discussion ‘chat room’ facility is available with or without moderator . 2. Personal Organisation Each user has a series of personal organisational tools – include online contacts, personal calendar etc.. (and when part of a course – assignment deadlines etc. are automatically added. 4. School Portal The overall school portal gives the school a web presence – all staff and students can interact with portal logging in at home and in school and a network can easily be set up to link staff / students through departments / year groups pages. 5. E-Learning Content Content can be uploaded to Digital Brain as powerpoints, word documents, existing web pages etc.. Or staff and students can easily create their own web pages by simply adapting on line templates and adding content 6. Learning Manager – it is possible to combine exisiting resources to create on-line communities. Assignments can be set online with links to useful resources, deadlines, supporting files etc.. Students can submit completed work online – marks can be stored in personal online mark books etc..

Some ideas for using Online Learning communities for Teaching / Learning… Uploading / sharing resources used in lessons (e.g. worksheets / powerpoints etc.) for use by students as follow up Setting assignments online and providing the relevant links to online content To create own web based learning content that students can use Encourage students to create their own online content - for example within a group, students research different aspects and present their findings online – results can then be shared by all; Create / upload revision resources that students can access; Support students through discussion threads / e-mail (remember all members of digital brain (staff & students) have e-mail; Encourage student debate on subject specific issues through the online poll function / discussion threads Departmental Uses - Share ideas / resources / good practice within the department / Department Calendar / Store worksheets / resources online for access both in school and at home; These are just a few ideas – online communities have lots of potential!

Online portals and collaboration… “ e-Learning delivers many enhancements to the teaching and learning experience” “ many students find that their learning is most effective when they actively construct knowledge during group social interaction and collaboration” Steve Lee & Miles Berry (2006) – “Effective e-Learning through collaboration” (Coming of Age – An introduction to the new world wide web)

Collaborative Approaches to Learning using new technologies One to Many Static content web sites RSS Blogs Podcasts E-portfolio One to One E-mail and SMS texts Instant Messaging VoIP FOAF (Friend of a Friend) eg. Facebook / Orkut etc. Source: Steve Lee & Miles Berry (2006) – “Effective e-Learning through collaboration (Coming of Age: An Introduction to the NEW Worldwide Web) – Downloadable from http://terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/cat_index_30.php Many to Many Content Management Systems News Servers Forums Discussion Games Wikis

Blogs Source: www.cartoonstock.com Flexibility and ease in providing online materials and support..

What is a blog? “ A blog (short for web log) is a website where entries are written in chronological order and displayed in reverse chronological order.” (Source: Wikipedia) http://teachable.org/images/blog_cartoon.gif Blogs are interactive websites (visitors can leave comments). You can set up a blog within seconds and updating them is quick and easy. Blogs do not require knowledge of html to write, in fact they are not dissimilar to the time and knowledge required to write an email! These websites and any changes made are viewed instantly and links and downloadable resources can easily be added. Blogs may consist of anything, from specific niche blogs about specific areas of interest to general thoughts and ideas that people which to share.

The Benefits of having a blog Source: V Vannet – “A blogs not just for Christmas” – www.ablogsnotjustforchristmas.blogspot.com ” Set homework on-line Link to & network with other schools Enhancing Learning and Teaching Follow up information from lessons Communicate when students are away Encourage further research Create a link with home for parents Post reminders e.g. dates Fieldtrip follow up and photos

Coates Geography Blog http:// coatesgeog.blogspot.com

Geography Schemes of Work: http:// geographysow.blogspot.com

High School of Dundee – Iceland Fieldtrip – www.hsdiceland.blogspot.com

Geogtastic http:// www.geogtastic.blogspot.com

www.geobytesgcse.blogspot.com www.geobytesadvancedextension.blogspot.com www.geoblogbytes.wordpress.com www.igeog.wordpress.com Using Blogs as part of the GeoBytes Portal …

“ Unlike the formal use of email, the blog is easy to access through the schools website and allows you to view other peoples questions and answers that you wouldn’t get in another form. It is a great way for students to share their enthusiasm, learn from each other as well as receiving additional guidance they may need from the teacher.” Amy “ I think the blog has been really useful as well - I agree - it’s nice to be able to view everyone else's questions and if it is checked it often is more convenient and quicker than email. It’s also a good motivator!” Megan Getting Feedback… So what do the students think? “ the blog rocks its an easy way to find all the info you need and if everyone has the same question ony one person needs to answer it and everyone gets a response and its just different from reading other our notes over and over” Fi

Interested in finding out more about blogs? … Look at examples of Geography Department Blogs (see handout) See igeog.wordpress.com for links and to download guides on setting up wordpress and blogger blogs

Setting up your own Blog… For the greatest flexibility it is possible to host blogs on your own webspace or pay for access to more advanced blogging facilities (e.g. www.typepad.com) – however there are many great free blogging services available which are widely used by teachers and require very little technological knowledge! In fact you can literally set a blog up in 5 minutes! http://www.xanga.com/ http://www.wordpress.com http://www.livejournal.com www.blogger.com http://www.myblogsite.com / http://spaces.live.com/

Resources: Powerpoints (slideshare) pdf files (Scribd) word documents (scribd / 4shared etc.) videos (e.g. you tube) Widgets: Visitor location maps polls mp3 players (for podcasts) calendars weather pixie Etc. etc. Populating your Blogs with resources and ‘widgets’

Blogs – Issues for Consideration Common concerns from teachers (identifed by A November “Blogging: shift of control” in “Coming of Age – an introduction to the new world wide web) Blogs give too much freedom for students to express themselves teachers will never be able to control comments students and parents will have too much access to other student’s published work students will feel too much pressure to improve as they see the work and comments of others Issues for staff to consider.. copyright issues rules needed (against cyber bulling) moderation evaluation of plausibility / accuracy of information school / county policies?

VLE Pages Online Courses and Communities E-mail – staff / students Blogs GCSE support KS4 Coursework support Individual class support Advanced Extension Support Podcasts Online Web Materials Interactive Games Departmental & Professional Development Resources Future Technologies? St Ivo School Geography Department www.geobytes.org.uk GEOBYTES – The department website – online portal Looking to the future… Wikis student / staff/ parent / community collaboration Department VodBlog Virtual Fieldtrips / Revision Materials Student and Staff Blogs Discussion Forums

Wikis Developing a collaborative approach to teaching and learning …

Source: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =ZmByB0sIPog Wikis….

What is a wiki? Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki Source: http://recap.ltd.uk/wiki/Main/Guide The main aim of a wiki is.. The collaboration and sharing of ideas A wiki allows ALL authors to read , edit and write web pages – links can be included to other pages in the wiki or extenal links on the web & incorporate other docs / audio / video etc. Changes can be tracked and who has made them.

What can we use Wikis for? Source: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =9hSzJ0Hj_eo

What can be done with a Wiki? Wikis have many possible uses including amongst others…. Lesson summaries (to include use of hyperlinks to related material) gathering and collaborating on ideas for policies or strategies (e.g. generating discussion on the new KS3 or A’level specifications) collaboration of notes – students working together to draw together notes on a particular topic area (can include and make hyperlinks to resources – including other sites on the world wide web). disseminating information to a wider audience Good Article: The art of using Wiki to teach http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2005/12/wiki-wiki-teaching-art-of-using-wiki.html Some Examples…..

Example 1: Year 8 Geography Students look at Personal Geographies (Noel Jenkins)

Example 2: Higher Students collaborate on writing good exam answers

Example 3: Wikirefs – Faculty of Education – University of Cambridge

Setting up your own wiki You can set up and host your own wiki but this will require some time and expertise to maintain it. The most user friendly alternative for teachers is to use a free service – these are widely used in education – here are some examples… (you can also type free+wiki+hosting into google)) http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers http://pbwiki.com/ http://www.wetpaint.com/ http://www.wikidot.com http://www.jot.com/

Setting up your own Wiki – quick and easy! When you set up your wiki – make sure you set permissions – it is best for contributors to have to log in rather than having a fully open wiki to avoid spam & unwanted postings.

What can be done with a Wiki? Wikis have many possible uses including amongst others…. Lesson summaries (to include use of hyperlinks to related material) gathering and collaborating on ideas for policies or strategies (e.g. generating discussion on the new KS3 or A’level specifications) collaboration of notes – students working together to draw together notes on a particular topic area (can include and make hyperlinks to resources – including other sites on the world wide web). disseminating information to a wider audience For examples see handout e.g. Court Fields School (Somerset) – Noel Jenkins

“ Now, instead of making kids power down when they enter school .. why don't we let them use their mobile computing devices and iPods to continue their high-powered learning”. Source: Ewan Macintosh http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2007/03/200_minutes_a_n.html

Podcasting Utilising student friendly technologies…

Possible uses of podcasts in school geography create revision resources / record lesson reminders – recording podcasts on topic areas create revision podcast quizzes students create their own podcasts (another form of outcome) support visually impaired students produce and swap podcasts with students from different countries (audio diaries for comparative country studies) providing feedback to students / assessment help make links with experts in the field (could skype / VoIP conference, record and make available to wider audience) For further ideas on using both podcasting and video blogging across the curriculum in schools – see Terry Freedman’s articles in Coming of Age: An introduction to the new world wide web. ALSO SEE the handout and www.igeog.wordpress.com for more information and links on podcasting

What is a podcast? Podcasts are digital media files which may include audio and / or video (vodcasts) they are usually distributed over the internet and be played back via an mp3 player such as an ipod or using a computer. Podcasts are often stored at a particular address with a web feed which people can subscribe to in order to download new podcasts as they are uploaded. BENEFITS OF PODCASTS cater for wider range of learning styles engage and motivate students opportunity for staff and students to be creative harness ‘student friendly technology’ COSTS OF PODCASTS time required to script & record podcast access to webspace for uploading podcasts minimal costs of hardware/software – audacity is free / microphones cheap

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Recording a Podcast What do you need? A script for your podcast A computer or laptop with a sound card and microphone port A microphone (these are relatively inexpensive – although the better quality ones do give greater clarity) Sound Editing software – audacity, is an open source, freely downloadable sound editor and is relatively straightforward to use (you will also need to download the LAME mp3 encoder in order to create your mp3) Music / sound clips to add to your podcast

http://www.podsafeaudio.com/ http://www.garageband.com/podcast Adding Music / Sounds to your podcast: It is important that you follow copyright restrictions when you create a podcast for uploading to the internet. You cannot simply add any music that you have on CD or on your computer as most will be copyrighted material. There are however a number of sources of copyright free material which are safe to use in podcasts – two particularly useful sites are GarageBand and Podsafe audio.

There are a number of podcast directories on the net to help you keep up with the podcasts that are available. Finding Podcasts – Podcast Directories For best results when recording your podcast – try to make sure that you use a location with no distracting background noise http://www.podcastdirectory.org.uk/ http://www.podfeed.net/ http://epnweb.org/ http://www.podcastdirectory.com http://www.digitalpodcast.com/

Integrating podcasts into online learning.. Podcasts can be embedded in blogs and downloaded directly to students mp3 players – or make your podcast available via i-tunes

Making further use of new technologies The apple 5th generation ipod can play video as audio. With more and more students buying ipods, how can we be creative in making use of this technology in our teaching and learning of geography? Vodcasts (vidcasts) – what are they? These are similar to podcasts in that they can be delivered to a subscriber via an RSS feed but they contain video content rather than just an audio file. Other potential uses of ipods in education: Ipods are already in use by some other subjects – for example MFL (e.g. Ashcombe School – ipod project http:// www.ashcombe.surrey.sch.uk/Curriculum/modlang/videos.htm ) How could we make use of them in geography? iquiz (free iquiz maker) – revision Virtual fieldtrips student presentations video blog fieldwork Video revision (Vodcasts) etc.

USING THE INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD IN THE GEOGRAPHY CLASSROOM Unlocking the Potential of your Interactive Whiteboard!

USING NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND NETWORKING THE SLN ONLINE FORUM Staffordshire Learning Net http://www.sln.org.uk/geography/ http://twitter.com Micro-blogging – sign up to follow others, share ideas, seek advice - fantastic for professional development Geography Teacher’s Personal Blogs: www.igeog.wordpress.com www.digitalgeography.co.uk (Noel Jenkins)

Child Safety and use of the Internet… As we continue to make more use of the technology that more and more of our students have access we also have to educate our students on the responsible use of these technologies! With all activities on the internet it is important to be clear about school / county policies relating to safe use and you need to establish rules for use with students – teaching them Particular things to consider: rules needed (against cyber bulling) (with blogs / discussion forums) moderation not sharing personal data or being directly identifiable evaluation of plausibility / accuracy of information school / county policies? See online handout at www.igeog.wordpress to follow up these issues

Can be downloaded at http://terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/cat_index_30.php Can be downloaded at www.igeog.wordpress.com (visit the department section) or on the GA website (Resources section) 2. Geography Directory 2007 A directory of weblinks and resources to support the Teaching and Learning of Geography. 1. Coming of Age: Introduction to the new world wide web A fantastic free booklet packed with case studies and teachers / consultants thoughts on the use of new technologies, how pupils respond etc. FREE RESOURCES

Please feel free to e-mail me if you have any further questions: Website / Blogs: www.ictacrossthecurriculum.wordpress.com (AST work - designed to support staff across the curriculum build confidence in the use of ICT in teaching and learning in the 21st century classroom) www.igeog.wordpress.com (personal professional development blog looking at the use of new technologies to support and enhance geography teaching – blogs, wikis, podcasts etc. etc.) www.geobytes.org.uk (department website) www.geoblogbytes.wordpress.com (used with all classes – to follow up lessons, homework support etc.) www.geobytesgcse.blogspot.com (follows GCSE course through with a log of lessons and links to background material) www.geobytesadvancedextension.blogspot.com (used to support advanced extension class and encourage background reading) Also: www.geobytestravelandtourism.wordpress.com and www.geobytescoursework.wordpress.com

Enhancing Teaching and Learning in Geography using ICT

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Enhancing Teaching and Learning in Geography using ICT