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7/28/2019 ISSIG Newsletter
1/24
1
Welcome to the new rebranded Notes and Queries, the annual newsletter of the GA
Independent Schools Special Interest Group. These are challenging times for Geogra-
phy teachers; the goalposts are constantly moving in terms of what we teach and how
we teach it. Hardly a week goes by without a scientific report published by academ-
ics or a learned society on the impacts of climate change, while new directives seem
to be coming from the desk of the Secretary of State with the same regularity.
The GA has made an excellent case for the continued inclusion of Geography in the
National Curriculum and with Geography included as one of the subjects in the so-
called English Baccalaureate that is used as a measure of success at GCSE, our posi-
tion has never been stronger. It is a subject, however, that is constantly changing and
CPD is possibly more relevant in Geography than any other school subject.
On a personal note, most of my annual CPD comes via the GA annual conference .
This year, president Bob Digby has chosen Looking to the Future as his theme; a
theme that this newsletter will also echo. The excellent programme on offer at con-
ference will reflect this in three key ways: how geographers see the future of the hu-
man and natural world, how the classroom of the future might approach ways of
learning, and how new technologies can be used in geography teaching and learning.
For this newsletter, we have invited members of the GA ISSIG and various other GA
members working in a variety of institutions to contribute articles relating to these
three key ways.
In this edition of Notes and Queries, there are a number of articles from a variety of
different contributors. Our new CEO Alan Kinder has contributed a piece on the
challenges facing the independent sector in a period of rapid change, while Alan
Parkinson looks at the use of Apps in the Geography classroom. Continuing on the
theme of technology, Janet Speake looks at the use of SatNavs while Richard Bustin
(a member of the GA ISSIG) provides a contemporary take of how Geographers look
at Urban areas. There are also three articles on Fieldwork: Rob Lucas, CEO of the
Field Studies Council gives us his take on the Future of Fielwork, Nik Miller (also a
member of the GA ISSIG) looks at the Common Entrance project and my colleague
Steve Fox writes about his experiences taking a group of senior pupils to Malawi last
summer and carrying out fieldwork on water supplies.
This newsletter will also published electronically as a PDF as well as a paper version.
Looking to the future, it may well be the only medium it is published in. Subsequent
electronic versions will include more articles than the paper version and will be avail-
able on the GA website and from a QR code published in
the newsletter.
Using a suitable QR Code reader app on your smart de-
vice, this QR code will take you to the GA ISSIG page on
the GA website.
Have a good conference,
Rob Morris
Editorial: Looking to the FutureEditorial: Looking to the Future
Notes and QueriesNotes and QueriesThe Newsletter of the Geographical Association Independent Schools Special Interest Group
Contents:
Looking to the Future 2
Urban Geography 4
Spread a little
Appiness...
8
Fieldwork in Malawi 14
The Future of Fieldwork 18
Sat Navs 20
Fieldwork in Prep Schools 22
New GA Chief Executive
Alan Kinder writes about
the challenges facing the
Independent Sector on
page 2
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Teachers of geography are well versed in thinking and teaching about the future. Were
one of the few subjects that allow students to think critically and creatively about what
their world might or indeed should look like when they become adults (and parents, and
grandparents...).
But what does the future hold for teachers of geography? This is a particularly challeng-
ing question, as we are currently faced with curriculum and wider educational changes onan almost unprecedented scale. Who can blame those teachers or schools who feel more
than a little overwhelmed by the pace of reform?
So lets bring some of our skills as geographers to bear on this challenge. Firstly, a sum-
mary of the key changes across the age range:
1. The statutory national curriculum for geography KS1-3 is undergoing a process of
reform and public consultation (www.dfe.gov.uk). Geography has, thanks to the
efforts of the entire subject community, made a successful case for its explicit in-
clusion in each key stage. But this is a new approach to writing a national curricu-
lum - a concise document which sets out clearly the knowledge and understanding
that all children should be expected to acquire in the course of their schooling'.
Place knowledge, understanding geographical processes and some technical
procedures (such as map skills) are all emphasised within the draft, but note that
the core curriculum is not intended to be all that students are taught. The final
Orders are due to be published by September 2013, and to be applied to all English
maintained schools from September 2014, although the national curriculum also
tends to influence non-maintained schools, and this is even more likely to be the
case in the future (see below).
2. Qualifications for 14-16 year olds are also undergoing reform. Maintained schools
(in England) are already subject to the so-called English Baccalaureate perform-ance measure (the percentage of students gaining grades A*-C GCSE in EBacc
subjects, such as geography). More radical proposals were recently brought for-
ward and consulted upon. The idea of English Baccalaureate Certificates (EBCs)
received a full and detailed response from the GA in 2012
(www.geography.org.uk/aboutus/papersandresponses/). In this, we made clear that
the GA supports the governments desire to raise standards but argued that without
significant support, a new qualification alone was unlikely to achieve this aim. The
Association also made the case for: rewarding every candidate with a precise and
widely-understood measure of their achievement; acknowledging fieldwork as an
essential element of geographical education; and introducing new qualificationsonly after a successful pilot phase involving schools and teachers. It was therefore
gratifying to discover that many of the GAs arguments had been accepted in the
February announcement by the Secretary of State (www.geography.org.uk/news/
ks4reformupdate/). Instead of EBCs, reformed GCSEs will be introduced by 2015
and geography will be offered by several awarding body.
3. Geography A levels are also being reformed at present (www.ofqual.gov.uk) and
the changes mirror recent reforms to GCSEwith moves towards linear qualifica-
tions, fewer examination retakes and a more rigorous approach by the regulator
towards ensuring curriculum breadth, by encouraging wider-ranging examinations
at the end of the course, as well as stand alone AS levels. The recent announce-ment by the Secretary of State means we can expect new A level courses by 2015.
Alan Kinder has been
Chief Executive Officer
of the GA since last Sep-
tember. In this article, he
talks about the chal-
lenges facing the Inde-
pendent sector as a re-
sult of recent announce-
ments about the National
Curriculum and GCSE
Photo The GA
Looking to the futureAlan Kinder
There are wider
changes in education,
technology and
society which will
impact upon us as
teachers of
geography
http://www.dfe.gov.uk/http://www.geography.org.uk/aboutus/papersandresponses/http://www.geography.org.uk/aboutus/papersandresponses/http://www.geography.org.uk/news/ks4reformupdate/http://www.geography.org.uk/news/ks4reformupdate/http://www.ofqual.gov.uk/http://www.ofqual.gov.uk/http://www.geography.org.uk/news/ks4reformupdate/http://www.geography.org.uk/news/ks4reformupdate/http://www.geography.org.uk/aboutus/papersandresponses/http://www.dfe.gov.uk/7/28/2019 ISSIG Newsletter
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Drawing these threads together, we can begin to think about what they are likely to mean for teachers of
geography. In key stages 1-3, a slimmed-down curriculum affords greater freedom in some respects, be-
cause it encourages the teacher (and/or school) to identify local preferences, priorities and opportunities
with which to extend the essential core. However, the requirement to ensure that all students acquire core
knowledge and understanding may prove a challenge for some, particularly in relation to place knowledge
and physical processes. Another task for teachers will be to create detailed plans and assessments from a
skeletal curriculum document. Here, it is likely that more support for what we call curriculum -making
will be needed than previouslyfrom other teachers and from organisations such as the GA.
In KS4, the revised subject criteria for geography will ensure that all GCSEs cover a curriculum core. For
example, a detailed study of the UK could become a feature ofevery GCSE specification. Terminal exami-
nations at 16 years would then be an important influence on the entire 11-16 geography curriculum, includ-
ing in schools not subject to statutory Orders at KS3. The challenge here will be for teachers to sustain
their creativity and avoid an incessant teaching to the test. This will be important to maintain the engage-
ment of students who have been persuaded to choose geography by schools responding to the EBacc per-
formance measure: recent sharp rises mean that around 36% of pupils now choose geography. As long as
it remains one of a select group of core Baccalaureate subjects, we are likely to see further increases in
the proportion studying geography post-14. However, much might depend on the outcome of the current
consultation exercise on school accountability (http://www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/departmentalinformation/consultations/a00221259/secondary-accountability). It is difficult to predict the
fate and likely status of alternative qualifications, such as the iGCSE, at this stage. For the schools and
awarding bodies involved, it will be crucial to identify the contribution these courses make to high stan-
dards within a world class curriculum.
And of course there are wider changes in education, technology and society which will impact upon us as
teachers of geography in the foreseeable future. At the GA, we have recently been thinking about these in
order to begin the process of planning our strategy to 2020. For example, we recognise the growth in use of
social media amongst both teachers and students. These are increasingly used as a means of networking,
sharing ideas and establishing identity. Even the GA Chief Executive now has a Twitter account
(@GAChiefExec)! Combined with the use of mobile technology, social media are potentially powerful
tools for learning about the world, but much more needs to be done to identify an effective pedagogy for
this technology.
The national debate over the role of knowledge in the curriculum also serves to remind us of the challenge
of Googleisation the notion amongst some teachers and students that, since information is instantly
available through sophisticated search engines, the value of an individual possessing knowledge and en-
quiry skills is somehow diminished. More likely, the importance of being able to find, join up and make
sense of worthwhile facts and ideas is likely to increase as we become immersed in seemingly unlimited
quantities of information. In order to be successful in the future, students will need to critically analyse
sources of information in order to distinguish the relevant, significant and trustworthy from the trivial, in-
accurate or irrelevant. In so doing, they will both draw on and develop their own powerful knowledge base.
Geography teachers will therefore have an important role to play in enabling students to develop their geo-
graphical thinking, in order to become capable citizens of the future.
Finally, it might be worthwhile reminding ourselves of David Hicks argument that we should be consider-
ing not one but alternative futures. This applies very well to curriculum change: there is still a great deal to
play for and the outcomes in many respects are uncertain. The GA continues to engage in dialogue with the
DfE, Ofqual, awarding bodies and others in order to influence policy decisions. Our collective voice, repre-
senting around 6000 memberships, is far greater than the sum of its parts. Joining the GA, maintaining
membership and encouraging others to join are all practical ways of helping to shape the future of geogra-
phy.
Alan Kinder
http://www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/departmentalinformation/consultations/a00221259/secondary-accountabilityhttp://www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/departmentalinformation/consultations/a00221259/secondary-accountabilityhttp://www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/departmentalinformation/consultations/a00221259/secondary-accountabilityhttp://www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/departmentalinformation/consultations/a00221259/secondary-accountabilityhttp://www.education.gov.uk/aboutdfe/departmentalinformation/consultations/a00221259/secondary-accountability7/28/2019 ISSIG Newsletter
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Cities are amazing places- they are home to more than 50% of the worlds popula-
tion, they are the focus of national business and are hubs in global networks of in-
formation. They are locations of trenchant gang warfare, ghettos, terrorism, and
shootings. They are the site of financial dealings and global transactions of interna-
tional banks. They are sites of rampant consumerism. They usually contain therichest people in a country as well as the poorest- abject poverty sitting next to opu-
lent wealth.
The global city of London was the initial setting for the riots of summer 2011, fol-
lowed by the inspiring Olympic games of 2012. The retail heart of UK cities has
been suffering not only from an invasion of multiple chain stores but more recently
from competition from online shopping. Many Arabic cities were the location of
the anti-government protests that led to a change of regime in the Arab spring of
2011, and national protest and conflict often start and focus in the powerful core of
capital cities.
Yet how many teachers try to persuade our students that colouring in circles with
different colours and wedges is modern urban geography? The Burgess, Hoyt,
Mann, Harris and Ulmann and many more models came from a time in geogra-
phys past when the subject tried to explain the world through modelling, and a
positivist tradition. The Burgess model (below) was based on 1920s industrial Chi-
cago.
The model seems to have little to say about 21st
Century London; it probably no
longer helps people to understand modern Chicago. The modelling approach was
popular in school geography when the national curriculum first set the content of
school geography at the end of the 1980s. Since then, urban geographers working
in universities throughout the world have found new ways to help students under-
stand the complexities of a city, such as humanist and postmodern approaches,
which do not seem to have found their way into schools. This has famously beendubbed the great divide between school and university geography. Yet the urban
land use models remain the stalwart of many school urban geography courses, and
Beyond Burgess: Reinvigorating the Teaching of Urban GeographyRichard Bustin
We may need to
throw out crusty
old favourites in
favour of stronger
links with other
subjects and
lessons that
challenge studentsto make
geographical sense
of their own lives
and experiences
A Different View
The Burgess land use model.
Richard Bustin is Head of
Geography at City of Lon-
don Freemens Schooland a member of the GA
ISSIG.
7/28/2019 ISSIG Newsletter
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exam boards at GCSE and A level seem reluctant to move beyond them. Ofsted has repeatedly found the teaching of
geography boring and irrelevant (see their reports in 2008 and 2010), and the subject often gets labelled with the
colouring in tag.
With so much going on in cities that frequently makes headlines, to get students to pour over outdated and irrelevant
models, or worse still to try to force the models to fit real modern cities, somehow does not do justice to the wonder
of modern urban areas. It is not the models per se that is the problem, a critical look at how geographers used to
study cities can be a useful introduction to a course, but in a 21st century classroom with the broadening of the na-
tional curriculum to enable teachers to innovate in the classroom once more, there are other ways to help students
engage with urban spaces.
These ideas are just a few ways in which teachers as the curriculum makers might want to (re)design urban geogra-
phy courses. These are not original ideas and many can be found elsewhere and online, and credit has been given
where possible.
London Docklands Panorama ( Richard Bustin)Global cities
Cities are highly globalised; London probably has more economic links with New York than it does with other UK
cities. These links enable places around the world to become networked, and the cities themselves act as hubs within
that network. An interesting study can be made about which cities are switched on and highly globalised and which
are somehow switched off from global connectivity, and why. This links to global patterns of consumption and
trade. Simon Oakes has written useful material which can be of use here. The earth at night photograph is a good
way to introduce this to students (search for it online), with pupils trying to identify the global cities.
Globalisation of the high streets of UK cities is also highly evident, with retail and banking TNCs taking over former
independent shops to create much publicised clone towns, a term coined by the New Economics Forum. A greatpiece of fieldwork on clone towns is available on the RGS IBG website, based on Guildford in Surrey (search for
clone town survey).
Power and Control
Urban areas are often the sites of struggles between those with power and those without. There are often spaces in
urban areas which are privately owned and hostile to outsiders such as gated communities in the suburbs of affluent
cities across the world. Some places are public spaces such as parks and walkways, yet even these can be occupied
at certain times by specific user groups such as teenagers who could be perceived to be hostile. Some interesting les-
sons could focus on these different key players in cities and the extent to which they exert their power and influence;
from government planning polices and local council rulings providing top down control to youth gangs claiming
rights to territories through fear and intimidation. Relics of colonial rule can still be found in many post-colonial cit-
ies in the world. The geographies of global terrorism often focus in cities, for example the attacks on the economic
7/28/2019 ISSIG Newsletter
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heartland of New York in 2001, or the transport infrastructure of London in 2005. These were significant, geo-
graphical, targets. Attacks on embassies in cities are also statements of power and rule, and nationalism.
Doreen Massey has written extensively on power and control in place and space. There is a wealth of material
online about gang crime that could be used by teachers and students.
Unequal cities
The difference between the wealthy and the poor is often a feature of urban geography courses and is usuallyillustrated by focusing on slum developments in poorer cities of the world like Mumbai or Lagos and comparing
these to rich cities like London. This can really be brought to significance by contrasting the slums of Mumbai
(eg Dharavi slum) with the wealthier parts of the same city, and also comparing a deprived estate in Leeds (for
example) with the wealthier parts of the city. Films like Slumdog Millionaire can spark creative responses to
places, and census data for the UK can statistically compare neighbourhoods within the same cities.
Lived space
Cities are inherently about people, and many of the recent advances in urban geography have taken ideas from
sociology to try to explain and account for the human phenomena of cities. Cultural geography tries to explain
how different cultural and religious groups interact within the same urban locations, and the extent to which theycan integrate and create new hybrid cultures evident through food, clothing and music (established Asian cul-
ture now has huge influence over many areas of UK life), and the stigmatisation and ghettoisation that can result
from a lack of integration such as that which occurred in the Bronx in New York.
Lived space tries to look at the ways in which people and places influence each other and the role that market-
ing has on this interaction. See the work of Ed Soja here on Thirdspace; a couple of articles on how this might
be of use to teachers are in the summer 2011 editions of the GAs Geography and Teaching Geography.
Iconic structures
One way cities try to differentiate themselves from other cities is
through iconic buildings and structures, for example the LondonEye, the Empire State building, or the seemingly never ending
competition to design and build the worlds tallest buildings.
Some really engaging geography can try to focus on architecture
and what image that tries to promote for the city. This could be
modern, clean, and sleek (e.g. Guggenheim museum in Bilbao) or
imposing and controlling (e.g. Parliament Palace, Bucharest).
Some interesting cross curricular work with art/design technology
could occur here.
Sustainable cities
As sites of human dwelling and massive consumption, cities rely
on large hinterlands to sustain them; places to grow the food eaten
by the people, places to recycle or destroy the waste produced and
to generate the energy consumed. An exploration of these often
hidden areas can look at the long term sustainability of these
regions. Compare the efficiency, for example, of a suburban recy-
cling centre in a UK city with the ragpicker slum dwellers of
developing cities. Some cities in rich parts of the world trade
waste internationally, which results in its transportation around the
world. A focus on a city like Curitiba in Brazil, (which won aGlobal Sustainable City award in 2010) can enable comparisons
with other places.
Picture: Guggenheim museum, Bilbao.
(Image from Chris Hyde under a creative commons licence.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11309442@N06/1113877311/sizes/m/in/photostream/)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11309442@N06/1113877311/sizes/m/in/photostream/http://www.flickr.com/photos/11309442@N06/1113877311/sizes/m/in/photostream/http://www.flickr.com/photos/11309442@N06/1113877311/sizes/m/in/photostream/http://www.flickr.com/photos/11309442@N06/1113877311/sizes/m/in/photostream/7/28/2019 ISSIG Newsletter
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Redevelopment and rebranding strategies often try to bring former industrial, abandoned brownfield sites back into
use; questioning the sustainability of new developments, as well as assessing the impacts of the redevelopment on the
communities who once lived there also provides another angle on this traditional topic.
John Widdowson has written some excellent resources on sustainable cities (including a GCSE Toolkit) and has de-
veloped some great resources on the geography of the London 2012 Olympics (see the GA website).
Curriculum making
Choices need to be made about which urban areas to study. Us-
ing local ones that are familiar to students certainly increases
relevance, but also consider using ones that are sensational in
some way (as Janet Speake would describe). Las Vegas always
captures students imaginations, and class time can be used to
explore why it seems exciting. Fieldwork into cities gives stu-
dents valuable first-hand experience, and if safety, time or budg-
etary constraints exist, then virtual fieldtrips using street view
in Google Earth can be a substitute. There are many exciting ur-
ban fieldwork options online, and rather than doing the predict-
able pedestrian or car counts, get students to use video cameras
to record an aspect of their urban investigations.
The time is right to update urban geography courses, and, to
quote David Lambert from the GAs manifesto A Different
View (available from the GA website), we may need to
throw out crusty old favourites in favour of stronger links
with other subjects and lessons that challenge students to make
geographical sense of their own lives and experiences.
Perhaps if we do this we can get away from the boring and ir-relevant geography of Burgess and Hoyt.
Further reading, other than those mentioned above:
To update teachers subject knowledge:
Book- Tim Hall (2006) Urban geography: 3rd Edition.
Routledge.
Article- Janet Speake (2007) Sensational Cities, Geography 92(1). Available to download for subscribers on the GA website.
For some more ideas on pedagogy:
Liz Taylor (2004) Re-Presenting geography. Chris Kington.,
Cambridge.
David Mitchell (editor) Living Geography: exciting futures for teachers and students. Chris Kington publishing. Es-
pecially sustainable communities chapter by Angus Willson.
Plus, numerous online forums and geography teaching websites.
Wall Street
(Liverpool, not New York!)
Photo Rob Morris
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Modern phones are often powerful personal and mobile computers. They can connect
students to the Internet, entertain them with games, music or films, access texts andinternet messaging. They also allow them to capture HD video and still images andaccess social media sites. They can even, at a push, make phone calls...
The screens of modern phones and tablets (whatever their screen size) are filled withapps (applications). These number in their hundreds of thousands and range in price
from my favourite price (free) to hundreds of pounds.Which essential apps should the modern geographer (whether teacher or student) in-stall on their device to enable them to make the most of its potential?
Apps are available from a range of app stores. The Apple app store has been joined by
Android, Google Play, Windows apps and also the MacApp store.
Organised smartphone users use folder options, or perhaps create specific screens forparticular groups of apps. Some screen-
shots in this article were borrowed fromJohn Sayers, a teacher from Gateshead who
shares a range of ideas for using apps onhis blog (see weblinks at the end of the arti-cle) These are all based on personal experi-ence in his classroom.
Its worth mentioning that apps which aredownloaded do not have to be permanentlystored on a device. They are stored in thecloud, and can be accessed on devices likean iPad when required and downloaded tothe machine when wifi is available. Thisallows users to take advantage of periodswhen apps may be free of charge for a shortperiod of time, and download them to adevice before temporarily removing them.The Google Play store also has a Refundbutton which allows a cancellation within
15 minutes.
I most often use iOS apps but also have aNexus 7 tablet to explore the potential ofalternative formats, and have enjoyed someof the options that it offers. Here are some possible folders along with a few usefulapps that might go into them. This is not meantto be an exhaustive list - this would beimpossible as many new useful apps will have appeared in the time between my fin-
ishing this article, the article being published, and you reading these words right now.
Paul Turner, who currently teaches at Sevenoaks School, produced a very usefulposter which showed a range of apps that he used for fieldwork. This is reproduced on
page 9 (opposite) and provides a good starter library for anyone interested in takingthis a little further.
Spread a little Appiness - Alan Parkinson
App (noun)- a self-contained program or
piece of softwaredesigned to fulfil aparticular purpose; anapplication (Oxford
English Dictionary)
Alan Parkinson is a free-
lance Geographer having
previously worked for the
GA and as a Head of Ge-
ography for 20 years.
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Geographical Enquiries and Research
Some possible apps for developing research skills and narrative creation:
Photography and Video
Some possible apps for photography and video manipulation. Digital photography has gone through a major surgein use since phone cameras reached the same standard as the old film cameras in terms of image quality. Good im-ages are essential for engaging pupils and driving the narrative of a lesson, and they can be shared easily using appslike Instagram and Flickr.
Name Features Price Format
Flipboard Add in a range of news feeds and curate your ownthemed newspaper
Free iOS
7 Billion Produced by the National Geographic to explore theissue of population growth.
Free iOS
Environment Agency The official Flood Alert app allows students to ex-plore flood risk in the local area, and create their own
Flood Plans
Free iOS / Android
FlightRadar24 Explore the airspace above the school and discoverwhere planes that can be seen in the sky are actually
heading. Bring transport to life.
1.49 andup
iOS/ Android /Windows /
Mac
Name Features Price Format
Snapseed Photo-editing made easy - create great results forstarter images and student use. Lots of filters and verysimple user interface.
Free iOS
Diptic Blend a number of images together into a series offrames to tell a story or show a progression. A niceway of telling a story.
69p iOS / An-droid
Freeze Paint Free Create a photo collage by selecting an area of thescreen, locking it in place, then pointing the camera
somewhere else. Easier to use than describe.
Free iOS
Coachs Eye Record a scene, pause it, rewind it, play it back slowmotion and annotate it. Try videoing some breakingwaves and analysing the wave type afterwards.
2.99 iOS / An-droid
Fotobabble Make your photo talk by adding an audio clip to it.Great for fieldwork.
Free iOS
Skitch Take a photo, or a screenshot and annotate it to your
hearts content. Share the results, or add to Evernote.
Free iOS / An-
droid / MacApp
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Name Features Price Format
iGeology / MySoil Produced by the British Geological Survey - showyou the details of the rocks and soil beneath yourfeet
Free iOS / An-droid / GooglePlay(iGeology
only)
Field Notes Pro (andLite)
Allows the creation of a set of fieldwork reports forlocations which include lat/long, video, audio andtext notes - can then be exported as a PDF
6.99 or Free iOS
iSAY An app from the University of Salford, which al-lows sound to be recorded, and descriptive tags tobe added before it is added to a collaborative map.Download other peoples sounds as mp3 files.
Free iOS
Motion X GPS Produce a record of any journey or walk, completewith images and other media at points of interest -
creates an elevation profile and exports in GPXformat, which can be imported into GIS software -plot a river or other route
1.49 iOS
ClickCounter Use for traffic or pedestrian counts - each click isrecorded and can be graphed over time
Free iOS / similarapp in Google
Play
MyRegister Free app created by Scout leader for keeping check
of groups and doing head counts during a visit.
Free iOS
Sketch+ Turn an image into a sketch - save time on fieldsketching :)
69p iOS
Mission Explore Over 10 000 missions to carry out over the UK, inwhat Alan Kinder has called innovative and brave
ethnographic fieldwork
Free iOS
Fieldwork
Some possible apps for use in fieldwork are shown below:
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Mapping
Mapping in the classroom or in the field. This is an area which mobile devices are becoming increasingly sophisti-cated at.
Some practical considerations
Some schools are exploring new options for the use of smartphones and tablets. The idea of Bring your own de-vice (BYOD) is one that is growing in popularity, despite some of the issues with compatibility, and the need for
wifi.
The iPad has started to prove its worth as a classroom device with a number of 1:1 rollouts in schools which haveoften been documented by the teachers.
One of the most useful examples of this is the work of Fraser Speirs, who works at the Cedars School in Scotland,but this has been joined by many more during 2012/13. If using a lot of machines, managing the apps that are in-
stalled and user accounts can be difficult. Apple Configurator app has recently been launched to make this processeasier to organise, and this Snapguide provides the details for those of you who may be interested in organising atrial of multiple devices: http://snapguide.com/guides/use-apple-configurator/
The Snapguide App itself is interesting, a free app which could be used by students to create their own how to...guide.
There are a number of research projects that are exploring the potential of apps. Most of these are keen to stress thatthe pedagogy comes before the technology.
The Enhancing Fieldwork Learning project - supported by Higher Education Agency - is one of these. Although itinvolves a number of lecturers from higher education, the ideas are transferable into the classroom, and I attended a
very interesting showcase event, where numerous apps were trialled in the field. See later for the website where youcan explore these ideas yourself.
Name Features Price Format
ArcGIS Display a range of mapping, and overlay with data. In-teracts with ArcGIS online, which has a new subscrip-
tion option to collect data live in the field(subscription required at around 250 per year)
Free iOS / An-droid /
Google Play
Atlas by Collins A hefty app which requires a lot of space, but providesa range of virtual globes over which layers and data can
be draped. Powerful, up-to-date and authoritative map-ping from the creators of the Times Atlas of the World
4.99 iOS
Google Maps A new app which integrates maps with Google Street-View and provides sat nav functionality too.
Free iOS
OS MapFinder New for January 2013. The app is free, and offers a ba-sic map. Download new tiles for 69p (1:50 000) or
2.49 (1: 25 000) and add / plot routes on OS maps.
Free appbut maps
cost
iOS / An-droid
comingsoon
Google Earth Although Google Earth is not technically a map ofcourse, this app offers wonderful aerial imagery and
integration with StreetView. An essential app.
Free iOS / An-droid /
Google Play
http://snapguide.com/guides/use-apple-configurator/?utm_campaign=short&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=twitterhttp://snapguide.com/guides/use-apple-configurator/?utm_campaign=short&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=twitterhttp://snapguide.com/guides/use-apple-configurator/?utm_campaign=short&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=twitter7/28/2019 ISSIG Newsletter
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John Sayers refers to the SAMRmodel when he con-
siders whether an app is having an impact on teachingand learning or not, and is wary of using those that
dont. The SAMR sequence refers to whether the app isused for one of the following things:Substition - to replace an existing tool
Augmentation - to replace an existing tool, but withsome improvement
Modification - to allow a task to be redesigned and im-proved as a resultRedefinition - to create a new task which previouslywas not possible
There are several places for apps in the classroom, but
it is important for their use to move beyond the S,which would be the equivalent of just using an interac-
tive whiteboard to display powerpoint slides.
Its also worth noting the rise ofgames based learning. Many educators are using games for educational purposes.
New and recent apps
One particular useful and impressive application from the Mac App Store is the Reflection app, which costs about10. This requires an Apple Mac to work, which is of course not universally available, but there are similar appsavailable for Windows laptops.
WiFi is needed for this to work, but it is able to mirror the display from a device onto the screen of an Apple laptopor desktop, along with any sounds that are included. The resulting images could be displayed using a data projector,
so that students could use an iPad and everyone in the class could see what they are doing. In this way, students arecreating the learning and the resources, perhaps using another laptop-based web-app like Triptico, which offers arange of interactive tools to create classroom resources.
Some apps are developed to be used offline.One recent app which was designed to be used in this way is the Atlas by Collins app. This was launched in October2012 at the price of 4.99. It is a large app at over 600 Mb, and requires an iPad 2 and above or iPhone 4 and above.It offers a range of globes with information on tens of thousands of places around the world, and a range of datasetswhich can be interrogated. A classy app.
If you have further questions on the use of apps, or are already running a 1:1 tablet / mobile device scheme and
would like to invite me in to see it in action, please get in touch. My e-mail is at the end of the article.
Weblinks
John Sayers blog: http://sayersjohn.blogspot.co.uk/The VITAL Geography portal which I manage: http://www.vital.ac.uk/portalshas a range of app suggestions andyou can also watch and listen to an hour-long discussion on apps here: http://www.vital.ac.uk/events/spread-little-appinessThe Living Geography blog: http://livinggeography.blogspot.comhas many app recommendations. Search using thebox in the top left of the screen. Subscribe to the blog to hear all the latest geography news first.Enhancing Fieldwork Learning Project website: http://www.enhancingfieldwork.org.uk/David Rogers blog (plenty on mobile learning and other things): http://daviderogers.blogspot.com
The SAMR model was developed by Ruben R. Puentedura, Ph.D, who also created the image used in the article.I am also grateful to John Sayers, who has shared screenshots to show how he organises the apps on his iPad.
I can be contacted at [email protected] you can follow me at @GeoBlogs on Twitter.
http://sayersjohn.blogspot.co.uk/http://sayersjohn.blogspot.co.uk/http://www.vital.ac.uk/portalshttp://www.vital.ac.uk/portalshttp://www.vital.ac.uk/events/spread-little-appinesshttp://www.vital.ac.uk/events/spread-little-appinesshttp://www.vital.ac.uk/events/spread-little-appinesshttp://livinggeography.blogspot.com/http://livinggeography.blogspot.com/http://www.enhancingfieldwork.org.uk/http://www.enhancingfieldwork.org.uk/http://daviderogers.blogspot.com/http://daviderogers.blogspot.com/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://daviderogers.blogspot.com/http://www.enhancingfieldwork.org.uk/http://livinggeography.blogspot.com/http://www.vital.ac.uk/events/spread-little-appinesshttp://www.vital.ac.uk/events/spread-little-appinesshttp://www.vital.ac.uk/portalshttp://sayersjohn.blogspot.co.uk/7/28/2019 ISSIG Newsletter
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In July 2012, a party of eighteen pupils from Shrewsbury School travelled to Malawi in
order to undertake work at an orphanage, hospital and school that are being run with the
support of a charity calledMedic Malawi. Building on a preliminary investigation un-
dertaken by staff and pupils of Wrekin College, a small group of volunteers were tasked
with finding out precisely how the locals obtain their water, what they use it for and
in collaboration with a Shropshire-based hydrological consultancy company, Hafren
Waterwhether or not it might be possible to improve supplies in the future.
The fieldwork
In order to assess the current situation, a questionnaire was undertaken at St. Andrews
Hospital in which patients who were waiting for treatment or their relatives were
asked where they got their water from, how much they paid and whether or not their
sources ever ran dry. Quite remarkably, every single person who was approached an-
swered each question to the best of their ability, despite the process taking twice as long
as would have been the case had there been no need for translation a response rate
that is rarely experienced in the UK! The problem then was trying to decipher place
names and then to accurately locate each respondents home town as it was very hard to
source maps of the area.
Far more accurate information was obtained by visiting as many local villages as possi-
ble. At each settlement, a portable dipmeter was used to determine the height of the
water table below wells and the flow rate of water from pumps and taps was measured.
A photographic record was made of all of the wells, pumps and tapstands that could befound and their precise location was recorded using a hand-help Global Positioning
System (GPS). Finally, a sample of local residents was asked questions similar to those
posed at the hospital.
Kamuzu Academy
Being fortunate enough to be able to stay in the girls boarding house at Kamuzu Acad-
emy, we had the luxury of virtually limitless volumes of fresh, clean drinking water on
tap throughout our stay in one of the poorest countries in the World. Rather unusually,
Kamuzu Academy has a dedicated Water Supervisor who employs a team of eighteen
full-time workers who are tasked with maintaining water supplies not only for the staff
and pupils at the school but also to a number of key establishments in the surrounding
area. Between them, they operate a water supply system consisting of a large reservoir,
a smaller ornamental lake, two rapid gravity sand filters and even a rudimentary sewage
treatment works. Having been installed before the school was officially opened in 1981
by the then President of Malawi, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, it must have been very ad-
vanced in its day but it is now beginning to show significant signs of ageing and has
been suffering from a lack of routine maintenance since losing unequivocal government
support when Banda died in 1997.
Undertaking fieldwork in sub-Saharan Africa: A water survey of the Mtunthama
Region of MalawiSteve Fox
A UK-based charity
recently asked a
party of school
pupils to investigate
the problems
associated with
water supply in a
remote part of one
of the poorest
countries in the
World.
How did they
undertake this
fieldwork and what
did they find?
Steve Fox teaches
Geography at
Shrewsbury School
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The reservoir
As Shrewsbury is situated so close to Wales, I had expected the 1.3km long reservoir to be located in an upland area
(as is the case with the reservoirs at Bala, Vrynwy and Clywedog etc.) but the fact that Kamuzu Academy sits on a
very dry plateau at an altitude of over 1100m meant that, in actual fact, the reservoir had to be sited at the bottom of a
valley some 12 kilometres away from and over 130m below the main school buildings. No wonder the diesel
pump that had originally been installed in 1982 could not cope! It had subsequently been replaced by two electric
pumps, each of which had the capacity to pump 15,000 li-
tres of water per hour had they been working but one was
lacking a number of crucial parts so, for the duration of our
visit, the entire water supply system was relying on just one
pump that had to operate for 22 hours every day. Three
engineers worked 8-hour shifts through the night to make
sure that sufficient water was supplied either to the orna-
mental lake in front of Kamuzu Academy or, in untreated
form, to the vegetable gardens that supply the students and
teachers with a wide range of fresh produce: the 1000
chickens kept in the poultry house lay between 700 and 800
eggs per day, for instance, but only if they are provided
with 33.5 tonnes of feed per month.
Water treatment works
Three more pumps are needed to transfer water from the ornamental lake to two purification plants (one on the
school site and another off site) and the completely integrated irrigation system that keeps the school grounds look-
ing so lush and fertile. The two rapid gravity sand filters each process 7000 litres per hour. After having been chlo-
rinated, this water is temporarily stored in 66,000 litre storage tanks for distribution around the school site
(classrooms, boarding accommodation, staff housing, a clinic and even two swimming pools) and, via 110mm pipes,
to a wide range of establishments off site (St. Andrews hospital, All Saints school, Wrekin orphanage, Mtunthamamarket, a number of village tapstands and, very sensibly, the local police unit!).
Wastewater generally feeds into septic tanks which are emptied roughly once a year by the town assembly but Ka-
muzu Academy itself has a series of four settling tanks which contain progressively fresher water (as monitored by
different species of fish which have been deliberately introduced into the ponds for precisely that purpose). These
were last emptied roughly three years ago. The effluent is eventually discharged into a local stream, at which point,
local people are able to grow copious quantities of vegetables because the ground is not just moist but also highly
fertile.
Tapstands
The off-site water treatment works provides clean water to a large proportion of the local community,
supplying water throughout the year to 90 staff houses and 160 private homes in Mtunthama; 20 houses
and a tapstand in Chota village, 8 houses and a tapstand in Mphnongo village and a wide range of enter-
prises such as Mtunthama market and the hospital, school and orphanage supported by Medic Malawi.
Its a much-appreciated service which works pretty well most of the time, although a growth in demand
is now beginning to stretch water supplies to their absolute limit. At the orphanage, for instance, the gar-
dener only has access to water for about two hours per day. This is enough to irrigate a very well -tended
vegetable patch which supplies fresh vegetables to the 70 or so orphans and staff. Were there to be more
water at his disposal, the gardener would be capable of growing surplus fruit and vegetables for sale at
the local market: there is plenty of land available, the only limiting factor being the cost and availability
of water.
KamuzuAcademyThe Eton of Africa
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Pumps
In those villages located beyond the reach of Kamuzu Academys pipelines,
residents usually get their water from boreholes using AfriDev pumps.
These seem to have been installed pretty extensively over the past 20 years
or so either by the government or by NGOs such as the US Peace Corps and
the Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF), a scheme supported by the World
Bank. The water from such hand pumps is free and, apparently, safe al-
though queuing can be quite a significant problem and the pumps occasion-
ally break down altogether. Spare parts were relatively expensive and occa-
sionally, engineers had to be called out from Kasungu, the regional capital,
to replace vital components such as axles. As a result, certain pumps de-
velop a good reputation and become popular owing to the perceived quality
of the water and/or the speed of flow.
Wells
In some of the outlying townships, neither taps nor pumps were available so the locals had to sink their ownwells. Despite having been dug by hand, these could occasionally reach depths of over 15 metres although
wells of roughly 8 metres were more common because the water table was met at an average depth of 7.5 me-
tres below the surface. Most were protected by makeshift covers to stop debris from entering and chlorine
tablets were thrown in on a monthly basis but, judging by the quality of both the buckets and the ropes being
used, this could not have prevented the water quality from being quite poor. Typically, a family would extract
about 70100 litres of water per day for drinking, cooking and washing from such a well and, quite often, the
owners would also allow their neighbours to extract similar amounts without charge.
Dambos
Although there is very little surface water in this part of Malawi, there are numerous dry valleys in which the
water table is much closer to the surface. In these dambo areas, locals can not only grow fruits and vegeta-
bles quite intensively but they can also dig shallow wells to provide water for other uses. Some farmers have
dug linear troughs near the centre of the dambo so that watering their cabbages, beans, tomatoes and sweet
potatoes is not normally necessary until the very height of the dry season. The water in a dambo is generallynot clean enough for human consumption but can be used for washing and is occasionally drunk when no bet-
ter option is available.
One of the expeditioners tending a highly produc-tive vegetable patch, the produce from which
was immediately put to good use by other expe-ditioners who were helping to cook lunch for 70
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Conclusion
The community located in the vicinity of Kamuzu Academy
clearly derive great benefit from the availability of fresh, clean
drinking water sourced from a large reservoir which never
runs dry and from a series of treatment works and pipes which
have served them well for over thirty years. Those peopleliving in outlying districts are rather less fortunate in that they
either have to queue at a pump for clean water or risk becom-
ing ill by drinking water from a well. The hospital, school and
orphanage that are supported by Medic Malawi are fortunate
to be supplied by Kamuzu Academy at the moment but would
be well-advised to try to secure their own supply in the future
as their demand for water, inevitably, grows.
Acknowledgements
Steven Cale, Wrekin College
Stephen Drew, Medic Malawi
Dr. Tim Foulger, Shrewsbury School Geography Faculty
Fyson Kanjira and Ojes Mwela ,Kamuzu Academy
Chris Leake, Hafren Water
All photos Steve Fox
Medic Malawi is a small charity, funding a hospital in Mtunthama, rural Malawi, which opened in2001, together with a clinic for feeding the malnourished and an orphanage for 70 children. This
charity is special because:
Every penny raised goes to Malawithere are no UK administration costs or salaries.
We seek to involve supporters and volunteersand especially teenagersin the actions of the
charity, experiencing Africa for themselves and sharing time with the people in Mtunthama. It isfocused on one district, which offers continuity, regular contact and transparency.
Shrewsbury School support Medic Malawi through regular charity events and by pupils visiting
Malawi every other year to work on various projects in the community.
Medic Malawi is run by the former head of Wrekin College in Shropshire, Stephen Drew. He can
be contacted at [email protected]
Website: www. medicmalawi.org
A Damboshared by three farmers
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]7/28/2019 ISSIG Newsletter
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Fieldwork is a vital ingredient of the geography that is taught in our schools and teaches
the children a wide variety of both geographical and life skills not my words but those
of the ISSIG chair. Although written about common entrance, the sentiment applies
throughout the full age range and is particularly relevant in the context of the reformsbeing discussed at GSCE and A level.
In various meetings with the Secretary of State for Edu-
cation, Schools Minister and Lord Hill (who has out-
door learning as part of his portfolio), it is clear they
are all hugely supportive of fieldwork and see it as an
essential part of every geography students learning. It
is also clear that they are not keen on using assessment
as a means of dictating approaches to teaching and
learning. This is unlikely to prove to be a barrier to the
amount of fieldwork being undertaken by independent
schools as many already do more fieldwork than is re-
quired for the test and often choose to do specifica-
tions where fieldwork is more prominent.
It is quite possible that the reforms may be perceived as
taking us back to the late 70s and early 80s (and my
early days as a field tutor), when fieldwork was carried
out for precisely the reasons set out in the opening quote. As long as it delivers inspiring
geography that may be no bad thing. Courses were largely week long affairs and, if
memory serves me correctly, a typical course would include full days on fluvial geomor-
phology; soils and hydrology; coastal erosion; coastal deposition; settlements, and slopes
and tor formation. Some of these topics are no longer in the current specifications but
many others have been introduced, especially the people environment interactions intro-
duced to fieldwork largely through the Avery Hill and 16-19 geography projects.
Taking a trip down memory lane is deliberate because I anticipate that much of the field-
work we will be undertaking post 2014/15 will see a similar approach. It will, of course,
be updated in terms of theory,
learning approaches and tech-
nology but, at A-level, willtackle one of the major current
issues of bridging the gap be-
tween school and university.
For much of physical geography
the depth of investigation, range
of skills employed and sophisti-
cation of equipment used is less
than it was 30 years ago. Over
the same period, university in-
vestigations have gone in theopposite direction.
The Future of Fieldwork: an FSC perspective - Rob Lucas
We need to
make geography
fieldwork both
real and relevant
it underpins much
of how industry
and society
functions but we
rarely make that
link effectively
Rob Lucas is the Chief
Executive Officer of
the Field Studies
Council
Perhaps a day not to be doing Rivers fieldwork?
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Much of the innovation in school geog-
raphy fieldwork has been in the built
environment which is hugely improved
compared to the drab land use transects
I remember (possibly an early example
of a good data set being given higher
priority than good geography!). We
need to make geography fieldwork bothreal and relevantit underpins much of
how industry and society functions but
we rarely make that link effectively.
Google Earth may be appropriate at
KS3 and even GCSE, and has specific
uses beyond this, but by A-level full
blown GIS packages should be the
norm. We should be making more use
of remote data collection to supplement that collected first hand and using fieldwork to join up the geographical
landscape rather than reduce it to a data set about a meander.
Freeing up the curriculum and reducing the teach-
ing time taken up by assessment will present more
opportunities for fieldwork. There are good reasons
for doing fieldwork at almost any time of year and
with geography beginning at the classroom door,
whether on the way in or out, the opportunities for
first hand experiences have never been greater. The
new GCSE is likely to encourage going beyond the
at times formulaic one day rivers one day urban
fieldwork and opportunities for supported inde-
pendent learning (especially in the summer period)
may become far more common at A-level. Our real
challenge is to make fieldwork a seamless part of
the geography experience and not a bolt-on accessory, all too often sacrificed on the false premise that a more
effective learning experience can be achieved by wading through the next chapter of the set text.
Geography fieldwork has evolved enor-
mously over the last 30 years and we
must maintain the creativity which now
regularly sees students in the field using
iPads and other resources to augment
their learning whilst getting back to the
development of real life skills which
geography is uniquely placed to deliver.
We look forward to working with you
over the coming months to achieve this
common goal.
Questionnaires in Aberystwythone of last summers few dry days!
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Satellite Navigation (Sat Nav) technologies are increasingly part of everyday wayfind-
ing. Sat Nav enabled smart phones and in-vehicle systems are used by an ever widen-
ing range of people for finding their way around places which are new or unfamiliar to
them. Marketed as a straight forward electronic navigation tool, Sat Nav also represents
the first general adoption of location-aware systems (also called egocentric and ani-mated multimodal me maps) for navigation and journey planning. As a navigation
tool, Sat Nav also signals a change in the (re)presentation of cartographic information.
In 2009, there were more than 150 million Sat Nav devices, systems and applications
globally (Berg Insight nd). The annual tracking survey by NAVTEQ showed that be-
tween 2009 and 2010 consumer experience of Sat Nav devices, systems and applica-
tions increased in 13 countries (NAVTEQ, 2011). Over half of consumer respondents
in Australia, China, France, Germany and the UK had experience of Sat Nav systems
and devices. Comparative figures for the USA were 46%; Indonesia, 35%; Brazil,
33%; Mexico, 25% and India, 17%. Consumer respondents had more experience of
portable devices than in-vehicle systems and Nat Nav enabled mobile phones and smartphones. More recent findings by Mintel (2012) suggest that personal use of smart
phones and use of on-line maps is increasing rapidly.
Despite the advantages of Sat Nav in assisting navigation, there is a tendency for people
in general and the media more specifically, to concentrate on the disadvantages. Head-
lines such as Sat Nav blunder takes Christmas shoppers to Lille Belgium instead of
France , Sat Nav blunder as trucker gets stuck up woodland path and Sat Nav
blamed yet again for wedged lorry are common. They concentrate on the actual and
potential risks of distractions created by the system, over-dependence on the technol-
ogy, reduced spatial awareness and dependency on sometimes out-dated, underlying
cartographic information.
The first Sat Nav summit was convened by the UK government, Department for Trans-
port in March 2012 (Department for
Transport, 2012) to attempt to sort
out some of the most obvious prob-
lems associated with Sat Nav use.
The main issues it looked into were 1.
Cutting down the number and seri-
ousness of blunders associated with
users following inappropriate direc-
tions and ending up in dangerous
driving situations and 2. Creating bet-
ter opportunities for users to update
the digital mapping base regularly and
affordably.
In recent research carried out at Liver-
pool Hope Universitys geography department (Axon, Speake and Crawford, 2012) we
have found that there is considerably more to Sat Nav use than the general negativities
reported in the press, and often cited by individual users (especially drivers). Impor-
tantly, we have found that Sat Nav is altering peoples behaviours as they wayfind andis changing the practices and processes of navigating. Positive attributes of Sat Nav
were considered to be navigational capacity, to provide direct and quick routes, the
speed and ease of use and portability and clarity of using Sat Nav technology.
Theres much more to Sat Nav than Sat Nav blunders - Dr. Janet Speake
This lorry got stuck in November 2012 in Ply-
mouth
Photo BBC
Dr Janet Speake is a Senior
Lecturer in Human Geog-
raphy at Liverpool Hope
University.
We have found
that the use of Sat
Nav technologies is
altering peoples
understandings of
what maps are and
do
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Negative characteristics of Sat Nav technologies were reported to be safety and financial attributes, especially that
they were costly, both in terms of initial purchase and acquiring mapping updates.
Perhaps even more significantly, we have found that the use of Sat Nav technologies is altering peoples understand-
ings of what maps are and do. We have explored first year geography undergraduates experiences of, and attitudes
towards, Sat Nav use as well as its effects on cartographic literacy and spatial awareness. This work has started to
address a major gap in the existing geographical literature.
Key findings of our work to date are that digital spatial representations are not seen, or used in the same way as tradi-tional technologies of navigation. Importantly, these representations are not considered to be maps like traditional
paper-based maps but as something different. Sat Nav technologies are preferred to traditional maps, with some
students claiming for example, I never use maps anymore and I only use Sat Nav. They tend to engage passively
with traditional paper based maps but actively with Sat Nav technologies. The use of Sat Nav generates multi-
sensory engagements in ways not present in traditional map
reading. The visual recognition of symbols and signs is being
replaced by greater dependence on verbal instruction. There
are clear concerns that the use of Sat Nav might reduce the
ability to interpret spatial data and read traditional maps. This,
students recognise, by stating that they had lost, or were losing,their map reading abilities and that, because they did not now
need to use paper-based maps regularly, they were getting out
of practice. Some students show concern about their actual or
potential loss of skills in handling spatial data. However,
many are not worried by it at all and see it as just a natural out-
come of having access to new, different and generally effective, navigational technologies.
We argue that Sat Nav is having major spatial and cartographic impacts which, to date, have been under-reported.
Our on-going research into engagement with Sat Nav technologies and the implications for cartographic literacy and
spatial awareness suggest very strongly that there is a role for geographers to participate more fully in these emerging
dialogues. With the seemingly inexorable rise of Sat Nav enabled smart phones, and increasing rates of adoptionand use by younger users, there are potentially challenging implications for the levels of graphicacy and spatial
awareness in school and college students. For some of them, the only place that they will encounter the need to read
traditional maps may be in the classroom as part of their school based learning experience. The challenges for the
future of map reading and the role of maps in geography and in the geography classroom are therefore significant
and it is now timely for discussion and debate within the geography community to be moved forwards.
References
Axon, S., Speake, J. and Crawford, K. (2012) At the next junction, turn left: attitudes towards Sat Nav Use,Area
44.2: 170-177
Berg Insight (nd) Personal navigation devices: executive summary (http://www.berginsight.com/
ReportPDFsummary/bi-pnd3-sum.pdf) (accessed 10 June 2011)
Department for Transport (2012) Governments First Sat Nav Summit 6th March 2012.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/governments-first-satnav-summit (accessed 15th November 2012)
Mintel (2012) Digital trends spring UK-April 2012, http://oxygen.mintel.com/display/590111 (accessed 15th No-
vember 2012).
NAVTEQ (2011) NAVTEQ reveals 2010 research results on the state of navigation (http://press.navteq.com/
index.php?s=4260&item=25821) (accessed 15 November 2012).
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The importance of Fieldwork
Fieldwork is at the core of all good Geography. It is what keeps Geography relevant and ex-citing both to teach and learn. Many subjects become abstract and stale in the classroom,
with our subject we can just look out of the window or go out through the door to see,feel
and touch real Geography. Most importantly, fieldwork is fun!
These are changing times in Prep School Geography and teachers have had to cope with nu-merous alterations and tweaks in their syllabus. The syllabus focused on case studies whichmeant that pupils could get a high score just by memorising knowledge and demonstrating
little geographical understanding. The CE syllabus is under review at the present time and itis set to champion more understanding and future examination papers promise to containmore data response and interpretation style questions. Enquiry geography facilitates under-
standing by applying knowledge to real examples in real places and fieldwork is the ultimate
expression of geographical enquiry.
Fieldwork at Common Entrance
Changes at GCSE, A Level and IB have moved the focus of assessing fieldwork on the abil-
ity of a candidate to collect and apply data without ever going through the whole process ofreporting their findings in full. The importance of fieldwork write-up at Common Entrancehas been questioned, but the determination of the prep school teachers across the country andsome senior school Heads of Department have ensured that it has kept its place in the 13+examinations. This is reflected in the 20% value that it still contributes to candidates final
mark.
Although it contributes to one fifth of a pupils score, there is no way that work on this onewrite-up should take up one fifth of their lesson time. The guidelines are very clear that thepiece of work should be less than a thousand words and test a simple hypothesis. It shouldshow the senior school how much geographical understanding a pupil has rather than regur-
gitating knowledge in an old-style project. This does mean that work should be all the pu-
pils own work and excessive teacher or parent involvement is counter-productive. The highmarks do tend to encourage some parents and teachers to encourage children to over-eggtheir work and try to produce something more akin to an A Level. Most senior schools usethe fieldwork as a differentiation tool and so producing a cohort of nearly identical write-upsis not helpful, as well as a little tedious to read through. The difference between getting 60%(12/20) and 80% (16/20) in the fieldwork section only accounts for four marks in the wholescheme of things, but it really helps the person marking get a feel for the candidates true
knowledge and understanding.
The marks available are disproportional to the amount of work put into that one piece ofwork but it should be seen as a summary of that childs fieldwork and a reflection of theirgeographical understanding. Also, if the percentage dropped below 20% then there would be
numerous Directors of Studies around the country asking their Heads of Geography why theyneed to do fieldwork anymore.
Fitting fieldwork in
Different schools have different ways of carrying out fieldwork. Some carry out regular one-day trips others put all of their eggs in one basket and take the children away for a week.Fieldwork should be a regular tool used in delivering the geography curriculum and in mostcases it can be done around the school grounds. Some schools give the pupils some ideas,some resources and some guidance and then expect the children carry out the fieldworkthemselves over a holiday. This latter works well in that the pupils really own the materialand it is much more interesting for the senior schools. The big disadvantage with this ap-proach is that one or two pushy parents can get over-involved and introduce concepts far out-
side their childs understanding in order to try to get full marks. The key point is that thechildren must physically collect the data themselves and understand why they have collected
the data.
Geography Fieldwork at Common Entrance- Nik Miller
Nik Miller is the Headof Geography atBrambletye School,
East Grinstead andIAPS Subject Leaderfor Geography
Fieldwork
should be a
regular tool used
in delivering the
geography
curriculum
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What makes a good fieldwork write-up?As already stated, the write-up should be short and concise, no more than ten pages and have a single, simple hy-pothesis (perhaps a second linked one if really needed). Although geographical investigations can rely on qualitative
data, it is much easier at this stage to use quantitative data. The structure of the fieldwork should be rigorous withclearly separated sections. This has now been very clearly stated in the most recent ISEB guidelines for CE field-
work. The write-up must be divided into the following parts:
Hypothesis
The hypothesis is a simple statement that can be proved to be true or false. It should pertain to some element of theCE Syllabus but if the teacher has a particular passion or there is a hot local issue, then there is nothing wrong withgoing off-piste. Ideally it should also contain some geographical terms that appear in the CE glossary. Keep the ideas
simple and keep it to the local area.
Introduction
This section has a tendency to dominate the fieldwork. Simply put it should set the context for the reader. An entire
local history of the area or a detailed description of its flora and fauna is not necessary. Just a simple explanation ofany geographical terms in the hypothesis will suffice coupled with an explanation of why the hypothesis should be
proved true (or in some cases, false) and what data will need to be collected. There must be a location mapin thissection. Any photographs must be usefuland used, ideally with annotations and helpful captions to show the readerwhy they are there. The photo-album approach just annoys the examiner: if it is not relevant to the hypothesis then
do not include it.
Method
This should be a simple description of how the data was collected. The inclusion of annotated diagrams and photo-
graphs can make this section more interesting that a dull we did this list.
Results
The results should be presented graphically as a land use map or graph. Only graphs relevant to the hypothesisshould be included and only one graph for each set of information: representing the same data as a bar graph, linegraph, 3D area graph and a pie chart just tells the examiner that the child does not understand what the data means.If there are any clear trends or anomalies, it is a good idea to draw attention to them on the graph with an annotation
or two.
Analysis
This section can be put into the results section or the conclusion section but it must be in the write-up. The candidatemust show that they understand the data that they have collected and what it means. A description of each graph andboth a description and a plausible explanation of any trends and anomalies discovered. This is probably the mostimportant section in the project as far as the examiners are concerned as it demonstrates the candidates true level of
geographical understanding.
Conclusion
A simple statement initially: has the hypothesis been proved true or false? If there are any interesting findings suchas the hypothesis is generally true but there were one or two odd readings then they can be further elaborated upon
here but this should not repeat anything covered in the analysis.
Evaluation
A concise evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the method employed should be offered and some sugges-tions as to how, were the investigation to be repeated, the collection of data could be improved upon. With unlimited
resources and time, what other data could be collected to test the hypothesis more effectively?
Summary
Fieldwork is a vitally important tool for teaching and learning good geography in prep schools, though there is noideal way that fieldwork fits into the school calendar but it must form an integral part of all geography schemes of
work.
Fieldwork carried out by pupils should support and, in some cases, extend their syllabus content. We should ensure
that hypothesis must be simple and easily tested with data that the children can easily collect and understand.
Familiarity with the structure of the write-up should help pupils avoid irrelevant information which does not help
them to prove or disprove their hypotheses.
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Notes and Queries is published by the Geographical Association
Independent Schools Special Interest Group
Edited by Rob Morris, Geography Faculty, Shrewsbury School and
printed by Shrewsbury School Reprographics Department
All articles are the copyright of the individual authors and should
not be used with out their permission GAISSIG 2013