Posts

'One Hundred Years of Solitude'

Image
“Writing is a hypnotic act.” - Gabriel Garcia Marquez As it's the first week of the Christmas holidays, I've been diving into a series I've been anticipating for a while. I've also been re-reading some of the reviews and the genesis of this adaptation of a book that Garcia-Marquez himself felt was unadaptable. He said that any film of the book would need to be a hundred years long to do it justice... It's the Netflix adaptation of the classic 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' - a masterpiece. It tells the story of the Buendia family over five generations. It is dense and magical and powerful in its description of the growth of Macondo, a town which is founded by the Buendias and others, and slowly gets drawn into the politics of the country in a story as complicated as the family tree. I'm four hours in, and so far it's doing a good job of capturing the myriad storylines and set piece moments. Vanity Fair piece goes into detail on the production of th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Changing the subject

Image
In 2025, I am going to be working on some curriculum projects. I think it's time for a change - a step in a new direction. Let's assume that you are going to be redesigning a KS3 curriculum. You don't need to keep anything that you already do. You don't need to do topics because they are in the GCSE specification and you want students to study them before they start their GCSE course. You have the chance to do something new, and get rid of something else to make space for it. I'd be really interested to see what sorts of geographical topics you would add in if you had the choice (which you probably do by the way) and what you'd drop to leave time for them (you've got plenty of curriculum time to play with after all...) Go wild.... or play it safe. I'll share a summary of the responses of course, and who know it might influence my curriculum making in 2025. Loading… Image: Alan Parkinson, shared on Flickr under CC license
Post a Comment
Read more

Autobahn - Kraftwerk and Köln

Image
A nice piece in 'The Guardian' explores the legacy of 'Autobahn' . It's fifty years since the LP was released. Tim Jonze explores the legacy of this album and in particular, the main title track. Astonishingly for a 22-minute 43-second song about the German road network, it somehow managed to change the musical landscape forever. I remember my Uncle Stan playing me this album on his quadrophonic sound system - it must have been shortly after it came out. There is a connection with Köln here too, which I visited last month for Practical Pedagogies. For me the classic Keith Jarrett concert is the main connection I think of with the city. The story behind its creation is also fascinating. I'm working on something inspired by Matt Podbury's Music and Geography session at the conference. Check out his unit.
Post a Comment
Read more

Canal Boat Diaries

Image
  I have a few programmes which I always sit and watch if they are on.  They are sometimes called 'slow TV' because nothing much happens in them, but they are also calming as as well as being informative. I am currently on Series 6 of one of them. It is called 'Canal Boat Diaries' and follows the life and travels of Robbie Cumming , who has lived for over ten years aboard his boat which is called the 'Naughty Lass'. He films his travels, which are accompanied by drone footage. I particularly like the winter scenes as well, when the wood burner is lit, and he settles in for the night. There's plenty of the country's hidden industrial heritage on show as well. Each series he takes a journey along a particular stretch of the network. There is plenty of the UK's landscape on show as well. There are 6 series of the programme, two of which are currently available to watch on iPlayer , and the whole lot can be watched for free on the U Player. This is free...
Post a Comment
Read more

Townscaper - browser option

Image
I missed this exciting additional option for creating visually beautiful towns as a mindfulness or creative exercise... Townscaper is a game created by Oskar Stålberg. I have the original STEAM game which was launched in October 2021. The game can also be played in a browser. The only restriction is a smaller grid and no save function – other than that you can let your imagination go wild. As the browser option has a smaller grid, your cities will not be as impressive as the ones you can make with the full version on Steam, which is still available for just a few pounds. Have a go, and thank me later :)
Post a Comment
Read more

Freshly out from the GA: Geography for all our Futures

Image
Take a look and all feedback is welcome. This is part of the development of the GA's new 2025-30 strategy. I was involved in the creation of the previous 2020-2025 strategy, and this is a lengthy process for the trustees. The GA is sharing this Geography for all our futures overview.  This sets out some of the key challenges and opportunities for our subject. Download as a PDF.
Post a Comment
Read more

GeoDemAI - back to working 'in Europe'

Image
After a gap of a few years, I'm back working with European colleagues who I have worked with for many years. ERASMUS+ is sadly no more, but I've started working on a project which is funded by the Civics Innovation Hub. You can see what we've done so far on this project page on the Eurogeo website. Details of the project: The GEODEM-AI project aims to encourage a healthy, critical view of ethical issues related to the use of AI in Geography teaching and learning. GEODEM-AI addresses democratic principles, civic engagement, and social responsibility of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in geographic information, by offering interactive multimedia training materials for teachers and educators based on real-world civic applications, with the aim to foster active citizenship and civic participation. Main outputs: – A research report on AI and ethical issues in geoinformation – download and read  the report – A Civic Education training module (Web-based) – tested and piloted – A set ...
Post a Comment
Read more