Cultural Geography Blog

Visited the  Olympics Park earlier for a meeting in the area about a forthcoming project.... Thanks to Bob Digby for the maps and other information on the park that he kindly provided in advance. It was my first view of the Olympics Stadium, although we didn't have time to walk round as far as the View Tube to get a better view... Interestingly enough there were quite a few Olympics related things in my Twitter stream over the last few days. A nice image from @mrjmutton who was at the Olympics Park yesterday - looking a bit grey then - a lot brighter today. A set of Google Sketch-Up models of Olympics buildings, thanks to Keir Clarke. Next came an article in the Daily Mail on the security costs of the games - because the venues have been finished early there's now more to look after, especially given the possible terrorist threat. This is apparently costing £250 000 a day. And then via @The_GA came a link to a Daily Telegraph article which looks at the way t...

A tweet led me to this website via a few intervening clicks and links... These images are the work of Fabian Gonzalez. I'd like to share tone of them with you here, as they link nicely with the overall theme of the blog. Happy to remove them if requested. The image shows Superheroes as FLAGS . The re-presentation of flags is something that geographers will be familiar with... Which can your recognise ? The images (and others) can be purchased as art prints and on clothing. Would make a good Christmas present for the geographer in your life....

I've blogged about Rob Hindle's poetry before:  HERE and HERE  for example. Rob's based in Sheffield, but has lived in various locations in the UK, and also lived and worked in Spain for a time. His collection on the Sheffield Flood  of 1864 inspired a mapping activity that I developed as part of the ESRI / GA GIS courses, where students could identify the locations where victims of the flood may have been found, and trace the course of the flood waters. Worth following Rob's new blog to get further insights into the creative process and his sources of inspiration. Also check out Mark Jones and Bernadette Fitzgerald's work on creative urban poetry in Teaching Geography in 2010 Eleanor Rawling's chapter in Graham Butt's book 'Geography, Education and the Future' is also recommended. And a final Geography poetry link is the work of Mark Cowan, who wrote the poem that features in Degrees of Change - the programme on Climate Change that I ...

My next VITAL Teachshare will be on Wednesday the 16th of November (that's tomorrow if you're reading this today) at 7pm. It's on ways of customising Google Earth Placemarks... Click THIS LINK just before 7 to join me . You'll need to allow the download of the plug-in to handle the Elluminate session, which will then allow you to see and hear me, and to take part. Don't forget to check the KEYHOLE BULLETIN BOARD to get the full range of layers and files shared by  Google Earth users. Use the SEARCH function to unearth the goodness.... This will be my little contribution to WORLD GIS DAY , which is taking place tomorrow, as part of GEOGRAPHY AWARENESS WEEK. What are you doing for World GIS Day ?  Why not add a touch of GIS to your teaching tomorrow...