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Showing posts from July, 2012

Richard Long's Road Graffiti

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Have blogged several times about the work of Richard Long and the connection with landscapes. The recent road race around Box Hill has a few other geographical connections, such as the Olympics geocaches that had been hidden by Sam Atkins and pupils at the Priory School, Portsmouth. Came across this video of the artwork being made: Road Graffiti, which is inspired by the graffiti written on the roads during the Tour de France. Also has connections with other artworks made by Long.

Londinium MMXII

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Is underway.. Here's Danny Boyle's notes on the event...

Now booking for 2013

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I am looking ahead to 2013 and thinking of planning some sort of trans-Atlantic 'tour'.  I'd like to bring some of the projects that I've been working on to colleagues in the USA and Canada, and have the chance to broaden my personal geographical horizons. This blog gets many readers from the USA and Canada (as does Living Geography ) and I'd like to develop my own practice, as well as sharing what I've been up to for the last three or four years. There would be a chance for me to work with students, colleagues, college undergraduates or anyone else who wants to involve me. I can work with groups of teachers, individual schools or other educational organisations. I could talk about a range of areas of geography education that are of international relevance: - curriculum planning and change - developing a sense of place - expanding young people's world view - developing a sense of the local - with reference to the pack of materials for National

Have a great summer....

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With apologies to Scottish etc. colleagues... Taking a bit of a blog break for a while.... Hope the sun shines next week as forecast...

Recce App

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This is a rather superb app. It is ostensibly a navigation app for visitors to, and residents of London. It has rendered the city as a Sim City like visualisation , complete with moving vehicles Zoom in, rotate the view and then pull the search window in from the right, or add other layers such as the availability of 'Boris bikes' from the docking stations. Watch the London Eye rotate, and The Shard rise above the city... I love the graphics, and it is also a useful app for London and exploring the city. Currently free on the App Store, and quite a chunky one at over 100 Mb.

Stop me and buy one...

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From earliest childhood, I remember the sound of the ice-cream van as it moved around the estate near Rotherham where I lived, stopping every few hundred yards. There were a number of tunes that were played, depending on the van. One of my favourite stories, which I still tell, is a friend whose parents told him that when the music was playing it meant that they'd run out of ice-cream... There was an interesting article in the Times last week about ice cream vans. It was about the ' demise of the ice-cream van' and had the clever headline of ' The End of the Ice Age' . This would make another useful exploration of cultural geographical change. What's behind the decline in the number of ice cream vans on the streets ? Is it competition from the supermarkets ? Is it the changing demographics of communities, or the fact that fewer children play outdoors, and even notice the ice cream van coming past... (there are lots of regulations on how long and ho

End of year debrief...

Don't forget to join me at 7pm tomorrow night for a VITAL CPD Teachshare to look back on the academic year, and ahead to the next one....

iPhone apps for Fieldwork

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There are almost as many lists of useful apps as there are apps, but I was impressed by this poster of ideas for 20 iPhone apps for FIELDWORK that was shared earlier by Paul Turner . Paul is the editor of the Geographical Times newspaper , and he was also one of the delegates at the Discover the World CPD event that I ran earlier in the week (see recent blogposts) Nice work ! There were a few apps here that were new to me, so I'll be having a little explore later.....

159 shades of Geography

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Holiday reading - some thoughts.... Instead of ' 50 shades of Grey ' which everyone seems to be reading at the moment, here are some of the books that I've read recently or have lined up for the summer. I'll be heading for a farmhouse near Salcombe. Hope you have somewhere cool lined up for your weeks of R 'n' R.... 1. ' The Old Ways' - Robert MacFarlane - this is the one I'm saving for summer. Excellent reviews, and there'll be plenty to 'fillet'... 2. 'Fire Season' - Philip Connor - started this on a train earlier in the week and already wishing I was a fire lookout in New Mexico... excellent book, and plenty to explore when looking at wildfires, wilderness management. 3. 'The A303' - Tom Fort - half way through this exploration of the geography and history of a single road. Could challenge students to produce a guide to a road near you.... 4. 'Oops' - Hywel Roberts - a nicely presented guide to helpin

Mission:Explore Food

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The Geography Collective has been very busy for the last few months getting ready for the launch of our 4th book. This one is a biggy. Mission:Explore Food has over a hundred and fifty missions, plus recipes and information on the theme of food. It's available to purchase on iTunes Last Saturday morning was spent at the  GA Secondary Committee  meeting, at the October Gallery It was great to head over to Hackney City Farm after the meeting. Thanks to Victoria and Beth from the committee for coming along to support us too. As a backer of the book, I was also able to pick up a signed limited edition print produced by our genius artist Tom Morgan-Jones as well. There was real ale, salad cities, pea throwing, artistry and music. And a few speeches by Dan Ellison. Next stop for the Geography Collective's Spaceship is the Latitude Festival. Here's a quote from Helen Pallett who liked what we've done in our book a lot: Mission:Explore’s approach is bot