I was lucky enough to be invited to a Health Education Event in Salfit, West Bank yesterday. It made me think about the Digital Explorer model and how the expeditions so far have been short-lived in terms of actual time in the field, although the digital legacy lives on.
Would it be better to have long-term field-based projects say in the Middle East or Brazil that would continue to create digital media material after the team had left. This would also mean getting involved in capacity building and provision of hardware to projects around the world.
Rather than a single set of ripples from an event, a shift in the model would allow for an ongoing conversation between young people in the UK and young people around the world on important issues.
Any thoughts gratefully received…
ps thank you to Dalal of Merlin for hosting me yesterday and reinvigorating my desire to spend more time in the field
On Tuesday, I was with a small group of Year 10 geography pupils sitting in our new multimedia room. We were clustered round a laptop waiting for a video call using skype. The call was coming in from Antarctica from Robert Swan, who is currently living at the 2041 E-Base relying solely on renewable energy for the first time in Antarctic history.
The call came through and there we were having a live video chat with Robert about the issue of climate change and what we can all do about it. Wow! Now that’s what I cal education for the 21st Century.
The use of skype from remote locations presents numerous possibilities for engaging young people in environmental and social issues. The software is free. The calls are over the internet, so you just pay for the use of the internet during that time (a bit more expensive somewhere like Antarctica where you are reliant on satellite networks such as BGAN).
If anyone could tell me how I could take part in a live conversation taking place using something like skype, and show it on a website simultaneously, I would be eternally grateful!
Just watched this Honda advertisement again and it hit home…
Hate something
Change something
Make something better
I think that’s what drives Digital Explorer.
Hate something? Yes, I hate the fact that we are lurching towards massive, global environmental and cultural issues and not providing our children with the education they need to deal with this.
Change something? Yes, put on great interactive, online, digital expeditions and build capacity amongst pupils and teachers in the UK to do the same thing themselves.
Make something better? I think by harnessing pupil to pupil education, the power of the internet and some inspiring young people on a digital media platform, we might just do it.
For two weeks, renowned polar explorer, Robert Swan will be relying solely on renewable energy as part of the E-Base Goes Live project. The team are now in place posting daily video and images. Next week they will be conducting a series of live video chats with pupils globally.
I have just spent a week working on the next Offscreen Expedition in Beirut and Saida in Lebanon. It’s been truly inspiring - such wonderful energy and passion. One of the things that I hate is having to chose. I interviewed twelve pupils for a place on the expedition to the UK in July this year and have to disappoint ten of them.
I have been thinking about how to provide a platform for some of the voices to be heard and want to provide the support and equipment for them to start making short films and reports about the issues that they face and their lives. Wonderful Irina Prentice has agreed to provide some filming and editing training and now all I need to do is to get a camcorder and MacBook out to Lebanon.
So here’s the deal… I’ve got £500 I can allocate to this, and I reckon that the total cost will be about £1200.
If you have a MacBook in good working order that you don’t need or a decent camcorder please get in touch. Likewise if you would like to fund this, I would be enormously grateful and you will be changing lives at a very grassroots level.
Sometimes all the work that Digital Explorer seems slightly divorced from the real world. I had two amazing lessons today that reminded me of how much young people in this country deserve a great global education and to be supported.
The first instance was a class doing their Citizenship coursework promoting the work of UNICEF. Groups had gathered round tables talking about different ways that they could work together. We had one group talking about making T-shirts featuring their new cartoon creation ‘Bruce’ the penguin: a cute, cuddly, polar spokes-penguin for child rights everywhere. Another group were telling me how they were going to spend half-term making a flash animation. Wow!
The second moment brought tears to my eye with a class discussing careers and university. We made a circle of the chairs in the classroom - out with the formal rows - and had one chair in the middle. Pupils took it in turns to sit in the middle and talk about hopes, fears and everything else. Chosing options at this age and considering careers is pretty terrifying stuff and some complained of the pressure of results and testing.
Then one short speech really moved me. A pupil explained how her family never had enough money for her to go on school trips or for nice clothes. She wanted to know if she would be able to afford to go to university. She would be the first member of her family to do so. She wanted to make them proud and to succeed.
It really brought home to me three things:
we need to provide a great and engaging global curriculum for our young people
we need to provide more opportunities for young people who wouldn’t ordinarily have them
these young people are amazing - don’t believe what you read in the papers!
This is the video that has been inspiring us in the classroom…
Things are changing so fast with Google Earth, it is often hard to keep up with new features, content, layers and imagery. Google Earth publish a monthly newsletter, The Sightseer - sign up here.
An Ofsted report has just lambasted the state of geography teaching in the UK. The report based on inspections over the last three years found that geography was the worst-taught subject and that pupils saw it as boring. Now, most of us know that this isn’t true - geography teachers up and down the land continue to inspire and engage young people with the world around them.
But, here’s the bit I really agree with. Ofsted want more fieldwork (bye-bye cotton-wool culture), and more relevance (hello climate change and fair trade).
There is so much scope for making geographical learning exciting, engaging and inspiring.
Digital Explorer wants to bring the world to the classroom in as many ways as possible using the latest technology.
If you work for the DCSF (Department for Children, Schools and Families) then contact us, or please forward this on if you have contacts.
We have plans to change completely the way that young people interact with the world. Come on board.
On Tuesday, I was with a small group of Year 10 geography pupils sitting in our new multimedia room. We were clustered round a laptop waiting for a video call using 
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