The video of Digital Explorer’s ‘Virtual Fieldwork Using Google Earth’ course is now on YouTube. Thank you to everyone who made the recent teacher training UK Roadshow possible: Kate Hammond and Ed Parsons at Google, Shane Winser and Lucy Bruzzone at the Royal Geographical Society, Will Evans at Just So Films and Marjan Shirzad here at Digital Explorer.

Anyway, they had some very nice things to say…

Excellent and inspiring new ideas

I have never realised the full potential of Google Earth as I have never had the time to sit and mess around with the computer for long enough. An excellent session with an excellent handbook to take back to school.

Great way to develop fieldwork in a very pupil friendly way. Have already used it in my teaching as a way of promoting appreciation of fieldwork.

Can be put in to use immediately - hopefully with out too much cash outlay!

Excellent tutor - good practical ways to use Google earth.

Well delivered, fast pace, interesting and appropriate skills being implanted

Thank you to Lucy at the GA for organising ever thing and if you would like to find out more about what happened at this year’s conference see the Geographical Association website.

From the Earthwatch website…

This year we are pleased to be able to offer 24 fully-funded educator places on a variety of different Earthwatch projects. Working alongside leading scientists for a period of between one to two weeks, small groups of five to eight educators will take part in hands-on scientific research on facilitated projects which include Dolphins of Greece and Whales and Dolphins of the Hebrides.

See their educators section for more information. The closing date is 4 May.

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

Ben will be blogging daily from the ice on his website, please follow and support him as much as possible.

Watch a short clip by Ben to show what drives him and to get a feel for what it’s like to be alone on the ice.

Ben Saunders from Ben Saunders on Vimeo.

What if we invested in young people and gave them a truly global education?

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.

Come on board to make a better world.

As part of the website designed and built by the Digital Explorer team, I have put up a project suitable for 11-18 year olds on the site.

Enjoy!

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.

Thank you all!