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…
Really proud of the team - John, Ciara and Marjan for making sure the IAE expedition blog for 2041 looks so amazing, has great functionality and went live so soon after the 2041 main site.
I just love this site, but then that’s me. It’s exciting to see how far Wordpress as a platform can be taken (this is the inner geek in me).
The main site for 2041 went live on Friday. For those of you who don’t know 2041, it’s an organisation set up by Robert Swan - the first person to walk to both poles - to preserve Antarctica.
The 2041 team have some amazing projects lined up this year, all coming soon. First off, the E-Base on King George Island off the Antarctic peninsula goes live at the beginning of March, broadcasting live on renewable energy. If they can live off solar and wind, etc. in Antarctica, it’s a message to us all to give it a go at home.
Then in mid-March the E-Base Goes Live team will be joined by a team from global corporations learning about leadership and sustainability on the Inspire Antarctic Expedition.
And if that’s not enough, the 2041 yacht on the Voyage for Cleaner Energy, will be engaging audiences along the West Coast of the US from the beginning of April.
Finally, a big big thank you to the teams at Digital Explorer and 2041 for working so hard to make this happen.
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.
I was asked this question by a teacher who had come on a Digital Explorer Google Earth course:
Sorry to trouble you with this simple question, but I had your details, having come to one of your Google Earth training days in the summer. Having used Google Earth more since then, it is clear that having an upgraded use via Google Earth Plus would be excellent, but I am not sure whether the average price ($20 pa) is per computer, or establishment. The school is obviously happy to pay out the odd tenner, but not much more!
Do you know, please?
I thought that my reply may be useful to other teachers looking at the same issue.
The license price is per logon account/computer, not per establishment. Google have not yet decided to develop an educational pricing scheme for Google Earth. In reality you can use the same logon for two computers. The one extra function that is useful with Google Earth Plus is the GPS data handling. I imagine that you would only be using GPS with KS4/KS5 and I am not sure how many units you have.
My advice would be:
Ask your IT technicians to set up additional use accounts for pupils using GPS units - e.g. gps1 to gps6 or however many units you have
Label the machines that you have in the nearest computer room to your KS4/5 geography teaching rooms with these user accounts
Purchase half as many Google Earth Plus licenses as you have GPS units
Upgrade Google Earth to Google Earth Plus on the GPS machines, using your new gps1, etc. login details (you can use the same Google Earth Plus account details for two machines)
This way you will have computing capacity to match your GPS units.
Great for all those heading south. Your progress can now be followed on Google Earth with newly updated satellite imagery. The imagery stops at about 82.5 degrees South as there is no satellite imagery available this close to the pole.
There is a call for as much user generated content (images, video, etc.) as possible to be added to this newly enhanced area. So, get going and if you need any help then let us know.
Have a look at Digital Explorer’s work for Wilderness Expertise, a youth expedition company, designing a series of Virtual Expeditions with Google Earth.
It’s great to see the Digital Explorer methodology slowly branching out into the mainstream.
Great for all those heading south. Your progress can now be followed on Google Earth with newly updated satellite imagery. The imagery stops at about 82.5 degrees South as there is no satellite imagery available this close to the pole.
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