Thursday, August 31, 2006

Updates - Newlook website



I have changed the website around and I think it is much improved. Movie page layouts are now easier to follow and all images have been updated. Don't worry its still full of typos and dead links!

On the home page updates are displayed automatically when uploaded on the slide show on the right hand side. The home page itself has changed slightly with a bit of flash for good measure. All news will now appear on this blog.

I hope to introduce a search engine soon and introduce rss feeds for updates.

Thanks for your support.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Video clips on the internet

The Internet now is a source of a number of video clips with geographical relevance. However some we are allowed to download and sadly some for whatever reason we are not! Actual video footage projected using an Interactive White Board or projection screen has many possibilities for geography teaching, from quirky starter clips from South Park to aerial footage of the Holderness coast.

To help me and hopefully others I searched the Internet to compile this list. Remember these are not all readily downloadable but there are ways and means.

If you want to add to this list feel free to send me an e mail or post a comment with your suggestion.

ARKive

This website can to my attention via a post on the sln forum from Bruce Phillips (ARKive education officer). There is a wide variety of issue based video clips available. A list of current available clips can be found at this link to the sln forum.

BBC Open Archives

The BBC Open Archives project offers an array of useful clips. Please BBC we want more of this!

BBC Open Earth Archive

Again from the BBC the Open Earth Archive with exclusive footage from the “Planet Earth” series. This would be wonderful if this was replicated for the forthcoming "Equator Series".

BBC Open School Archive: Geography

The Open School Achive for Geography, I look forward to see this develop. Especially useful for tectonics and rivers.

BBC Open School Archive: Places

The Open School Archive for Places

Greenpeace Videos

Although not ready for download, Greenpeace have a variety of useful clips. You can search these by issue.

Singingfish

Searching for audio and/or video files? use this search engine.

East Yorkshire Coastal Observatory

High quality videos of the Holderness coast from The East Yorkshire Coastal Observatory.

Kingsgrove School

Flooding video clips from Kingsgrove School

Severe Weather

A wealth of severe weather from Australia and the USA.

Footage Firm

Although you have to pay for full access many clips available mainly from the USA.

British Pathe

Mainly history based but a few could be of value.

Ray Mears

Clips from Ray Mears, particularly useful one in the Amazon.

Learning Through Windows

Learning Through Windows created by Dan Raven-Ellison. Excellent footage of the Dorset Coast.

Channel 4 Clipbank

The whole package is pricey, but they do have a settlement collection as a trial.

United Streaming

An American online source for digital video. You can get a free 30 day trial and then mortgage your house and pay the subscription. However this is a truly superb resource, would be great to have something similar in the UK.

Annenberg Media Learner

Excellent videos here. Join up and movies can be viewed online but not downloaded (unless you know how). Many case studies that we all use.

Youtube

See the seperate "Youtube" post.

Google Video

Both "Google Video" and "Youtube" clips can be downloaded using a Mozilla Firefox Add-on called Video Downloader. Still stuck? Here is a useful tutorial from Tony Cassidy .

Open University

Came to my attention on the sln forum by Tony Cassidy, 60 clips on a variety of subjects including Antartica and Rio.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Youtube

So whats it all about?

http://www.youtube.com/

It is a website with 25 million hits a day and has more than 40 million movie clips uploaded by its visitors. But what potential for the geography teacher?

I type in "geography" in the search engine:

Firstly I get extreme geography which was not as good as it sounds. The second video was a useful cartoon from the animaniacs, could be used to introduce world geography and possibly lead to some singing geography for places in the local area.

To be honest the next four movies I could not post here. However I did discover a good video made using windows movie maker by a pupil about the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore. This could be used for modelling or as a starter, although I admit not many of us do this case study.

Then I come across a useful starter from Fox News and their attempt at UK Geography, you can not miss this. Spot the deliberate mistakes!

After a have to admit several movies of teachers, field trips and general madness I found again another example of pupil work, dealing with a number of geographical issues.

Finally a teacher has uploaded a Hurricane Katrina Video, of which many are available.

This is a random sample of youtube movies and you can sort by rating to find the highest rated movie which tends to be sensible. There are simply thousands to look through.

I have several ideas for teaching and learning after visiting youtube for the first time. The amount of videos about geography field trips made by kids really proves most do love geography!

Verdict

1. Youtube is without doubt popular with young people and it make sense therefore to incorporate its use in the classroom.

2. Without doubt there are some valuable teaching resources available. Made by professional organisations e.g. Greenpeace.

3. Youtube is growing at an alarming rate.


4. I must pay more attention when kids point mobile phones at me, who know what they are recording.

If one day you are stuck for inspiration maybe a starter to your lesson on deforestation. Search for "deforestation" on youtube and I believe you will find several things of use, on what is a fast growing resource base.

Coming soon......Using youtube in the classroom!



Geography at the Movies Website

The Geography at the Movies Website is at the following address: