Friday, April 06, 2007

GATM Revamp!

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

 Had a little bit of a play with the homepage, and to be honest the whole site is a bit of a mess I will sort it in time. However not got an introductory screencast on homepage and links to blog and bliptv channel. I have also put a donate button on homepage just to meet costs of website hosting and domain name. The rest (if I get any) I will give to charity.

Let me know what you think!?!

GCSE Leisure and Tourism Revision Byte

The revision material for GCSE Leisure and Tourism on the net is I always find disappointing. There is the revision pack from edexcel that can be downloaded here. The Work Related Learning Website for the North East is also a useful resource.

In comparison to Geography the big gap seems to exist that as a teacher I find frustrating is a BBC Bitesize resource to aid revision. This is not just in terms of its online content but also the lack of revision based videos that are so useful in other subjects.

So here is the plan....

I am going to make a series of my own Bitesize clips that I am calling a Revision Byte, aimed at GCSE Leisure and Tourism. These will eventually cover the whole qualification and will eventually be available on a separate blog or website (I will see how it goes).  I also will add pages to support revision and resources to download.

I will evaluate the project on this blog, and if interested you subscribe to blog update from the geography at the movies website.

As I will not and can not spend any money on this I will be searching the web for all sorts of video clips etc. So this will also be interesting to see what is actually out there that we as teachers can use and adapt. May it be legal or not?!?

Right so I have Windows Movie Maker to put the video together. Audacity to add narration to video. Blip.tv to host the video. All these products are free. I have also downloaded a trial of Camtasia Studio which is a great bit of software, but I did not use it in my first movie.

So with no further chat here is my first video, it focuses on the first part of "The Travel and Tourism Industry" part of the specification (page 14 for edexcel).

It states (copied directly from Edexcel spec)

You will need to know what tourism is. Tourism is a broad area to define but it usually covers temporary travel away from home or work. An essential part of tourism is the traveller’s intention to return home afterwards. The purpose of visits includes:


• a holiday
• sightseeing
• visiting an attraction
• visiting friends or relatives
• going to a sports event as a spectator or to participate
• business.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Crazy Talk 2

Very much enjoying this I think it could be used to make some excellent visual resources. Just as many possible e learning tools of value out of the price range of a teacher. Well deffiently mine anyway.

Anyway one more example before I put it to bed for now. An introduction to the British Isles. Source of audio here.

Crazy Talk

I saw the ICT Department playing with this the other day so thought I would give it a try.

The software is called Crazy Talk its fairly simple to use!

1. Find a picture of a person

2. Add your voice

3. Crazy talk does the rest

4. It can be saved as a wmv file and imported into Windows Movie Maker to add music and effects.

The full version comes without the logo that you can see with my example, although it is pricey!  However there is a 15 day free trial, and good fun.

I wanted to make one using Sherlock Holmes to introduce how to go about solving a thinking skills mystery because I often find it hard to explain and the students are more likely to listen to him. Maybe a set of clips that can remind the students of how they should go about solving the mystery as they go.

However the logo would be annoying. Instead I have settled for GATM's most famous supporter. Nice accent Shane! Oh and if you ever read this Mr Warne...this is for educational purposes only!

 

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Latest Updates

Recently recieved this from Christine LS which is a "Baraka" style movie.

Baraka's subject matter includes footage of various landscapes, churches, ruins, religious ceremonies, and cities thrumming with life, filmed using time-lapse photography in order to capture the great pulse of humanity as it flocks and swarms in daily activity. (Source: Wikipedia)

 

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Geogdocs Under Way!

So many computers problems this week, but I have finally updated GATM and Geogdocs.

Many thanks to the teachers who have spent time to send in pupil work and indeed the pupils themselves. A random example of a pupil movie:

Monday, February 05, 2007

Geogdocs


Geography at the Movies has a sister site for pupils!

I am very excited to be awarded the RGS Innovative Teaching Grant and have launched the site above. Even if you dont take part the resources and scheme of work may be useful.

The site needs a bit of work but my online tutorials will be good if you need something to send you off to sleep!

Friday, January 26, 2007

Google Video Download

This may well be handy!

Earthquake Watch

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Options Evening: Choose Geog!

Great movie from Simon Turton suitable for AS and GCSE.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Geographyphotos




Some of you may or may not know, that using images from most places on the Internet is an infringement of the owners copyright. As teachers we have a few choices:

1. Go and take photographs that are our own images. This can be difficult when making a Rainforest movie, especially on my position on the pay scale.

2. We can use copyright free images or ask (and get permission) to use. You must also give credit to the owner generally on the same page as that image. If the owner of the images does not reply then more than likely using them will be illegal. Indeed, legislation of educational use of these images is complex and well...frustrating.

3. You can pay to use images.

Ian Murray at Geographyphotos has the answer excellent value and no copyright worries. He has a range of 4,500 images (some I took..although not many).

WOW! A current special offer:

Special Christmas and New Year offer - all subscriptions
received from now on (until further notice) will be set to run
until the end of January 2009 ( yes, 2000 and NINE). This
offer will be automatically backdated to all subscriptions and
renewals since August 30th 2006. The sooner you join the
more time you'll have to use the site.....until 31st January
2009. Sign up now by email or post in the subscription form.

If we all used geographyphotos to make our movies then I would only have to worry about all the copyright issues for the music used. Which may well reduce my prison sentence when I am caught!

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Well its that time again...end of term and 10 minutes of the lesson left, you have watched all the videos and running out of ideas!

Jenny Ruddick has come to the rescue with a Geography "Pub Quiz!", she is a PGCE student currently at Fair Oak College in Rugeley.

This movie is not yet featured on the website yet as I am "....well busy!".

Thanks Jenny!






Download here 21MB

Flash Movie here

Geography Quiz!

Well its that time again...end of term and 10 minutes of the lesson left, you have watched all the videos and running out of ideas!

Jenny Ruddick has come to the rescue with a Geography "Pub Quiz!", she is a PGCE student currently at Fair Oak College in Rugeley.

This movie is not yet featured on the website yet as I am "....well busy!".

Thanks Jenny!






Download here 21MB

Flash Movie here

Friday, December 08, 2006

Borat

Getting towards the end of term, this movie from Gary Dawson may help you out.




To download click
here

Rock Education

New website launched with resources for Geography.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Flv and video conversion



Made a few finds this evening. Some I believe will be a great help and the programs are all free. Downloading flv files in seconds. No download required. Simply copy and past the html of the movie you require into the download box. How easy is that!

Super is a video converter that is I believe the first of its kind. It offers video conversion from many formats (which is often the case) and is it free (rarely the case). The bonus is it seems to work!





If you are just interested in converting flv movies to avi or mpeg then this is the program for you. Guide is available here.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Student Work using Movie Maker

Several moons ago Charles Gould from St Albans High in Hertfordshire sent some student work using movie maker to GATM (AS Level). I have now finally had time to upload them and they are available at the link below.

They are the top seven movies on the page.

Thanks Charles and class sorry it took so long.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Christmas is coming....


Well in an attempt to beat the major department stores and supermarkets to it....its Christmas time at GATM.

What do you need to get in the Christmas spirit?
Microsoft's

Winter Fun Pack! Which is free to download
here. Enjoy!

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Viewing Site in Internet Explorer


I use FireFox as my web browser, but I realised the other day the link buttons on the website appear differently in IE compared with Firefox. I am not aware of any way to solve this. If you find it annoying get Firefox I guess!

Geography Bond

Receieved nearly 20 new movies this week! Uploaded half of them check the Home Page for details. Among the movies sent in was Geography Bond by Gary Osburn, looking at the Burgess model.




If you want to make your own Geography Bond all you need is here. Scroll down to Geography Bond.