This document provides an overview of how technology can be used to support A Level Geography studies. It discusses how technology can be used for learning geography, helping to pass exams, and in daily life. Examples are given of specific technologies like Google Earth, Flickr, and infographics that can be used. The document also addresses issues around the use of technology for control and surveillance, and perspectives on its role in development. Overall, the document promotes an integrated approach to using technology alongside traditional teaching methods to enhance geography education.

1. ‘Using Technology
in A Level
Geography’
Alan Parkinson
CGeog, FRGS, FRSGS
Teacher of Geography
King’s Ely

2. Alan Parkinson
CGeog, FRGS, FRSGS
Head of Geography
King’s Ely (Junior)
Oxford GA Branch

3. Aims
• Technology in geography
• Technology for learning geography
• Technology to help pass geography exams
• Technology in your daily personal geographies

4. Who is this bloke ?

5. I’m from Yorkshire….

6. I got good grades at school

7. Technology when I was at school

10. Huddersfield Polytechnic

11. I like taking photos…

12. Flickr – 1 Terabyte of space free
• I have over 15 000 images that are made
freely available… and there are about 7 billion
others on the site…
• So you should never be short of a decent
photo when you need one

13. I spent 20 years here
Teaching Geography & ICT to ‘A’ level
Plus KS3 History, GCSE Maths

14. I write books

15. I worked for the Geographical
Association
3 years

16. I work with interesting people…

17. One recent project…

18. Pole of Cold
http://www.poleofcold.com

20. So I get to go here…

21. …and here…

22. I work here…

23. We’re all geographers…
An important subject…
“the world as an object
of study…”

24. Google.co.uk

25. http://earth.nullschool.net

27. Infographics

28. Hemsby – Jason Haden

29. An A level
should not be
about simply
learning and
reproducing
knowledge
from these…

30. Playing ‘the long game’
• How much time did you take to
adjust from GCSE to the new
demands of ‘A’ level?
• Have you gone through a
behavioural change from
GCSE years
• Avoid the situation of ‘leaving
it late’ and being forced to
conduct panic revision

32. Students already know how
technology works?

33. Slides adapted from Gareth Hughes,
Head of Geography at Radley College
Slideshare.net
GeoBlogs

36. One of newest additions to teaching tools for teachers….
Very powerful
Follow people / organisations
No need to actually tweet
Can protect tweets
Hashtags work for events…

38. Google Earth Pro – now free

39. Measurement of areas
Cross profiles along lines
High definition pictures
Photo-realistic atmosphere

42. Individual
Ash
collected
on a visit
to
Iceland

44. @dantarctic – Rothera Base

45. Google Forms – collect real data and visualise it
Collaborate on presentations, documents and
graphics

46. Go here with your smartphone, and answer the question….
http://bit.ly/1vxPhA0
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Ck-
jfhCWZ2-Rg-
jMizNucRSSPubf2symUYuwQczAKYk/viewanaly
tics

47. Go here with your smartphone, and answer the question….
http://goo.gl/forms/rqS60aTIHF
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ISfY5cDJnh7WVgiHcnHNVwzH3FozZwBwalQozKn8
p_U/edit

49. http://www.economist.com/node/21642053?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/megacities
AT THE beginning of February, somewhere in
London, a maternity ward welcomed the city's
8,615,246th inhabitant.

51. http://www.costaforschools.com/

52. How can technology help with your
studies ?

53. GLNP

54. https://edexcel.adobeconnect.com/_a
49419191/p53bk3osht1/
Learn from the examiners…

55. Pole of Cold
What’s the coldest you’ve ever been?
Mark Brandon

57. Felicity Aston – MBE
http://www.rgs.org/OurWork/Schools/Teaching+resources/Key+Stage+4+resources/Key+S
tage+4+-+From+the+field+resources/Polar+science/Polar+science.htm
Won SAGT Non-book award
ALONE – Skiing solo across Antarctica

58. Future 3 Curriculum
and Curriculum Making
David Lambert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anrkR4Qty7I
Teachers as ‘curriculum makers’

59. Personalised newspapers
https://flipboard.com/section/ipad-in-
education-bAp6bu

60. Pinterest
https://uk.pinterest.com/geoblogs/

63. 63
Wordle.net / Tagxedo.com
Key Words / Command Words
63

64. 64 64

65. Census 2011
http://visual.o
ns.gov.uk

66. GaugeMap – Rivers
Y10http://www.gaugemap.co.uk

69. Personalised news feed…
or record your own

70. Classifying and ordering information

71. Technology as part of the
specifications….
e.g. as a way into Globalisation
Thanks to Simon Oakes Chief
Examiner
IB & Eduqas

72. Means of ICT access
Topic links:  globalisation  development
1. Access to technology
Mobile
phone (calls
and SMS)
Mobile
broadband
Fixed
broadband
(fibre-optic)
Hardware
(PC, laptop,
tablet,
smartphone,
cell phone)

73. Mobiles: the great convergence
Topic links:  globalisation  development
1. Access to technology
Africa Asia
Middle
East
Europe
Mobile phones per 100
people 2013
63 89 105 126
Mobile phones per 100
people 2010
41 74 78 122
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140

74. The uneven distribution of optical fibres
Topic links:  plate tectonics  global networks
1. Access to technology

75. Challenge and resistance
Autocracy
A system of government
where power lies mostly
in the hands of a single
individual.
Superpower
A globally dominant state
which possesses the
means to project
influence, and to protect
its own interests,
anywhere in the world.
Subculture
A minority group of
people, often young
people, that differentiate
themselves from the rest
of the society to which
they belong, often using
symbols such as fashion.
Political development
Progressive changes in
the way a society is
governed, such as
universal suffrage, that
often accompany
economic development.
Topic links:  globalisation  development
2. Power and control over technology

76. Challenge and resistance
• Pakistani schoolgirl Malala
Yousafzai, who survived a
shooting, wrote a blog
for the BBC website,
campaigning for the
education of girls in the
Swat Valley
• NOBEL prize awarded
Topic links:  political development  global citizenship
2. Power and control over technology

77. The governance of cyberspace
• A judge at Chester crown court
sentenced two people to four years
in prison for using Facebook to incite
rioting during 2011 (mobile devices
played a key role in the disruption
that spread across British cities that
summer)
• Use of CCTV in urban spaces helps
reduce crime and improve safety for
women at night
• In other contexts it is seen as
intrusive: ‘Big Brother’
Topic links:  urban studies  governance
2. Power and control over technology

78. Drone warfare in Pakistan
Topic links:  superpowers (Edexcel)  conflict (AQA)
2. Power and control over technology
• The USA's drone missile attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia –
part of its global ‘war on terror’ – are highly controversial
• In a practice that can be unfavourably compared with gaming,
'hellfire missile' operators in Nevada, USA, fly remote-controlled
missiles into northern Pakistan – recent drone footage
• The intended target is suspected terrorists; as many as 3,500 people
have been killed by drones to date, around 10 per cent of them
civilians
• The rules that govern this kind of conflict are disputed. According to
one view, the USA is executing people for crimes they may or may
not have committed without a trial and is in breach of the UDHR
• However, the USA claims its own actions are legitimised by war law
(despite the fact that the USA is not at war with any of the countries
where drone attacks currently take place)

79. Technology and agricultural networks
• Marks and Spencer use the latest technology to help them regularly
update the orders they place with their Kenyan suppliers
• Each time the barcode of a food purchase is scanned in a Marks and
Spencer store, an automatic adjustment is made to the size of the
next order placed with suppliers in distant countries like Kenya
• If store till receipts in the UK show a good day’s sales for a particular
product in the run-up to Christmas Day, then an email is
automatically sent to Kenya at midnight to increase production
quotas the next day
• Farmers everywhere are making increased use of ICT
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-
network/2013/jan/24/data-collection-evaluation-technology-
agriculture
Topic links:  TNCs  Agriculture
3. The uses of technology

80. Technology drives aspects of
development
•For stretch and challenge, investigate the ‘overlaps’ between the
categories shown
Topic links:  globalisation  development
3. The uses of technology
Economic
development
Social
development
Political
development

81. Electronic remittances
Topic links:  globalisation  migration
3. The uses of technology
Somali migrants living in the UK send US$100 million to Somalia annually,
relying on Barclays and other banks to transfer funds electronically

82. Development change: ICT can boost
HDI
Topic links:  globalisation  development
4. The uses of technology
HDI
Life
expectancy
Average
income
Average
years of
attending
school
• Mobile phones can help
raise income
• Distance learning opens
new education
opportunity e.g. MOOCs
(massive open online
courses)
• Mobile phones allow
remote diagnostic for
improved health
https://novoed.com/mhe
alth/reports/52067

83. 3D Printing
Topic links:  economic activity
3. The uses of technology

84. ArcGIS Demonstration

86. Advice from Chief Examiners
Simon Oakes
Andy Leeder

87. • Being able to write a good geography essay
is arguably more important than it used to
be.
• Reaching the highest grades requires the
highest level marking criteria to be met by
candidates
Can you write a good essay?

88. • Discuss (Offer a considered and balanced review that
includes a range of arguments, factors or hypotheses.
Opinions or conclusions should be presented clearly and
supported by appropriate evidence.)
• Evaluate (Make an appraisal by weighing strengths and
limitations.)
• Examine (Consider an argument or concept in a way that
uncovers the assumptions and interrelationships of the
issue.)
• To what extent (Consider the merits or otherwise of an
argument or concept. Opinions and conclusions should
be presented clearly and supported with empirical
evidence and sound argument.)
Command words

89. • Evaluate the effectiveness of two named
urban management schemes.
• ‘Effectiveness’ in whose view?
• What does effective mean?
• Why might different groups hold differing
views or perspectives?
• Do viewpoints differ according to geographical
context (i.e. developed, emerging, developing
economies)
Perspectives

90. Every mark counts, so don’t let them
slip away…
72 A*
66 A
60 B
54 C
48 D
42 E
36 F
30 G
One mark may make all the difference! The
boundary goes somewhere...

91. Download
these…
iTunes
eBook
Paul Turner

92. Everything is connected

93. http://everythingisconnected.io/

94. Carl Lee – Sheffield College /
University of Sheffield
Free download
Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than
distant things
"...this book is an attempt to give students of
Advanced Level Geography something else to
read that will help them piece together their
own big picture of what 21st century
geography is about..."

95. Thanks for listening…
Best of luck for the
exams, and your future
careers…

97. Acknowledgements
Gareth Hughes, Radley College
Simon Oakes, Bancrofts’ School
Richard Allaway, International School, Geneva
Paul Turner – Bedales School
Carl Lee
Danny Dorling – University of Oxford
Felicity Aston
Steve Brace, RGS-IBG
Andy Leeder