High-tech Geography

The Geographical Association has a very high reputation for its publications: the most recent of which is the 2nd edition of Margaret Roberts' seminal 'Geography through Enquiry'.

 In the year 2000, the GA published a book called High-tech Geography: ICT in Secondary Schools. I have a copy as shown in the pictures.

It was compiled by Sheila King who was working as a Lecturer in Education at the Institute of Education at the time.

Although just over 20 years old now, things have rather moved on since then.

In the year 2000 I was starting my dalliance with the internet and web pages, and learning HTML coding. My first websites went up on Tripod hosting, and then I bought my own Domain name in 2001 with the appearance of the GeographyPages website.

The book features chapters written by different contributors. See the contents below.

There are contributions from several people mentioned on this blog as well, including Chris Durbin and David Gardner as well as David Hassell from BECTa, who worked with the GA and funded quite a few projects, including one I was involved in, where I wrote about blogging. I also attended a few research events they funded.

Diana Freeman, who produced the AEGIS GIS mapping package also added a chapter. I later worked with Diana a little when I was freelance.

I liked the chapter on presentation software which suggested that geography teachers might be interested in a new product which was called Microsoft Powerpoint. It replaced the overhead projector and transparencies apparently, with some whizzy effects; and David Hassell explained how to teach when you only have one computer... imagine that...

National Strategies

GA colleagues were part of the development of support during the early 2000s.

At the time, I worked with 'The Guardian' to write reviews of software and also worked at the BETT Show for about 4 years in a row, and wrote the Geography preview for their special supplement. I remember handing these out to delegates from the DfE stand at the time. Came across this while sorting out some cupboards at school earlier in the week.

BOLT Education

Who remembers this resource? I think I may have spent some e-learning credits on this.

e-learning credits came in after the cancellation of BBC Jam. Having worked on this, I know what amazing resources were going to be shared with the geography community, and also wrote The Guardian's BETT preview in the year they were going to be released, but the other software and publishing companies complained this would be unfair competition. In return, secondary schools received about £5000 of credits (possibly more, depending on size) to be spent on an approved list of software and technology.

My anecdote here is that our Deputy Head at the time told us that we could bid for a share of this money. We had to provide a document with the details of the software, and an explanation of how we were going to use it, and what particular project or activity it would be helpful for. Curriculum Online provided lists. Suppliers rushed to provide options which were compatible with the scheme.

The Deputy Head in question finished his explanation at a HoDs meeting by saying the bids were 'first come first served' until the money ran out. 

That night, I went through the site, and put together the requested document with a bid for about £2000 worth of items and gave it to him the following morning. I asked him roughly how much of the bid was likely to be approved, and he told me that I would get all the items as it was first-come first-served.... I had deliveries of software and other items regularly for the next few months.

This ad was in 'Teaching Geography' for Spring 2005

90th Anniversary - 1983

Thanks to Richard Daugherty for sending through a copy of a TES Article which was published in 1983 that he wrote. It provides a really nice summary of the rationale that lay behind the founding of the community of practice we know today as the GA, but which has gone through a great many changes. I'll share some of that article in a later blog post.

It will be worth revisiting what Richard has to say here when we reach the GA's 130th activity in 2023 perhaps, which will be 40 years on from when Richard wrote this piece, which he found as he was going through old documents to help me with the creation of recent posts on the blog.

Steve Hanstock

It is often said that geography teachers become teachers because of their own geography teacher. This is the case for other subjects as well.

I remember a session by Tim Burt at the 2004 GA Conference where he asked about our own inspirations to become educators, and for many it was their teacher. Many Presidents in their letters sent to Chris Kington also mentioned their teachers, as you will have noticed if you've been following the blog.

One of my teachers was Steve Hanstock. He was a teacher of Geography at Wickersley Comprehensive School in the 1970s and 80s (and possibly beyond), along with other colleagues including John Neale. He was my form tutor and also taught me 'A' level Geography. There was a little extra connection when he did some work with one of my lecturers: David Butcher on a hillslope model, and I interviewed him as part of my PGCE course as well.

In 1988, he reviewed an early software package for 'Teaching Geography' and wrote a few reviews which ended up in the journal. 

I'd be really interested to hear if he's still around (he'd probably be in his 70s now I'm guessing as we tend to think our teachers are a lot older than us when we're at school but when I started teaching I was only 6 years older than the 6th formers...) and what he's up to...

References

Hanstock, Steve. Teaching Geography, vol. 13, no. 3, 1988, pp. 135–135. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44737450. Accessed 14 Feb. 2021.

1996: What can CD-ROMs do for us?

Good questions. The answers were to be found in this 'Teaching Geography' article by Fred Martin and Diane Swift.

I'm sure we all have some in a box somewhere...

Reference

Martin, Fred, and Diane Swift. “What Can CD-ROMs Do for Us?” Teaching Geography, vol. 21, no. 1, 1996, pp. 20–23. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23753746. Accessed 22 Jan. 2021.

Geography through Topics

Published in the 1980s and written by Chris Parker and Andrea Tapsfield. A small paperback book.

Co-published by NCET (National Council for Educational Technology) and the GA.

Good to see CEEFAX get a mention. Simon Catling is also referenced quite a few times.

Computer Assisted Learning in Geography

This book was first published in 1980 and written by CET in association with the GA.

It was written by Ifan D H Shepherd, Zena A Cooper and David R F Walker.

At this time, the GA was linked with the creation of GAPE: the Geographical Association Package Exchange.

At the time, this was coordinated by David Walker from the University of Technology in Loughborough.

The GA also had its Educational Computing Working Group, based out of Fulwood Road.

Charles Sweeten ran MUSE (Microprocessor Users in Secondary Education) in Oundle.

I used a quote from this book and some other elements when I was asked to write a chapter on educational technology for Routledge.

It's a quote from Page and Kitching's 1976 book: "Technical aids to teaching in higher education" and was the following:

"The teacher's traditional ally is a piece of chalk, and the closer any modern aid approaches this still indispensable material in some respects, the more likely he is to use it."

Learning Geography with Computers 1988

Made by MESU. This has now disappeared since I screen grabbed it a while back... this was an early film on the use of computers in classrooms.

First part of film:

Hypothesis Testing - Cleeve School, Cheltenham - Derek Plumb - 0'10" - 12'44"
Hold the Front Page - Worsley Wardley High School, Salford - Alan Szymanski 12'45" - 19'31"
Planning Tourism - West Hatch High School, Essex - Val Brett - 19'32" - 25'15"
Hydrology Fieldwork - ILEA Advanced Field Study Centre, Abergavenny - Mike Penny - 25'16" - 35'18"
Negotiating for a Game Park - Knowles Hill School, Newton Abbott - Doreen Bennett - 35'19" - 51'31"
Individual Studies - Cleeve School, Cheltenham - 51'32" - end



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microelectronics_Education_Support_Unit

Deryn Watson wrote a book in this area:

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Learning_Geography_with_Computers.html?id=-T_OzQEACAAJ&redir_esc=y

GA on Ceefax

 Well, PRESTEL, but close enough - a one year trial started in 1982 - cutting edge stuff :)

1970s: ICT - the GA at the forefront...

In 1971, the GA joined the Standing Conference of School's Science and Technology (SCSST). This was concerned with the teaching of science and technology.

Computer software was increasing in availability and complexity and although it was expensive and of limited use, the potential was there for it to be used in the classroom. It took a while from here for it to gain traction, and when I started my training in 1986, there were still limited opportunities in many schools.
The GA started its GAPE initiative in 1978.
GAPE: Geographical Association Package Exchange.
The Geographical Package Exchange (GAPE) project enabled computer software to be produced, listed, reviewed and distributed. This was the forerunner of the ICTWG working group.
I have a number of books from this time, which will feature in future blog posts.


Peter Fox was particularly active at this time, and is still involved in the GA's ICT SIG and Education Group. Peter Fox and Andrea Tapsfield also wrote an important book on the use of technology, which will be featured in future blog posts.
I interviewed Peter for a chapter that I had been asked to write for the Routledge 'Debates in Geography Education' book and he told me more details of the support for GA members at that time.
Teaching Geography wasn't published until 1975, but when it was it included a regular feature on software packages with reviews.

Sources:
Hall, David, et al. “Computer Assisted Learning in Geography: The State of the Art.” Teaching Geography, vol. 10, no. 2, 1985, pp. 73–76. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23751122. Accessed 1 July 2020.

Ron Johnston writing about Stan Gregory's career and links with the GA and ICT appearing:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=kVtwDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA90&ots=AHT4_XIJ21&dq=Geographical%20ASsociation%20Package%20Exchange&pg=PA87#v=onepage&q=Geographical%20ASsociation%20Package%20Exchange&f=false