Last week I ran a webinar on “Fieldwork and Simple GIS” with Digimap for Schools. During the webinar someone asked if they can upload data from the Survey 123 app into Digimap for Schools. At the time I wasn’t sure (as I’d never used Survey 123) so I asked the person to send me a copy of the data that they got from the app. I’m pleased to say that within a minute I was able to upload their data into Digimap for Schools!

I’ve since had a look at other app’s and the way they deliver their data and the good news is that Digimap fro Schools can easily handle this!

Rather than write loads about how I did it I thought it easier just to do a quick video to show you. (just click on the below to play)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Also this is just a print out of what the CSV file looked like when I printed the locations on a map. (Click on the map for a better view)

Hi folks, yesterday (25th April) we ran a quick 30 minute webinar showcasing some of the activities you can undertake very quickly and easily using Digimap for Schools.

I recorded the session, so you can have a look below or go directly to our youtube page to find other useful webinars.

https://www.youtube.com/user/digimapforschools

The session below covers some simple concepts that help create a land use map; drawing area’s, using the colour palette to tailor your map, editing areas and text, adding images and also creating map keys.  We also do some very simple GIS using postcodes and buffers, and actually delve a little deeper and download some official crime stats and map them in Digimap for Schools.  Have a gander below, though you may want to expand the view to full page

Click here to view the embedded video.

Over the Easter period Digimap for Schools made a trip to Sheffield for the GA Conference, which happened to be celebrating their 125th anniversary.  The conference itself was fantastic with lots of great ideas and plenty of excellent CPD for teachers and trainee teachers alike.

We had our usual display and demo on the Ordnance Survey stand and it proved to be a busy few days with lots of interest from everyone, though we did find that most of the attendees where well aware of Digimap for Schools and quite avid users:-)

One of the most cited uses of Digimap for Schools was for illustrating the impact of coastal erosion.  A few people in particular highlighted Cowden Sands as a great example of displaying the tangible impact of coastal erosion.  I thought I would post up a few maps as examples of what is very quickly achievable by pupils.

We have a very useful resource in our Resources centre which highlights the common skills for GCSE Geography which can be developed using Digimap for Schools.  The resource was developed by the award winning geographer Alan Parkinson, who delves deep into the new GCSE Geography curriculums and highlights the exact GCSE map skills students need to develop and demonstrate.

Alan highlights the Map Interpretation Skills required in the new specifications and identifies how Digimap for Schools can fulfil them!  (We’ll be honest and tell you it doesn’t fulfil them all but it does cover a conservative 85% of the requirements    i.e we currently don’t “demonstrate the understanding and construction of cross sections” – unfortunately you’re going to have to dig out the graph paper (or Excel) and do this manually.

Please come along and have a look, its a great way of ensuring that you are getting the most out of Digimap for Schools, and a good reminder of what exactly needs to be covered.

The resources is available in our Resources centre or you can download it directly here: https://dfsresources.edina.ac.uk/resource/digimap-schools-support-gcse

Click here for your downloadable map of the campus map.

As we are experiencing one of the heaviest snowfalls in recent memory, many school kids are having their first snow days for a very long time.  So why not embrace the novelty and enthusiasm by giving the pupils a snow based mapping activity!

We did a very quick Story Map of our walk around the neighbourhood, talking a few pictures on my phone and adding them to the map…  Again you can tailor this to your own requirements.

Here’s my example: 

As Christmas approaches we thought we’d pull together a few Christmas themed activities for Primary schools.

Activity 1: Whats the quickest route for Santa?

This is a whole class activity and involves the use of pupil postcodes.  The locations are plotted onto a map,  pupils will then have the ability to see all the locations Santa has to go in order to visit all the pupils in the class.  Pupils should then either work independently or in teams to identify the quickest route for Santa to go.  The amount of combinations should make it an interesting little competition to see who identifies the quickest route!  (Perhaps a Christmas themed prize for the winner

Step 1: Create a excel spreadsheet with the pupils postcode and their name.  NOTE: Make sure the postcode column has ‘postcode’ at the top and the name column has ‘label’ at the top.  Please also ensure that you save the file as a .csv (comma separated value) rather than an .xls.

Step 2: Once you have saved your file in Excel, you need to upload it into Digimap for Schools.  Simply open the annotations toolbar and then go to the markers section and upload your file. Step 3: This is the stage at which you are able to start planning Santa’s route.  You will see all the locations with the pupils name beside it.  You then simply get the pupils to draw a line between the different pupils houses to see which is the quickest route.  You can use the measurement tool to get the length of the individual routes.  Remember you can add some photos to your map also!

Activity 2: Digimap Christmas Jigsaw’s

This can be done either as an online Jigsaw or as a hard copy.  You can generate a series of maps with ‘secret’ Christmas phrases or words that correspond to places on your maps.  E.g.

To create an online Jigsaw I’ve used Jigsaw planet https://www.jigsawplanet.com which is very simple to use and allows you to create your jigsaw.  Alternatively you can simply download a Jigsaw image from Google e.g. http://miamibox.us/puzzle-piece-template.html and place it over your map in Powerpoint.  Here are is an example of both:

These are quite festive little activities which can be all done pretty quickly in Digimap fro Schools.  We wish you all the very best in the run up to Christmas and hope these activities can be of some help!

We’ve created a quick video to show you how to do these tasks above….

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pete

The Geography GCSE curriculum has changed over the last number of years so we decided to have a quick look into what had changed and more importantly how Digimap for Schools can cater for these changes.  We looked in particular at the AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC and CEA examination boards.  We noted that the majority of these examination boards now mandate that two field studies are required, one for physical and one for human geography.

As we got into the bare bones of the specifications we noted some common themes occurring in the Controlled Assessment/Fieldwork.  Many of them had similar themes for the Data Collection and Data Presentation elements of fieldwork.  We created this short video highlighting how Digimap for School can help.  Hopefully this will showcase how beneficial the service is to teachers and pupils at GCSE.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Below is a personal review of Digimap for Schools by Megan Roodt.  Megan is an NQT and has been very generous in sparing some time to write and share this review with us.  Thanks Megan.

The Geography National Curriculum for England states that students should be taught to “use Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to view, analyse and interpret places and data,” (DfE, 2013) however, whilst it can be agreed that proficiency in GIS is a valuable skill of Geographers, implementing its effective use in the classroom can be both ambitious and daunting to teachers and students. So firstly, why would the Department for Education signpost the use of GIS in the Geography National Curriculum? GIS has revolutionised the way in which we view land on Earth, (Heywood et al., 2011) and has been noted as one of the 25 most important developments for human impact in the 20^th Century due to its powerful analytical abilities, (Fargher, 2013) thus students who are familiar with its uses not only have a better understanding of their environment but are better equipped to enter the technological business world, (Butt, 2002; Demirci, 2008). Traditionally, GIS software was quite complex with time-consuming downloads and processing; indeed, GIS was not initially created for use in the classroom but rather as a decision-making tool to be used by government and business. Unfortunately, such characteristics made the use of GIS unsuitable for the contemporary Geography classroom that is under increasing curriculum and timetabling pressures. So how do we then, as teaching practitioners, effectively implement GIS in our classrooms in a way that both fulfils the criteria of the National Curriculum and acts as a tool to promote learning among our students?

Digimap for Schools may very well offer the solution to this problem. As a collaborative venture between EDINA, JISC Collections and Ordnance Survey, Digimap for Schools offers an online mapping service to both students and teachers, (Digimap for Schools, 2017). The online nature of this service instantly makes it incredibly time-effective to implement in the classroom; there is no need for downloading software or mobile apps, maps can be accessed at any time and on various platforms (e.g. laptops, iPads or mobile phones) and all that students require is internet access. A far cry to the bulky and time-consuming GIS software that I became familiar with at university!

During a GIS club run by the Geography Department at The Mountbatten School, students were asked to create a proposal to identify the best locations for bins and recycling centres on the school grounds. Using Digimap for Schools, students collected raw data which was uploaded to their own maps. Students then used buffers and their personal understanding of various environmental and human factors to analyse and interpret the data to make justified decisions which would then better inform their proposal. Something that soon became apparent was that the way in which Digimap for Schools is set up can allow for a brilliant example of differentiation by outcome in that students had complete control over what went onto their maps and what functions they were going to use to make their decisions. The only premise was that their decision would need to be justified; both an important command word in the new GCSE specification and a skill to be used throughout personal and professional life.

The user-friendly layout of Digimap for Schools meant that students quickly became not only familiar with the functions available but also confident in its uses. As such, students could complete complex GIS functions in a short period of time and view the results instantly which further motivated them to challenge their data by processing alternative solutions which only made for better informed decisions. Other features of Digimap for Schools that students really enjoyed included being able to upload their own images to maps, annotating their choices and using historical maps and aerial images to view their map area in different settings.

From a teacher’s perspective, the service is very simple to use and, as many classrooms and IT suites are now fitted with interactive whiteboards, it is easy to demonstrate to students how to perform functions on Digimap for Schools. Digimap for Schools offers a simple yet effective service that makes the use of GIS both effective and enjoyable in the classroom whilst fulfilling the requirement stated on the National Curriculum.

Overall, I would highly recommend the use of Digimap for Schools in the Geography classroom as I’ve experienced its value as an efficient tool in promoting geographical enquiry and independent decision-making; it has a layout that students quickly become familiar with, the outputs of functions are immediate which allow students time to process and manipulate data as they feel appropriate and it is a service that puts as much emphasis on the process as it does on the output which, in my opinion, provides an authentic learning experience for both students and teachers.

References:

Butt, G., 2002. “Chapter 10: The Role of ICT in the Teaching and Learning of Geography” in Reflective Teaching of Geography 11 – 18: Meeting standards and applying research. Continuum: London.

Demirci, A., 2008. Evaluating the implementation and effectiveness of GIS-Based application in secondary school geography lessons. American Journal of Applied Sciences. 5(3): 169-178

Department for Education, 2013. The national curriculum in England. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/381754/SECONDARY_national_curriculum.pdf. Accessed: 10/08/2017

Digimap for Schools, 2017. Digimap for Schools: About. Available from: http://digimapforschools.edina.ac.uk/about

Fargher, M (2013) Geographic Information (GI) – how could it be used?’ ch 15 in Lambert, D & Jones, M (Eds) Debates in geography Education. Routledge: Oxon.

Heywood, I., Cornelius, S., Carver, S., 2011. An introduction to Geographical Information Systems. (4^th ed.). Pearson Education Limited: Essex.