January 2025
January 7th
Determined to attend, or catch up on, more of the RGS Monday night lectures this year, I got off to a good start! Last night I watched Ed Parsons deliver an excellent lecture about how we all became navigators.
Here are my key takeaways:
Maps have never been more widely used than they are today.
Despite newspaper headlines lamenting the decline of the nation’s map reading ability, we need to remember this.
We’re not just carrying maps around in our pocket pointlessly- we’re actually using them.
We are using maps, we are reading maps incredibly regularly- it’s just in a different way.
There are 2 billion users of Google maps every month.
We’ve all become navigators- we’re using maps to help us get from A to B.
But this is more complicated than it sounds. Where is A? Where am I at any particular point of time? Where is B?
But, to know where B is, we need to know where everything else in the world is. Where do I want to get to, relative to everywhere else?Our phones mean we’re getting personalised directions- taking into account our preferences for trains rather than buses, uses motorways rather than lanes. Our phones can pull up a photo of any building, pretty much anywhere in the world.
This knowledge of where things are has been embedded into other applications such as Uber and Deliveroo. All these apps use the same underlying tech: where am I? Where am I relative to everywhere else?
How did we get here? There are 2 major themes that are essential to understand in order to understand this change to mapping and our uses of maps.
1. Accessibility: something that was once only in the hands of a few people (because it was complicated or expensive) is now in the hands of everybody.
2. Technology accretion: technology has built on technology which has built on other technology to get us to this point.
Importantly, what does this mean?
These changes mean that today, as a society, we’ll never be lost.
Being lost is now an alien feeling- we can always rely on the blue dot to tell us where we are.
It’s incredible powerful in many ways- reassuring and helpful for things like the emergency services
But, just because we have that capability never to be lost, it doesn’t mean we have to use it all the time… there is value in exploring without that certainty
Naturally, having listened to the lecture, I found myself reflecting on what this might mean for our geography classrooms- especially in a time of curriculum reform conversations where mapping and geo-spatial skills are frequently mentioned.
What does this mean for our geography classrooms? My thoughts:
How do we present maps and the map skills we teach to students?
I rarely acknowledge how maps are used today and how mapping has changed in recent years with students- should we? Would this help give context to map skills and help students understand their relevance regardless of the ubiquitous use of Google and Apple maps?
Do we need to explicitly teach how modern mapping software works and the difference between app-based maps and printed OS maps? What would be the powerful knowledge in such a lesson?
January 6th
It was back with a bang today as I started the new term by delivering an hour of CPD to the geographers of the King Edward VI Foundation in Birmingham. I was asked to speak about what it means to think, speak and write like a geographer and I really enjoyed preparing for, and then presenting on, this topic.
When delivering sessions like this I find it useful to zoom out and start with the big picture. What does it mean to be a geographer and what are we aiming to develop in our students? I often find myself coming back to the same question: what does it mean to develop students’ ability to enquiry in the knowledge-rich age?
Delivering CPD is an element of my work that I love so if you’re interested in a CPD session, a curriculum review or assistance with one specific element of delivering the very best geography possible, please do get in touch.
January 2nd
As the end of the festive break draws to an end, I’m slowly re-introducing the my brain to the idea of work…
On days like this, I often work through a series of (enjoyable) small tasks to ensure I feel up-to-date, on top of things and inspired for the return.
Today, this included:
1. Signing up to Alan Parkinson’s Living Geography Substack
I used to get regular email updates from Alan’s Living Geography blog and found them incredibly useful- the regular dose of geography into my inbox would keep me up to date with books recommendations, podcasts, new resources and so much more. When this email subscription stopped, I would periodically visit the site for my geographical updates but it wasn’t the same as it landing regularly into my inbox… it’s great to see that Alan has got round these issues with a Substack newsletter- sign up here: https://livinggeography.blogspot.com/2024/12/happy-new-year-please-subscribe-to-my.html
2. Making a note of upcoming Monday night RGS lectures
I’m determined to make the most of my RGS fellowship this year and get to as many of their lectures as I can. Before Christmas, I attended the lecture given by Tim Marshall and it was (predictably) excellent. It’s inspired a me to do lots more reading about space and the geography of space.
3. Catching up on some podcasts from The Economist
Lots of people know that I’m a huge fan of The Economist and have no better source for maintaining, and broadening, my subject knowledge. I listen to their free ‘The Intelligence’ podcast most days and am lucky enough to have a digital subscription through work (something our Trust recently introduced for all teachers of geography, politics and economics). I make a note of particularly worthwhile clips to share in my weekly geography bulletin that goes out to all the geography teachers of Future Academies. Today, I made a note to share this discussion of how patterns of urbanisation are changing in China- listen from 11:36 to 16:20: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80Yd4aMq9bo.
