A new series of virtual field trips is being distributed over the Internet as video podcasts on the web site www.meetmeatthecorner.org. Each video is linked to fun websites and a Learning Corner of questions and extended activities. New episodes are uploaded every two weeks.

This week you can take virtual field trip to San Diego. The young host Robert interviews and tours the USS MIDWAY and learns what life was like aboard a city at sea.

The Journey Journal is a special passport sized book that encourages young people to (re)think the places they visit. It has been written for use during holidays, school trips and to support the transition between primary and secondary school.

The Journey Journal site explains that “going somewhere new is a massive opportunity to discover and make sense of the cultures, environments, issues and alternative ideas. The Journey Journal is a clever little interactive book that is packed with things to record, think and do. Using the Journey Journal encourages critical and creative thinking, helping the traveller to see their world in new ways.

Copies of the Journey Journal are usually £4.49 incl UK P&P) but you can get a copy for just £2.50 (with free P&P) by using the code ‘SAGT’ when you order in their online shop.

Young people around the world have been sharing their experiences of work for the BBC World Class Workarama. They have been answering four questions:

• What work do you do at home?
• What work do you do outside the home?
• Are you paid for any of the work you do?
• What is the money spent on?

You can read the responses on the interactive map on the BBC site. They make interesting readingand would be useful for work within Geography / PSHE lessons. You can also read a selection of these on the BBC World Class site, and get involved yourself by completing the form here.

Here’s another selection of links and ideas that I’ve discovered from my Twitter network over recent weeks:

• Mapzone (via @simonhaughton) – Learn how to read maps with this interactive site from Ordnance Survey.
  
• Interactives Spelling Bee (via @keisawilliams) – Just like an old-fashioned spelling bee, but played on your computer, with different grade levels to choose from.
• e-learning for Kids (via @shaunwoodnz) – Lots of free e-learning courses, covering a wide range of topics.
• DirectgovKids (via @wigglemyears) – A bright and colourful to help children to learn about the world around them. Also has sections for parents and teachers.
  
• ABC Reading Eggs (via @kelrob6) - a site for children aged 4-7 which aims to help them learn to read while having fun.
• Did you Know 4.0 – An update to the popular video presentation which includes facts and statistics about the world around us.
  

Thanks to those who shared these wonderful links! Lots of people think that Twitter is about listening to random strangers posting messages about where they are, what they are doing, and what they are having for dinner tonight.

But it’s much more than that. I find Twitter to be a great way for people with common interests to share links and discover new ideas. If you’re signed up, follow me at @markw29 and @teachingideas.

The countdown to Sport Relief 2010 kicks off this month with the launch of exciting, free education resources for primary, secondary and early years groups. The resources, spanning the English, physical education and citizenship curriculums, bring alive the stories of young people in the UK and overseas. Sport Relief’s School Kits are available to order for free at www.sportrelief.com/schools. The kits provide teachers with all the tools they need to get set to ‘Rise to the Challenge’ and inspire their students to get active to help some of the world’s poorest people, both at home in the UK and overseas.

Sport Relief’s free to order resources range from lesson and assembly plans to photos, videos and real stories about children and young people supported by Sport Relief funded projects.

Sportacus, from BBC’s LazyTown is back to excite and inspire early years groups with a host of learning ideas. Early years kits will also include a full colour story book, helping children to understand the differences between their lives and those of other children around the world.

For primary and secondary schools, Sport Relief offers English, PE and citizenship lesson ideas and resources for key stages one to four, including lesson plans and activities that will get students thinking like journalists, with a dedicated area on www.sportrelief.com/schools for them to upload their reports on the issues affecting them in their communities, for all to see.

Get Your Socks on for Sport Relief with the Sport Relief Sock Deposit Scheme for schools. An easy way for schools to fundraise, simply pay a deposit for an order of Sport Relief stripy socks from the website and sell the socks in your school. For every pair of Sport Relief socks ordered through the Sock Deposit Scheme, Sainsbury’s is kindly giving one Active Kids voucher to the school. The Sport Relief sock will also be available to buy in UK Sainsbury’s stores for £2.

The Sport Relief fundraising campaign kicks off in January, when schools will be able to find a wealth of ideas to inspire kids of all ages to rise to the challenge and raise money for Sport Relief.

Important date for your diary – 19^th March 2010: Sport Relief Friday across schools in the UK kicks off the Sport Relief weekend of fundraising fun!

Pa Pa Paa LIVE! is an online video broadcasting service for schools, delivering webcasts from a rural school in Ghana to classrooms across the UK: www.papapaa.org/live
 
The aim of Pa Pa Paa LIVE! is to increase young people’s understanding of Fairtrade and the everyday lives of young people in a cocoa growing community. It provides a child-eye view of Ghanaian life available to schools on subscription.
 
Schools can watch a free webcast at www.papapaalive.org/broadcast/taster in which the children from a Fairtrade cocoa growing district in rural Ghana present their hopes and dreams for the future. It was made to celebrate International Day of the African Child on 16th June, and highlights the hope and aspirations young people in Africa have for their futures; free from poverty and full of opportunities.
 
In this webcast, the children discuss their career aspirations, mentioning professions including footballer, doctor, cocoa farmer, pastor, and journalist. They consider the lengthy training needed to become a qualified doctor and the cost of attending university. One pupil talks about moving to Accra, the capital of Ghana, while another prefers to stay in the countryside and be a cocoa farmer like his parents. One boy would like to have ten children, and intends to pay for them by becoming a pilot!
 
The students at the Ghana school are filming the webcasts themselves. Your students can ask them questions online, and then the students in Ghana can answer them in their webcast. Tune in to learn more about the lives of pupils from a school built with Fairtrade money.
 
Pa Pa Paa LIVE! is aimed at Key Stages 2 and 3, and supports teaching on fair trade, geography, PSHE, the global dimension, citizenship and ICT. It is backed up by comprehensive online teaching resources on Fairtrade and chocolate at www.papapaa.org, and a DVD and photo pack.

Here is some information about the new edition of the best-selling Key Stage 2 photopack, ‘Chembakolli: Life and change in an Indian village’.

Thousands of schools around the UK study Chembakolli as part of the Key Stage 2 curriculum and part of QCA Unit 10 ‘A village in India’. This new pack really brings Chembakolli to life in the classroom.

The new edition of ‘Chembakolli: Life and change in an Indian village’ includes:

• 30 brand new A4 photocards to encourage discussion
• a booklet with useful information for teachers
• a CD-Rom with electronic lesson plans, classroom activities, audio clips and images
• a colourful timeline poster.

It provides a rich insight into the ways in which modern-day village life is changing, and covers issues ranging from health and education to the environment, trade and land rights. The activities also seed key geographical concepts such as diversity, sustainability and interdependence.

There is a special introductory offer until the end of May, were you can save £10 off the regular retail price of £35 of the new pack by calling 01460 23 8000 and quoting the reference ‘Gudalur’ (a town near Chembakolli).

For UK primary schools, Chembakolli is probably the most famous village in India and December 08 sees the start of celebrations to mark 20 years of village life.

Chembakolli, a village in southern India, was reclaimed following an unprecedented march in December 1988 by 10,000 Adivasi (indigenous people) from the Nilgiri Hills. Coming together to reclaim their tribal rights to live in the forests near the town of Gudalur, the march was a huge success, winning the respect of the government and local people. The Adivasi were able to settle in many villages on the land, including Chembakolli, as well as establish their own school and hospital.

To celebrate this anniversary, ActionAid is launching an online march, enabling teachers and pupils to create their own character and personalised placard before joining the virtual march.

Starting in Gudalur, the virtual route follows the footsteps of the real march, twenty years ago. In the town, the marchers can click on local landmarks, including market stalls, the hospital and school, and meet real life people and read their stories. As more people join the march, the route will extend into Chembakolli where visitors can learn about life in the village by clicking on parts of the village, local people, and an elephant.

As part of the celebrations, ActionAid has also produced The Chembakolli story, a beautifully narrated audio CD accompanied by a story/activity book and poster. The CD covers the events of the past 20 years in six parts, each with descriptive sound and music clips recorded in the village. It is ideal for classroom listening and interpretive learning and is available for £20 (inc p&p).

Janet Convery, head of ActionAid Schools, said: “The story of the gentle Adivasi people claiming their right to live peacefully in lush forests of southern India has captured the hearts of primary school children in the UK. With the new story book resource, they can now hear the full story of the past 20 years told in the words of Marigan, an inspirational village elder well known to Chembakolli followers.

“The Adivasi people are always amazed by the support they get from schools and are looking forward to seeing the online march grow as children join the 20th anniversary celebrations.”

To and join the online march or find our more about our Chembakolli resources go to www.actionaid.org.uk/march

The BBC have compiled a list of webcams from around England. From cities to animals to famous landmarks all of the webcams are BBC approved which generally means they are suitable for use in the classroom. Very useful for comparing and contrasting locations in Geography.

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/webcams/

I wrote an article about Quo Mapping in December last year. I used it for a while as my own mapping software for walking / cycling but then found the interface just too messy and went back to Memory Map. I was pleasantly surprised when I downloaded version 2 of their software early last week.

Version 2 however has had a totally rewrite by the look of it and after a few short days trialling the software I’m ready to purchase my maps and pay out for the Pro version. The new interface is totally different and now very simple to use – they have obviously listened to their customers!

The reason that I’m mentioning the software on here is that the free version, there are two versions (Quo Go and Quo Pro), both initially come with an atlas style map of the UK and allow you to download individual map tiles at very cheap prices.

How can this be used in school?

? You could download the map tile with your school on – a OS 1:25,000 tile is £1.95 and OS 1:50,000 is £0.99)
? Maybe download the aerial tile with your school (10m – FREE and 1m is £4.95).
? You could download the map tiles of areas that you are studying – Llandudno for example.
? Once the tiles are downloaded how about looking at the 3D views? Or planning your trip on the 1:25,000 scale map?
? Maybe you could use the maps to teach the children about contour lines in conjunction with the 3D views.
? Or just let the children explore the map that comes with the software.

I know that there is already a lot of free mapping software on the internet (Google Earth being the best example) but I really believe that our children need to use real OS maps (both computer based and paper). At such a low cost the software is a real winner and should be added to your list of free resources. I believe that there will also be educational pricing in the future so it could be even more of a bargain.

Link: http://www.mapyx.com/