GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

It’s much worse than people realize.

Source: www.businessinsider.com

The relatively recent decline of music industry, as well as the newspaper industry, are good examples to teach the concept of creative destruction.  As jobs are created through new emerging technologies, older jobs will be rendered obsolete and be ‘destroyed.’  While many bemoan the loss of particular jobs as regrettable, it is a part of globalization of economic geography that as jobs are created with new technologies, other jobs disappear.  Indoor plumbing meant the death of the water-carrying guilds (while I might be sad they lost their jobs, I’m keeping my plumbing).  The trick is to make these transitions smooth and to prepare the labor force to have skills that the new economy will demand so that individual families and workers aren’t casualties of this ‘creative destruction’ process.     

Tags:  economic, labor, globalization, unit 6 industry.

“How well do you know your Saskatchewan slang? At Insightrix in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, we’ve got the prairies down flat!”

Source: www.youtube.com

Here’s an entertaining clip on different regionalized vocabularies and a hint of accent confusion thrown in there.  The portrayal is over the top, but it’s all local vocabulary that life-long residents certainly understand.  Here’s 320 more Canadian slang terms for you (scroll to the bottom).    

Tags: Canada, language, fun.

These maps look like they’re for mass transit. Really, they’re for everything else.

Source: www.vox.com

If you love the look and feel of subway maps, here you go. 

London to New York City by car? It could happen if the head of Russian Railways has his way.

Source: www.cnn.com

As Asya Pereltsvaig, the author of Languages of the World, wrote: “That’s what happens when Russia’s main problems, fools and roads (дураки и дороги), are combined…”  It’s the opposite idea of the summer road trip that is designed to hit all the major tourist sites.

Questions to Ponder: What are the pros and cons of this project?  What would it take to actually happen?  This map is a Mercator Projection–would a different map change your perspective on the feasibility of the project? 

Tags: Russia, map projections, transportation, tourism.

“Animated GIF map chronicling the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire.” 

Tags: empire, devolution, Middle East, borders, historical, map.

Source: upload.wikimedia.org

The Airbus A320 airliner en route from Barcelona to Düsseldorf, Germany, suddenly shifted into a rapid dive only moments after reaching its cruising altitude of 38,000 feet.

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

“In Highland Park, as in other Latino barrios of Los Angeles, gentrification has produced an undeniable but little appreciated side effect: the end of decades of de facto racial segregation. It’s possible to imagine a future in which ‘the hood’ passes into memory.  Racial integration is on the upswing.  For all the fortitude and pride you’ll find in Latino barrios, no one wants to live in a racially segregated community or attend a racially segregated school.”  

Tags: neighborhood, gentrification, urban, place, culture, economic, California, Los Angeles.

Source: www.nytimes.com

Source: itunes.apple.com

iScore5, the app for AP Human Geography is now available in the Apple Store for $4.99. With five levels of questions at increasing difficulty, bonus and double bonus rounds and a study mode with extensive vocabulary, APHG students and teachers alike will find this a great test prep resource and a fun and engaging way to help students earn that 5 (open disclosure–I was a part of the team that developed content for the app, but am NOT receiving any money for promoting it.  I’m sharing it because I’m excited about this new resource).  

Tags: APHG, teacher training, edtech.