Madagasca

A fun tool for learning about Madagasca is http://www.lessonpaths.com/learn/i/studying-madagascar/map-of-madagascar-madagascar-map-madagascar-information-world-atlascom.
 This makes use of World Atlas.Com for the geography and Lesson Paths.com to organise learning resources.

Google Maps

If Google maps can help you teach geography or tourism or any other subject this link will take to you useful maps and also to a link for tutorials about using Google Earth.

A new view of the world - Cartograms

The Worldmapper website provides almost 700 density-equalising maps realting to different topics. These cartograms re-size the territories according to the variable being mapped. So if you want to compare areas by transport, tourism, production, disease or many other categories, these maps can show you relative densities and provide a poster summarising the data. The site offers a range of variables to compare the countries.

Virtual Panoramas

360Cities provides access to many different virtual panoramas. It uses interactive photographs which users can explore looking in all directions or zooming in or out by clicking and dragging a mouse around the image.

360Cities has panoramas from around the world. On the site you can select a country and view a map and selection of thumbnail images each leading to panoramas and a written description of the city.

The site also enables users to create their own virtual tour or embed existing tours in non-commercial websites.

The example below is from the 360 website…


Amedee Coral Reef New Caledonia in New Caledonia

World Atlas

Discovery Atlas enables the user to zoom in on a country of choice and then to learn more abpout that country with text and videos covering the themes Culture, Governmnet, History and Natural World. This is a fun way to learn more about the world.

Free Poverty - Geography Game which Donates Water

The FreePoverty website seeks to help users donate water to people world who live in extreme poverty. Users play a game which tests their geography knowledge by locating places on a map. The more accurate the attempts, the more water is donated on their behalf.


FreePoverty's stated aims are "to:

- Provide clean drinking water to those in need
- Make users realize that they can make a difference
- Let users learn something about geography that they may have not known before"

Geography at the Movies

Geography at the Movies is a non-profit making free site for geography teachers to share their films. Topics covered include agriculture, climate change, coasts, development, environment, industry, places, population, resources, rivers, rocks, settlement, tectonics, tourism and weather

Originally set up as a blog intended to collate movies made by geographers, its popularity has seen it developed into this website.

Wanderlust

Rather than just look at geography or history sites, why not try a new perspective - travel the world with the explorers. Wanderlust website enables you to go on some of the most famous historical journeys - whether you want to travel the Old Silk Road, Around the World in 80 Days or another of history's greatest journeys. Select your journey and follow the route around the world with pictures and information on route. Happy travels.

Visual Geography

Created by Boris Kester (a photographer, webmaster and writer) and Nana Bjørnlund (a photographer, editor and writer), Visual Geography is a website dedicated to to those studying and teaching about the world. The site places more emphasis on visual than textual information and lets you explore the world through images, flags, money, language, maps and other information. The site also offers a "Did you know" announcement which is updated each time the site is accessed, quizes aimed at different levels of knowledge and the opportunity to share your own photographs.

National Geographic

The National Geographic Society is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. It provides wide ranging information about geography, archaeology, natural science, environmental and historical conservation, and world culture and history.

The National Geographic website has something to offer all age groups.

Of particular note are the geography quizes which are updated daily and record scores to enable competition.

There are also daily news updates, photographs and videos and many articles and quizes covering a wide range of topics including animals, science, health, astronomy, geography, history, environment, people, culture and much more.

Intute Virtual Training Suite

Aimed at both students and lecturers, these Intute Virtual Training Suite provide free teach yourself tutorials offering information about internet resources for different subject areas. Some of these include:

* Geography
* Digital Photography
* Learning Languages
* Modern Languages
* Anthropology
* Business
* Education
* Hospitality and Catering
* Leisure, Sport and Recreation
* Social Research Methods
* Social Statistics
* Travel and Tourism
* Health and Social Care
* Health and Well-being

Compulsive Traveller

If you want to access videos about travel, the Compulsive Traveller website is worth investigating. This site provides videos from around the world and provides an outlet for the videos taken by self confessed compulsive travellers with an option for users to add new ones. The videos can be found under themes such as people, places, great chefs of the world and funny videos and the site provides additional information about the featured destinations.

This site might be useful for projects about countries or tourism or in preperation for student residential visits, planning a holiday or just for interest.

Free Images

Finding appropriate images and photographs for teaching resources or for personal use can be quite time consuming. Windows on our world provides over 5,000 royalty free online images with a geographical theme. The site receives support from the Royal Geographical Society. The images are divided into a subject categories or can be found using the search tool. The site also welcomes comtributions of new images from readers.

Show World - visual maps

Show®World was launched in May 2008 by Mapping Worlds. The website provides a new way to look at the world by resizing countries on a map according to different data sets. For example, if you select the data for rural populations North America shrinks and India, China and Bangladesh grow. If you select data for Soybean crops USA, Brazil and Argentina grow and other countries shrink. Although the map is visual, running the mouse over countries shows the country name and data relating to it. The site allows users to download and share the datasets, maps and animations.

This may be an interesting starting point for discussions or even a fun way to learn more about the world.

Travelpod

Yesterday's post was about the cultural etiquette of different countries. Today's site is an opportunity to learn more or share your travel experiences.

Travelpod is a free travel blog lets you plot trips on a map, share photos and videos, and stay in touch while you travel.

One section of this site provides a Travellers IQ Challenge Here you will find several different quizes to test your knowledge or that of your students. The quizes are under the following under the headings:
World North America Europe World Capitals
Canada Asia UNESCO Sites Africa
Latin America Oceania/Australasia Flags of the World Photos of the World
USA Challenge Amazing Race

Geography & Culture

If you want to know more about different cultures, you could have a look at the World guide to cross-cultural etiquette. This may be particularly useful if you teach a travel or tourism subject.

The site also provides some tools for understanding your own culture, by exploring the values, communications styles and other elements that guide actions, interactions and reactions.

This site offers the chance to ask questions, read reviews, test your cutlural knowledge with weekly quizes and access useful resources for travel.

Education, Fun and Blogging

I have spent sime time today looking at other people's blogs. What a wealth of information there is available to us just from these! I have found an etch-a-sketch website which reminded me of my youth and a site offering to teach me mandarin.

I have also found the first Chinese 3D Virtual Tourism Site - Virtual Forbidden Palace, and a game to test my skill as a supermarket manager.

There is so much more out there so why not try searching google for topics of interest. But make sure you have some spare time before you start!