TinyTap is a new iPad application designed for kids which introduces a different angle on the “record-your-own-voice” storybooks craze, by offering a playable book or game you and your kids can customize with your own photos, camera shots, music, narration, and more. The resulting creations can then be shared with family and friends. And, for a little inspiration, the built-in TinyTap store offers a collection of pre-made games which kids can customize with their own voice and actions.

The app is targeted at 4+ and up, so I couldn’t really enlist my in-house kid app beta tester (aka my 2-year old kid) to give it a rundown. But in testing it myself, I have to admit that I’m not 100% convinced they’ve nailed it on the user interface. For example, some of things you can add to your story, like photos and questions, are centered as thumbnails within the application’s design dashboard. Meanwhile, the add music option is oddly hovering above next to another add photo button, the sharing option and an edit button. It’s a layout that doesn’t quite make sense.

That’s too bad because if TinyTap’s workflow was more streamlined and simplified, it would be easier for them to add additional elements to the story/game design process.

That being said, TinyTap is still a lot better than much of the kids’ apps crapware out there in the iTunes App Store. And it’s hard not to fall in love with the concept at the very least. Instead of burning up brain cells with the mind-numbing games out there, TinyTap enables kids to become game creators, not just players.

The idea immediately reminded me of Kodu, Microsoft’s visual programming language for kids, which allows them to create PC and Xbox games – and more importantly, helps them to start thinking like a programmer. But Kodu is not only for different types of platforms, it’s for a slightly older child, too.

The bigger concept with TinyTap is that it could potentially become an entry-level tool for game development, which starts kids young, allowing them to wrap their little minds around the “if/then/else” concepts that go into process of game creation. The building blocks are already there: e.g., if you touch the nose in the picture when asked, you’re right and can go to the next question, but if you get it wrong, the game says “try again.”

There are a ton of DIY app building tools for adults, so it’s great to see someone thinking about building a platform for kids, too.

TinyTap is an Israeli-based company, co-founded in January 2012 by UX designers Yogev Shelly (formerly of Rounds.com) and another (who can’t disclose his name right now, as he’s still employed elsewhere). The team is based in Tel-Aviv and is currently looking to raise.

The app is a free download in iTunes here.

Article originally published at TechCrunch.com.

GetWings, an online education incubator, is proud to announce the launch of ChalkStar.com, an innovative new online platform for teachers teaching grades R – 12. ChalkStar is a supportive online community that develops new bundles of professional, top-quality worksheets every week for use in grade R to 3 classrooms. The community includes a market place for teachers to sell their own worksheets, and a worksheet-authoring tool that makes it easy for teachers to develop their custom worksheets. All community services are currently free while it is in its beta testing phase.

Once out of beta phase ChalkStar members will pay a monthly subscription of R100 (50% launch special available to Teacher’s Monthly readers!) to gain access to a wide range of tools and services. Every week, members can download a new set of themed worksheets based on current affairs for the subjects of math, science and English literacy. Students will not only benefit from the structured and simple educational outcomes, but also get to learn more about the world and events around them – for example, the worksheets released over Bastille Day had a decidedly French theme and included exercises linked to Bastille Day for math, science and English literacy. The worksheets are professionally designed according to best teaching practices and provide everything a teacher needs to stimulate classroom learning in the elementary grades.

ChalkStar also provides members with access to a worksheet marketplace: teachers can upload and sell their existing materials, or purchase specific worksheets from their peers, for a flat fee of R30 (authoring teachers keep 75% of the sale price). A forthcoming addition is a worksheet-authoring tool, which will allow teachers to tailor make their own worksheets, based on the fundamental principles that ChalkStar employs. Dan Bailey, the project lead for ChalkStar, explains “Designing worksheets is hugely time consuming. In addition to the bundles of worksheets we design for members each week, we are also working on a worksheet-authoring tool. This tool will allow teachers to create their own worksheets using dozens of best-practice templates. We will be launching this new tool in September 2011.

Designed to be simple and to allow teachers to earn income from their expert knowledge, ChalkStar is committed to supporting the over 250,000 school teachers in South Africa. Worksheets are the staple of elementary school education, because they provide simple and fun learning exercises while making it easy for the teacher to structure and assess outcomes. ChalkStar is the next step in improving the delivery and quality of these worksheets.

ChalkStar is free to all subscribers during its beta testing phase. The full service, with applicable subscription fee, will launch at the end of September 2011.

To try out the service or to find out more, visit www.ChalkStar.com.

On page 2 of the editorial, they give the benefits of spatial literacy in different areas of our lives. I would like to share these with you.

“Geo-literacy has important benefits across our personal, workplace, and civic lives:

• In our personal lives, making well-reasoned decisions about where to live, how to commute, and what products to buy can save time and money, protect the environment, and improve personal health and welfare.
• In our workplaces, making well-reasoned decisions about supply chains, infrastructure investments, and marketing strategies can reduce costs and increase revenues dramatically.
• In our civic (public) lives, making well-reasoned decisions about zoning and public transit, about emergency preparedness and response, and about foreign affairs can increase our safety, security, and quality of life.”

They go on to say that it is important to raise the geo-literacy level of ALL members of society to meet basic and society’s needs. But we also need to try to expand “the number of individuals with higher levels of geo-expertise to meet the planning and decision-making needs of 21st century commerce and government”. I couldn’t agree more. As always the question is how?

Their editorial addresses this and I believe that their suggestions are relevant to us here in South Africa too.

Have a read and let  me know your thoughts!

WHY?

This month’s theme was connections. Jigsaws are all about connections, from placing the pieces correctly to make the picture, to connecting hand-eye co-ordination, to the analytic skills needed to construct the details of the puzzle.

Lecturers in GIS from the University of Fort Hare find many learners who are now in Grades 10 to 12 and at university struggle to put together jigsaws. If they cannot, they will struggle with Spatial Literacy itself and will find it difficult to understand and work with spatial data.

Jigsaws are also a great way of bringing Spatial Literacy into other areas of the curriculum, depending on the theme of the puzzle.

HOW?

To make the most of the educational value of a jigsaw puzzle, it needs to form part of the learning process, and not be a standalone activity. The educational value of jigsaw puzzles depends on how the puzzles are used in the learning process.

Here are some ideas for how jigsaws puzzle can be used:

• To introduce a new topic and to stimulate  interest and discussion
• To support existing and past learning
• To create new learning experiences. For example, in doing a puzzle of a South African scene, famous landmarks / features could be found on the puzzle. The learners could look these up and research them in books, on the Internet or in other media scuh as brochures. Lessons could be developed from the ideas
• Use learners own photographs created in project work to make into puzzles to make the puzzle even more meaningful. There are places in South Africa that offer this service.

TYPES

The best jigsaws are the physical type of course, but there are a load of online sites that offer jigsaw puzzle building. Many sites offer the ability to change the number and shape of pieces so that the difficulty can be varied. Some even allow you to upload your own photos to make into puzzles. Try:

TheJigsawPuzzles.com
The JigZone.com

If your learners are already good at doing jigsaws, why not challenge them to do backward ones called Wasgijs. The picture on the box is not what they build but rather a different view of the scene. This will really build up their spatial skills!

“in spite of the fact that ‘spatial thinking’ has been a part of the lexicon of geography educators for many years, there remains little consensus with regard to what this means for teaching.” ( 2010).

This article series is about finding practical ways to integrate spatial thinking into teaching. But I also want to make sure that it gives readers an idea of the theory behind this topic, without being too theoretical! If that is possible.

So far we have looked at location and direction, two concepts that can be thought of as spatial primitives or simple-spatial concepts.

This time, I cast my eye to ‘connections’ as a spatial thinking concept. This is an interesting concept. Different academics and geographers classify this in different classes in their spatial thinking lexicons / taxonomies.

Regardless of where ‘connection’  is placed and its perceived simplicity or complexity, it is still a concept well covered by geography curricula and in different places in the world it appears from as early as Grade 3 and sometimes earlier. In fact it is a great concept to work with as it can encompass many learning units.

Definitions

Let’s look at some definitions of ‘connection’ to get an idea of what it actually is. Philip and Carol Gersmehl introduce the concept of connections like this:

“for geographers, the facts about a location fall into two logically distinct but complementary groups, which work together like two hands clapping. One hand holds all the conditions that occur at a particular place—its climate, architecture, population density, vegetation, animals, agriculture, industry, politics, religion, and so forth. The other hand holds all the connections between a particular place and other places, near and far. Those connections can be “natural” (slope, wind, river flow, seed dispersal, animal migration, etc.) or human-induced (trade, commuting, corporate control, family ties, political authority, etc.)” (2007)

A generic definition could be an understanding of spatial connections, comprehension of networks, of locations and spatial interaction between locations.

Here are some more specific definitions from the theoretical and academic literature:

• Gersmehl (2005): How a location is linked with other places by natural or human-made links; connections (transportation, routes, corporation ties, political associations) between a place and other places
• Golledge (1995): Using principles such as nearest neighbor, proximity, similarity, etc., one can derive a concept of join or link; thus ideas of connection or linkage can be developed.
• Anthmatten (2010): Geographic connections are processes or structures that link two places together. Places can be connected both near and far, as well as through human or physical processes. Many commonly taught topics in geography fall into the category of connections, including atmospheric circulation, river flows, migration, and trade routes.

Connections and Cognition

Another interesting angle on connections is highlighted by Gersmehl and Gersmehl (2007) from a cognitive perspective. They tell us that the human brain stores information about places (conditions) and the connections between them differently and that teaching about connections between places can provide students with a firm foundation about the conditions of a place.

Teaching about Connections in the classroom

Peter Anthamaten (2010) believes that teaching must deal with how connections with other places impact on local conditions in a dynamic way. Note that he emphasises dynamic and local.

Here are some ideas about teaching connections from the literature:

• Describe the connections that a location might have with other places, near and far by
  • natural links: slope, wind, river flow, seed dispersal, atmospheric circulation, river flows, animal migration, etc
    OR
  • human-made links: trade, commuting, corporate control, family ties, political authority and association, transportation, routes etc
• know and understand the causes and effects of human migration
• describe how migration and immigration are continuous, dynamic processes
• describe how places are connected by the movement of goods and services, ideas and people
• provide reasons why and describe how places and regions change and are connected
• describe how transportation and communication systems have facilitated the movement of people, products, and ideas

In the true spirit of teaching integrated spatial thinking across the curriculum, these ideas xould be incorporated into other subject areas such as maths, history, economics, cultural studies and so on.

Resources and Games for teaching Connections

Many websites have information, images, facts sheets and worksheets on these types of topics. Here are just a few that I have found:

• Ocean Conveyor Belt on National Geographic Education Channel – a resource on the ocean currents
  http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/multimedia/ocean-conveyor-belt/
• Learn about the movements of the planet’s species from National Geographic Channel. Articles and educational activities

  http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/program/great-migrations-education-outreach/?ar_a=1

• British Red Cross: Positive images Toolkit – an educational resource for teachers and other educators that can be used to teach young people, aged 12 and over, about migration and development.  Download the PDF file or Word document from here
  http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/Teaching-resources/Teaching-packages/Positive-Images/Toolkit
• 100 People – Global Education Toolbox. Lesson plans on Global Education. Take a look at 100 People: Global Issues Through our Lens Lesson Plans as this includes an element on transport.

There are a multitude of online games available that cover many of these topics.

• Have a look at this link which has 101 Geography Games. Look for the topic on each screen to see if it is relevant

  https://docs.google.com/present/view?skipauth=true&id=dfc7f644_22cz4scmhf

• National Geographic Channel Games such as Great Migrations and so on
  http://games.nationalgeographic.com/

That’s it for this month. What do you think of the balance between practical and theoretical content? I would really appreciate your feedback, so please leave me a comment.

References used in this article

Anthamatten, P. (2010). Spatial Thinking Concepts in Early Grade-Level Geography Standards. Journal of Geography, 169-180.

Gersmehl, P. J., & Gersmehl, C. A. (2007). Spatial Thinking by Young Children: Neurologic Evidence for Early Describing a Location. Journal of Geography, 181-191.

Golledge, R. G., Marsh, M., & Battersby, S. (2008). Matching Geospatial Concepts with Geographic Educational Needs. Geographical Research, 46(1), 85-98. doi: 10.1111/j.1745-5871.2007.00494.x.

Golledge, R. G. (1995). Primitives of Spatial Knowledge. In Nyerges T.L., D.M. Mark, R. Laurini, & M.J. Egenhofer (Eds.), Cognitive Aspects of Human-Computer Interaction for Geographic Information Systems (pp. 29-44), Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Injeong, J. (2007). Aspects of Spatial Thinking in Geography Textbook Questions.

Injeong, J. and Bednarz, S. (2009). Evaluating Geography Textbook Questions from a Spatial Perspective: Using Concepts of Space, Tools of Representation, and Cognitive Processes to Evaluate Spatiality. Journal of Geography 108: 4-13.

Kaufman, M. M. (2004) Using Spatial-Temporal Primitives to Improve Geographic Skills for Preservice Teachers. Journal of Geography, 103(4): 171-181

Ideal for early adolescents. Ships are placed on intersecting points which are identified by latitude and longitude coordinates, and not in the squares. This game is good for teaching them the correct way to say coordinates, and with a bit of discussion after how GPS differs from alphanumeric grids.

Working with Longitude and Latitude falls under the Location category for Spatial Literacy.

Download sample game from here. Many thanks to TES.CO.UK for the idea. For more information click here.

Getting back to the specifics of location in spatial literacy, Malclom McInerney suggests that we need to develop an awareness of the location of features as well as identifying and locating of environments and the ability to describe the relative location of features and environments and discuss and analyse the reasons for the relative location of features and environment.

With this in mind then, the following ideas look at some ways of incorporating location in spatial literacy education.

Often spatial judgments, such as size, shape, distance, or direction comparisons, are not evaluations of properties of entities but rather evaluations that depend on relating an entity to a reference frame (e.g., determining whether something is upright), or relating one entity to another (e.g., deciding whether one glass is closer than another or filled higher than another). Determining location and comparing location are important spatial evaluations and comparisons that depend on relating an entity to a reference frame.

Introducing Absolute and Relative Location

• Place definitions of absolute and relative location on the board.  Discuss the similarities and differences among the definitions.
• Now discuss how we use this knowledge in constructing maps.  How is absolute location used in creating a map of the world?  How is relative location used in creating a map of the world?  Do we need absolute location?  Could we get by with relative location?

Working with The Space of Navigation for Relative Location

Barbara Tversky talks about this. The space of navigation is the space of potential travel. It is too large to be seen at once, so it is pieced together from a variety of kinds of experience, perceptual, from actual navigation, or cognitive, from maps or descriptions. The space of navigation serves to guide us as we walk, drive, fly about in the world. Constituents of the space of navigation include places, which may be buildings or parks or piazzas or rivers or mountains, as well as countries or planets or stars, on yet larger scales. It can be acquired from descriptions and from diagrams, notably maps, as well as from direct experience. Descriptions of the space of navigation locate places with respect to one another and a reference frame, from a ‘perspective’.

Consider using these types of narratives or descriptions for relative location exercises and for developing the space of navigation. The narratives correspond to natural ways in which we acquire representations of environments, from a single external viewpoint, from travelling through the environment, and from viewing an environment from a height.

Maps constructed from reading or listening to any perspective can be highly accurate and can assist in instilling mental representations of environments into learners.

o       gaze description

This perspective can be used to describe smaller environments, those that can be seen from a single viewpoint, such as a room from an entrance. Landmarks are described from the stationary viewpoint of an observer relative to each other in terms of the observer’s left and right.  For example, “The desk is left of the bed, and the bookcase is left of the desk.”

This example could be used in the Foundation Phase or early Intermediate Phase. Ask the children to draw a sign post showing where things are in relation to where they are sitting.

For example:

The arrows indicate the location of the objects / people in relation to the child (labelled “Me”). The length of the arrow indicates the distance between the child and the object / person. The children could make their sign posts more interesting by using pictures instead of words.

o       route perspective

The narrative or description takes a changing point of view within an environment, addressing the reader or listener as “you,” describing you navigating through an environment, locating landmarks relative to your changing position in terms of your left, right, front, and back. For example, “As you drive down Cape Road, you will pass the bank on your right and the post office on your left.  Turn right on Mount Road and the restaurant will be on your left.”

o       survey perspective

The narrative or description takes a stationary viewpoint above the environment, locating landmarks relative to each other in terms of an extrinsic frame of reference, typically, north-south-east-west.  For example, “The bank is east of the post office and the restaurant is north of the post office.”

For both these examples, learners could be put into pairs. One learner describes locations from one of the perspectives whilst the other learner attempts to draw a map or diagram of the environment described, using the locations highlighted. Depending on the ages of the learners, these environments could be local (the school, local community) or more universal.

If you have used approaches like those mentioned above, I’d love to hear what they are. Join me next time for another theme in spatial literacy education.

References used in this article

• Goodchild, M. F. (2006). The Fourth R ? Rethinking GIS Education. ArcNews Online, (September 2005).
• Leeuwen, W. S. V. (2009). Spatial literacy : the ABC of the ( X , Y , Z ) The five senses of GIS in education.
• McInerney, M. (2005). Spatial technology and spatial literacy in primary schools. Australian Geography Teachers Association.
• National Research Council. (2000). Learning to Think Spatially: GIS as a Support System in the K-12 Curriculum. Washington DC. doi: 10.1089/15245940050156012.
• Tversky, B. (2005). Functional significance of visuospatial representations. The Cambridge Handbook of Visuospatial Thinking, 1–34.

• Where is it?
• Why is it there?

Two concepts are taught when talking about Location:

• Absolute location provides a definite or specific reference to locate a place. The reference can be latitude and longitude, a street address etc.
• Relative location describes a place with respect to its environment and its connection to other places such as next door, nearby, a short drive, down the road. Or, it can be in the same general location as another location – example: next to the post office.

Spatial Literacy Education vs Geography Education

This series of articles focuses on spatial literacy, of which location is also a foundation concept. In fact, location is sometimes called one of the ‘spatial primitives’ by a large body of spatial literacy scholars.

“Spatial thinking is integral to everyday life. People, natural objects, human-made objects, and human-made structures exist somewhere in space and the interactions of people and things must be understood in terms of locations, distances, directions, shapes, and patterns.”

This quote by the National Research Council in ‘Learning to Think Spatially’ links spatial literacy, core geography concepts and it’s importance for everyone in everyday life.

But does spatial literacy teaching differ to geography teaching? Before we venture further into the specifics of location, I’d like to take a detour into this question, as a means of clarifying the subtle differences between geography and spatial literacy education.

Michael Goodchild highlights two subtle differences between the two. The emphasis for spatial literacy education should be different. Spatial literacy should focus on what every member of tomorrow’s society should know rather than on the specialised skills needed by geography and GIS professionals. The objectives for spatial literacy education are very different as well – spatial literacy is for everyone not just those who may become geography or GIS professionals.

Spatial literacy researchers suggest that when developing an educational framework for spatial literacy, the following questions arise that can inform our teaching efforts:

• Concepts: How can we educate for the foundation concepts for spatial literacy? (Location, distance,  neighbourhood, scale, etc).
• Themes: Which themes are suitable for educating about spatial literacy? (Climate, regional planning, disaster management, etc)
• Subjects: Which school subjects can be involved with spatial literacy education? (Not only geography but also biology, history, science and maths)
• Resources: What works best in which situation? (Giving lessons, using books, doing field work or exploring digital data with GIS).

Goodchild has similar ideas when he asks “what would a course in spatial literacy look like?” He believes that it would include “a minimal set of the basic concepts of spatial thinking and reasoning: location and place, distance and direction, topological relationships, wayfinding, map reading, etc” as well as many other aspects.

These ideas can give us an insight into what spatial literacy education can be. If you want to know more, then the ‘Learning to Think Spatially” report produced by the National Research Council is an invaluable read and a great starting point. Alternatively, keep reading my articles for an overview!

You will have noticed that location appears as a key concept in each of the viewpoints above, so part two of this article will suggest some pratical ideas for working with location from a spatial literacy perspective.

References used in this article

• Goodchild, M. F. (2006). The Fourth R ? Rethinking GIS Education. ArcNews Online, (September 2005).
• Leeuwen, W. S. V. (2009). Spatial literacy : the ABC of the ( X , Y , Z ) The five senses of GIS in education.
• McInerney, M. (2005). Spatial technology and spatial literacy in primary schools. Australian Geography Teachers Association.
• National Research Council. (2000). Learning to Think Spatially: GIS as a Support System in the K-12 Curriculum. Washington DC. doi: 10.1089/15245940050156012.
• Tversky, B. (2005). Functional significance of visuospatial representations. The Cambridge Handbook of Visuospatial Thinking, 1–34.

In South Africa, we start teaching Direction in early grades but formally in Grades 4, 5 and 6 as it is an integral part of teaching Map Work Skills. But Direction is also a key component of Spatial Literacy in terms of knowing where we are in the world and how we relate to the world around us. Direction is consolidated at the higher grades and used as a basis for solving problems.

The examples included here are very simple but give the idea that Spatial Literacy teaching can start in the Intermediate Phase.

Intermediate Phase: a simple but interactive game for consolidation

• Divide the class into groups of 4 learners.
• Tell each group that each learner must choose one fixed direction (i.e. the first learner chooses east, other chooses north etc).
• Point to one part of the room and say “This is the north”.
• The groups should then organise themselves so that the ‘north’ child is also pointing north and the other children are all in the correct positions, pointing to their own correct compass positions.
• The fastest group is the winner!
• This game could also be extended to include north-east / south-east / north-west and south-west (with eight children in each group).

Another Intermediate Phase example:
Use a map of Africa in an atlas or a GIS with data of Africa to help you answer the questions below:

• Which country is NORTH of Namibia?
• Which country is EAST of Ethiopia?
• Which country is WEST of Botswana?
• Which country is SOUTH of Egypt?
• Which country is WEST of Mali?
• Which country is NORTH of Ghana?
• Which country is SOUTH of Malawi?
• Which country is NORTH of Kenya?
• Which country is EAST of Zambia?
• Which country is WEST of Toga?

This can obviously be made more challenging by introducing the north-east / south-east / north-west and south-west directions.

GET Phase: using a GIS package for Direction and Angle

If your learners have access to a GIS, direction can practised using any data layer and by drawing simple lines in compass directions. The directions drawn can also relate maths in terms of the angle. You can even then show the differences between direction, angle and heading as shown in the example below.

If you don’t have access to a GIS, then give the learners an atlas or photocopied maps and get them to drawing simple lines in compass directions. For example, you could give the instruction: find Johannesburg. Draw a northerly line to Bulawayo. Is this exactly North or not? What would be a better description of that direction? and so on… The directions drawn can also relate maths in terms of the angle. You can even then show the differences between direction, angle and heading.

FET Phase

By the FET phase, direction is a core and perhaps implicit concept for any geography learner. So, from a Spatial Literacy point of view, in trying to combine the components of space, representation and reasoning, here are some ideas for discussions, mini-projects or projects:

• What is the relationship between direction, aspect and slope? Why are slope and aspect important? What can we do with our knowledge of these concepts in the real world?
• Designing a house: Developing and refining an understanding of the choices that inform house design. Is direction an important concept during the design process?
• Giving and following directions: are cardinal direction points a necessary part of this?
• Explore the role that compass direction plays in Relative and Absolute location.
• Projects to develop the notion of a Global Citizen: explore ‘Cardinal directions in world cultures’ or ‘Non-compass directional systems’ using Wikipedia, Encarta and other encyclopaedias or research sites.

General Ideas for extension

• Discuss the differences between bearings in marine navigation, aircraft navigation and land navigation as well as the different types of bearings such as true bearings, magnetic bearings, grid bearings, compass bearings and relative bearings.
• Determining the true course of a marine vessel or aircraft. Differences between headings and bearings

Join me next time when we look at answering the questions “Where is it?”, “Where am I?“. We will be looking at the Location, Latitude, Longitude, Up, Down, Left, Right concepts in the Location category.

These papers were created with a tool called XT. If you like them, see how they were made, click here.

To download these tests click on the links below.

Themes:

XT – THEMES Grade 3 – Me and my body

XT – THEMES Grade 3 – Me and my body Memo

XT – THEMES Grade 3 – Out and about

XT – THEMES Grade 3 – Out and about Memo

XT – THEMES Grade 3 – At home

XT – THEMES Grade 3 – At home Memo

Temas:

XT – TEMAS Graad 3 – Ek en my liggaam

XT – TEMAS Graad 3 – Ek en my liggaam Memo

XT – TEMAS Graad 3 – Uit en tuis

XT – TEMAS Graad 3 – Uit en tuis Memo

XT – TEMAS Graad 3 – By ons huis

XT – TEMAS Graad 3 – By ons huis Memo