A few days ago I attended, in person, my first Geographical Association Annual Conference since 2019. The same was true of all other geography educators, since the last two had been totally online. This conference is for geography teachers, academics, exhibitors and students. It is always a wonderful event. Now that I have a podcast, I took the opportunity of grabbing my mobile recording equipment and doing a bit of recording for you all!
I had no structure to what I did, I just got on with having fun chatting away like I usually do for the Coffee & Geography podcast. I hope you enjoy the listen, and if you want to skip to any bits, check out the chapter index below. Also you’ll find links to the wonderful folks I chatted to, and some of the things we talked about.
Coffee & Geography Podcast Season 2 Episode 13: On Location at GAConf22
A special episode recorded on-location during the three-day Geographical Association National Conference at the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK. Kit takes their portable recording equipment and speaks to numerous conference delegates, speakers and exhibitors while all consuming numerous cups of tea and coffee. Get an insight into what geography teachers and academics often get up to during their school holidays!
Chapter Index
0:00:00 Introduction
0:02:04 Presidential Lecture – snippets, including pre-lecture chat with GA President Alan Parkinson (@GeoBlogs) and GA Head of Professional Development Dr Becky Kitchen (@beckykitchen).
0:06:45 Sarah Larsen (@sarahlarsen74) and 2023-24 GA President Denise Freeman (@Geography_DAF).
0:13:12 Foyer, GAConf22 goodie bags and exhibition walk.
0:15:16 Ordnance Survey Digimap For Schools (@Digimap4Schools) – Laura Munoz (Sales & Marketing Officer, EDINA) .
0:22:14 Student voice. Children’s geographies: race and place lecture – snippets from Hina Robinson (@RobboGeog) and high-school students.
0:27:16 Keynote lecture. Africa Is Not A Country – snippets, Dipo Faloyin (@DipoFaloyin)
0:30:43 An insight to workshops. Snippets from ‘Everyday geographies of hurricanes: critiquing powerful knowledge’ (@DecoloniseGeog), ‘Atlas of the Invisible: powerful maps and concepts for the classroom’ (myself & @spatialanalysis), ‘Encountering carbon in the everyday world’ (@keith_hicks6).
0:35:14 Climate Change and GIS. The ultimate SO WHAT? Putting UK climate change on the map workshop – chat with Dr Katie Hall (@geogologue) and David Morgan (@Dav1dM0rgan), Esri UK (@esriuk).
0:40:49 GAConf22 TeachMeet – chat with David Rogers (@davidErogers) and snippet from Alistair Hamill’s (@lcgeography) recorded contribution.
0:44:50 Mid-episode break.
0:45:23 The Voices Project workshop. Snippets from Akhera Williams (@voicesProject_, @Reroot_ED), Chantal Mayo-Holloway (@CMOGeography). Chat with Cat Poh (@cat_poh).
0:51:56 Insight from Josh of the tech team, and Sabrina & Anna, two Uni of Surrey student helpers.
0:54:58 Iram Sammar (@IramSammar).
1:02:54 Chat with some exhibitors – British Cartographic Society (@bcsmaps), Oxford University Press (@OxUniPress), Educake (@educakegeog), OCR (@OCR_Geography), including a quick chat with Ellie Barker (@thecuriousgeog).
1:15:46 Alice Hoy, and ‘We are all geographers’ challenge with the word ‘contrast’.
1:18:18 Lucy Houghton (@geographylucy), and ‘We are all geographers’ challenge with the word ‘plants’.
1:22:53 Final thoughts from GAConf22 Event Manager Isabel Richardson, and David Alcock (@DavidAlcock1) through the word ‘hope’.
1:26:22 Closing
Links
Geographical Association Hybrid Conference 2022 Webpage – https://www.geography.org.uk/Conference-2022
GAConf22 Programme – https://www.geography.org.uk/write/MediaUploads/Training%20and%20events/Conference/Conf_2022_HANDBOOK_LO-RES.pdf
Digimap For Schools – https://digimapforschools.edina.ac.uk/
Dipo Faloyin’s website (author of ‘Africa Is Not A Country’) – https://www.dipofaloyin.com/
Decolonising Geography – https://decolonisegeography.com/
Atlas of the Invisible educational resources – https://jcheshire.com/atlas-of-the-invisible-education/
Esri UK ArcGIS for Schools – https://schools.esriuk.com/
Esri UK & Met Office Climate Change resources – https://teach-with-gis-uk-esriukeducation.hub.arcgis.com/pages/climate
GAConf22 TeachMeet Live Stream Replay – https://youtu.be/qHqKzM9rwtI
Alistair Hamill’s TeachMeet Video – https://youtu.be/XOFqG_xorkM
The Voices Project – https://www.thevoicesproject.co.uk/
Iram Sammar’s website: Salaam Geographia – https://salaamgeographia.com/
Acknowledgements
A massive thanks to the Geographical Association for giving the Coffee & Geography Podcast agency and support, particularly Isabel Richardson. Thank you to everyone not just listed above in the chapter notes for their active contributions, but to everyone who consented to record chats, talks and workshops.
Thank you! All my education work via the Geogramblings’ “Life Geographic” blog is done all in my spare time, at my own cost but is free for you to access and enjoy. If you can spare a few pence, I’d be delighted if you could show your thanks by ‘buying me a coffee‘.
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