IB online

When we started Twittering in earnest on behalf of the International Baccalaureate® a few short months ago, we quickly came to realise that there were a lot of IB teachers already out there taking full advantage of the opportunities afforded by web 2.0 technologies.

Richard Allaway is a great example, his website ‘Geographyalltheway.com‘ was recommended by a number of our Twitter friends as a good example of how technology can be applied to learning. We asked Richard to give us a few words on how he came to develop his site, what it takes to keep it running, and what he has planned for the future.

Your one line resume:

Geography teacher, aspirant geek and author of geographyalltheway.com.

What was the driver behind creating geographyalltheway.com?

I started working at the International School of Toulouse in 2006, where each student has a laptop. The creation of a website seemed to be the easiest way to get the work to the students and to organize and review my teaching. The site has grown to be more than that now. I am moving to work at the International School of Geneva – Campus des Nations this summer and the site will develop with the challenges of my new school, the new IB Geography syllabus and teaching MYP Humanities.

What were the challenges you had to overcome?

I had to start with learning some basic website creation skills which I did with an online course. This got the ball rolling and then I problem solved each obstacle that arose as I tried to see through an idea or lesson approach. I have been lucky enough to work in Toulouse with Russel Tarr, the author of www.activehistory.co.uk and www.classtools.net. He has been a constant source of support and ideas pointing me in the correct direction when I got stuck. There is also a financial burden of hosting the site. As more people download worksheets and resources the need for more bandwidth and therefore cost increases.

I feel that web 2.0 services have developed so much in the last three years that today a teacher could very easily and quickly have an online presence. Using a wiki as a bank of information or a blog as a flow of information doesn’t require any geeky knowledge.

What do you use to create and maintain it?

I use Adobe Dreamweaver to produce the site. This is a costly program and if there are any generous souls out there who would like to support the site by buying me the latest version … I would love to find an open-source equivalent but the issue is that I am efficient with Dreamweaver and that is a huge thing when balancing school work and family life.

I use Flickr to host geographical images, I have used Scribd to host worksheets and documents and make a major use of Slideshare to host presentations.

Diigo, the social bookmarking service, plays a key part in my workflow. I use the online service to bookmark and tag useful online resources that I want to incorporate into my teaching.

Who is the primary audience of the site?

The primary audience for the site started off as being my students but this has developed to include other Geography teachers and their students. The number of visitors to the site continues to grow. My wife challenged me during the early days of the site to get visitors from both Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and the Falkland Islands – random I know, but this happened quite a while ago and the site now receives on average 2,500 visitors a day.

What would you do differently in the future?

I don’t think I would do anything differently in the future. The site continues to be where I host my day-to-day teaching resources. If others find this useful and my students benefit from the reflection caused by publicly hosting the resources then I’m a happy person.

Why have you decided to use Twitter?

Twitter is a key part of my PLN (Personal Learning Network). I have built a network by following and being followed by others. My Twitter network is a constant source of fresh ideas, resources and support. The fact that a tweet can only be a maximum of 140 characters means that the flow updates are concise and directed. You should be able to read about the use of Twitter in the next edition of IB World magazine.

What’s your last word to other IB teachers and staff?

Get involved in the online Geography community. Use Twitter to build a network with which you can share ideas and resources. Use Diigo to help you organise your online resources and share them with others. Use geographyalltheway.com and help it develop by suggesting improvements and pointing out broken links. If you are about to start teaching the new IB Geography Syllabus use and contribute to the IB Geography 2009-2017 Wiki project.