‘Geography in education has a reputation for being an early adopter of technologies – after all, it is an
information-rich subject with an intrinsic interest in a rapidly changing world, and information is now
instantly available at the touch of a button; indeed, we are soaked in information.’
David Lambert, Geography Education in the Digital World, 2021
Topics on this page:
Digital technology and teaching | Exploring available digital resources for geography teaching | Artificial
Intelligence (AI) and geography teaching | Accessing the technology | Using technology in teaching |
Pedagogy and technology | How should I start using technology in my lessons? | Technology and A level
geography | Online learning | Reading | Further reading
Introduction
Rapid advances in technology have changed people’s everyday lives and are significant in shaping
geography. Digital technologies such as interactive whiteboards influence geography teaching and the
web presents opportunities for diverse and up-to-date sources and case studies to enrich lessons.
Using technology enables us to manipulate maps and graphs quickly, see them at different scales and
highlight different features. Applications such as Google Earth, Worldmapper and Gapminder have
changed the way we can understand the complexity of the world and give us access to information on
different countries to analyse.
Technology can provide very powerful learning environment for students. Smartphones, computers,
social media and the internet are all part of students’ everyday life and play a pivotal role in their lives.
There is much potential to give students access to a range of sources of geographical information and
enhance their geographical learning.
This can give them greater autonomy in geographical enquiries with access to web-based information
and data handling and presentation tools. Virtual learning environments (VLEs) and school websites
allow teachers to share digital resources with students and provide opportunities for more personalised
learning environments and individual learning pathways.
Consider inclusion in terms of students’ use of VLE or web-based geography materials at home. Not all
students may have access to a computer to use at home. They may be denied access completely or they
may be reading maps and images on a smartphone. Lack of good access to technology can mean a poor
experience for some students.
Developing effective ways to use technology-based resources can be time-consuming for teachers since
it often involves searching for and selecting online resources and exploring the potential of websites.
Read Willis (2023) who in her editorial to the Autumn 2023 issue of Teaching Geography questions
whether technology always brings a brighter future. She points to several articles in this issue relevant
to the pedagogic potential of digital technologies.
It makes sense to work collaboratively on this with others and share materials within geography
departments, across groups of schools or through professional communities. Social media platforms play
an increasingly important role to alert teachers to potential on-line resources.
Read Parkinson (2018) for a thought-provoking discussion on the impact of technology on geography
and geography teachers.
Read Roberts (2023) Chapter 14 ‘Enquiry-based learning in geography in a digital world’, which provides
an overview of the opportunities and challenges presented by the rapid development of digital
technologies for enquiry-based learning.
Note that GIS, photographs, maps, moving images and other visual resources are covered on other
pages within this resources section.
Exploring available digital resources for geography teaching
It makes sense to work collaboratively on this with others and share materials within geography
departments, across groups of schools or through professional communities. Social media platforms play
an increasingly important role to alert teachers to potential on-line resources.
Carefully evaluate all technology-based resources before you use them, in the same way as you would
do for all other types of resources. Refer to Media literacy. Also, encourage your students to critically
evaluate any resources they obtain on-line or through social media.
Read Parkinson (2018) for a thought-provoking discussion on the impact of technology on geography
and geography teachers.
Read Roberts (2023) Chapter 14 ‘Enquiry-based learning in geography in a digital world’, which provides
an overview of the opportunities and challenges presented by the rapid development of digital
technologies for enquiry-based learning.
Read Hobbs et al (2023) about using Minecraft, a computer game and educational tool, to engage with
real-world places and features.
Note that GIS, photographs, maps, moving images and other visual resources are covered on other
pages within this resources section.
Roberts (2023) p 138 comments that ‘developments in digital technologies have changed students’
everyday lives and how they communicate with others‘. She notes that today most students have good
digital skills from their use of mobile phones and the internet. Refer to Figure 14.1: Some key findings
from Ofcom research reports, which gives some insights into their use of digital media.
Find out about your students' digital lives
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and geography teaching
The pace of technological change is very fast and this will always present challenges for geography
teachers. One of the most recent developments is the technologies of artificial intelligence in the form
of language-learning tools or generative AI; these can summarise texts, write essays and even have
human-like conversations.
RM Technology, a leading supplier of technology solutions to UK schools, surveyed 1,000 secondary
school students in June 2023. The research showed the prevalence of AI in the classroom already. It
found that two thirds of students use AI to do their school work and one in ten teachers admitted that
they had no way of telling whether a student or AI has written the work.
The U.S. Department of Education published a report in 2023 on Artificial Intelligence and Future of
Teaching and Learning. Its recommendations include some key points to bear in mind, for example, that:
An important criterion for educational use of AI is ‘where humans are firmly at the center’;
The educational needs of students should be placed ahead of ‘the excitement about emerging AI
capabilities’;
‘We must harness AI’s ability to sense and build upon learner strengths’
‘We must build on AI capabilities that connect with principles of collaborative and social learning and
which respect the student not just for their cognition but also for the whole human skill set‘.
In UK schools most attention has centred around the emergence of ChatGPT which stands for Chat
Generative Pre-trained Transformer. It is a free chatbot, that allows users to ask any question, on any
subject.
Teachers have found that it can promote and support student revision, particularly in A level geography.
It can be useful for providing explanations of concepts, creating bullet points of notes, summarizing case
studies and simplifying complex topics. But teachers also highlight the limitations of AI; for example, it
cannot replicate the nuanced approach required in many geographical topics. They also warn about
inaccuracies and teachers should advise students to always scrutinise AI responses critically.
AI is best used as a tool to supplement teaching, not replace professional judgment. The teacher’s role
remains vital in facilitating student engagement and guiding the interpretation of resources.
Generative AI, including ChatGPT, was discussed at the 2023 GA Conference Some of the key points that
emerged from the discussion were that geography teachers should:
acknowledge AI’s place in the classroom and not ignore it
consider the implications for our teaching and the work of our students
learn, discuss, and reflect on, how we can use AI to the best possible effect.
In the GA blog Artificial intelligence in geography Brian Kerr comments:
With ChatGPT, students can access vast quantities of geographical content at lightning speed, without
the need to endlessly scroll through sprawling websites or rely on dusty textbooks. Having the
information at our fingertips has never been quite so literal.
Read Kerr’s blog post and find out how he uses the tool to cut his workload. But he points out some
pitfalls, such as that AI can provide incorrect information and notes that ‘We are in uncharted waters
and there is a need to proceed with caution’.
Refer to Griffiths (2023) who discusses the challenges and potential of artificial intelligence chatbots in
the geography classroom. Do these help or hinder teaching and learning in school geography?
Hickman and Gosh (2024) have explored practical ways for geographers to use ChatGPT to provide
lesson plans, answer practice exam questions and write model answers and they evaluate the outcomes.
They point out some significant shortcomings in the use of AI to provide model answers in geography
such as its failure to produce diagrams or provide an acceptable response to the command word
‘evaluate’.
If you do not know how to start with ChatGPT, Harding (2024) in the section of her article ‘How to do it’
provides a very useful step by step guide to getting started with ChatGPT to support geography teaching.
David Alcock in his blogpost Education’s encounter with Artificial Intelligence explores the impact and
implications of ChatGPT. He discusses the initial excitement followed by a more sober analysis among
educators, considering its potential to change teaching practices and student tasks. The article suggests
workarounds and opportunities to address challenges such as plagiarism and outdated information.
Alcock encourages educators to embrace ChatGPT’s capabilities and use them to ‘work towards a more
humane, caring, and sustainable future for everyone.’
Chang and Kidman (2023) provide an academic perspective as to whether generative AI models are a
boon or bane for education focussing on the problems and potential facing geography and
environmental education.
Read these two articles to explore ways to use AI in your AL geography teaching:
Harding (2024) discusses the process of helping geography students create model answers using
Generative AI.
Downs and Campbell (2024) describe the benefits of ‘promptcraft’ when using ChatGPT, showing how a
detailed prompting strategy can provide adapted learning resources to maximise the learning potential
of all students.
Downs and Campbell remind us that when using ChatGPT, ‘You only get what you give’. They highlight
the importance of developing strong ‘promptcraft’ skills—crafting specific, targeted prompts to
stimulate an appropriate AI response. They advise that you take time to study the response carefully
and be prepared to use the chatbot to develop an ‘editing conversation’ because the AI on that chat
thread will be conditioned to replicate the process over and over again.
They also discuss using the AI to provide differentiated questions but point out that ‘ChatGPT’s results
are a starting point and often require the nuanced interpretation of a teacher to make them effective for
the intended audience.’
Currently many teachers are exploring the potential of AI to support both teachers and students. You
should keep alert to the practical examples they report. Kate Stockings in her blog ChatGPT in
geography education is a useful source of information and is regularly updated to include resources that
discuss and demonstrate the potential of generative AI in geography.
Do’s and Don’ts for using AI in geography
Developments in generative AI in teaching contexts are certainly an area for all new teachers to monitor
closely. Applications such as ChatGPT will not directly make you a better teacher, but they could be
useful to free up time taken up by administration or resource production and, therefore, give you more
time to develop more productive teaching and better student learning.
Accessing the technology
In your career as a geography teacher, artificial intelligence is a future technology that you must be
aware of, but it is probably not the place to start in exploring your use of technology in the classroom.
In schools that are well resourced, students will have good access to technology in the geography
classroom, through students’ use of tablets or via electronic classroom displays such as digital projectors
and smartboards. This enables access to a wide range of media – photos, maps, video, diagrams,
animations – which can be displayed in the classroom and used interactively by both the teacher and
students.
Technology provides a platform for students to present their information to the class or for everyone to
give an answer or ‘vote’. Social media can bring others’ ideas into the classroom. Increasingly the
multimedia classroom is supported by VLEs which students can access at home, as well as school and
many geography departments have their own areas on websites with resources to support teaching and
learning.
Increasingly, teachers (and students) carry smartphones and tablets for use in the classroom and in the
field. With the use of ‘apps’ these can be sophisticated technological gadgets – cameras, GPS tracking
devices, compasses, scanners and recorders. However, find out about the policy in your school for
students’ use of smartphones which varies between institutions.
There is a wide variation in the ease of access to digital technology such as computers, tablets and ipads
in different schools. Often geography teachers report that they find it difficult to gain access to such
resources on a regular basis for their classes. Roberts (2023) pp. 139-40 investigated the opportunities
and challenges for using digital resources in geography classrooms and concluded that there was a
digital divide: ‘some students can use ICT resources whenever appropriate, while others use them
rarely‘.
Access to technology in school
Roger, D. (2017) 100 ideas for Secondary Teachers: Outstanding Geography Lessons, Bloomsbury
Education. This includes interesting and simple ideas for using Twitter, social media, YouTube,
PowerPoint etc.
See this presentation on Tweeting techniques from the 2016 GA Conference by a PGCE student who was
interested in exploring a world where ‘students and technology are intertwined’ by using Twitter during
fieldwork. The potential of Twitter as a research resource is also explored in Fearnley and Fyfe (2018).
Using technology in teaching
Make sure you have the necessary skills to use the available technology in your lessons. You need to:
Be competent in handling the hardware and the key software tools used in your school – browser, email,
word processor, presentation software, GIS, databases etc.
Explore the teaching potential of the specific packages available in your school
Acquaint yourself with specific practical skills you need to use the technology in the classroom, such as
linking tablets with smartboards.
If you have concerns about your IT skills, discuss this with your geography mentor or tutor or seek some
specific training. It can be helpful to meet with the person in your school who oversees technology (ICT
coordinator) to find out about the specific hardware and software you can access for your teaching.
In your early days of teaching, you will be developing your confidence with using technology, that may
be new to you, as well as managing learning in the classroom. Do not be afraid to seek help. Never let
the technology dominate to such an extent that you forget the geography that you are teaching. Resist
the temptation to be overambitious with ‘technological toys’, until you are confident in your key
teaching skills.
Make sure your students have the necessary IT skills before you use an application:
Students are not always as digitally literate as we think. For example, they may be able to use Google,
but can they use search terms effectively to achieve sensible results or narrow their search?
Find out from the IT coordinator what software applications the students have been taught to use e.g.
do they have the basic skills to input data into a spreadsheet that will be needed for fieldwork analysis?
What presentation software can they use?
Use students who have more expertise with the software, to support those who do not.
Remember that good questioning, effective intervention and assessment of learning are important in all
lessons, including those that are technology-based. Your one-to-one interventions with students should
be about geographical learning, not just about instruction in the use of the hardware or software.
When you are teaching in a computer room you will sometimes need students to move their attention
from their workstations so that you can discuss a point of interest with them as a class.
If the configuration of the room does not allow that to happen easily consider how you can do this. The
questions and discussions to evaluate learning, and challenge and move students on, are just as
important when students are using technology as in a standard classroom.
Pedagogy and technology
The Education Endowment Foundation (Stringer, Lewin and Coleman 2019) emphasises that the use of
technology must be informed by effective pedagogy. The question of how to use technology to improve
learning is not distinct from the question of how to teach effectively, or of how students learn. You
should consider this carefully as you plan your own teaching.
The role of the teacher is key for effective learning with technology; the learning activities must be
carefully planned. Ofsted (2023) reports that in situations where students were asked to find
information relating to a topic or place for themselves online, ‘this was rarely successful, as the pupils
did not know enough about the topic to select relevant information or to put it together in a meaningful
way’.
The EEF has four recommendations for teachers about using digital technology to improve students’
learning.
Consider how technology will improve teaching and learning before introducing it. New technology can
often appear exciting, but it can become a solution in search of a problem. You should carefully consider
the pedagogical rationale for how technology will improve learning. Be clear on the learning intentions
first, and then consider how technology could help.
Technology can be used to improve the quality of explanations and modelling. For example, using video
clips or animations can support your verbal explanation or a visualiser can project onto an interactive
whiteboard the steps that model how a process works (such as the formation of a waterfall or the
hydrological cycle). Technology can also help you to model how geographers think, for example to share
and discuss with students how to improve an example projected on a screen or smartboard of a
geographical description or an answer to an exam question.
Technology offers ways to improve the impact of student practice. It can be engaging and motivating for
students. It can also enable you to increase the challenge of different questions as students succeed or
provide new contexts in which they are required to apply their skills, in the classroom or at home.
Technology can play a role in improving assessment and feedback. It can improve the quality of
information collected or the speed and ease with which you provide feedback to students. Older
students can submit assignments electronically to you for marking. Technology can be effective for
creating short quizzes where feedback is automated and data is gathered instantly, which can then be
used to inform future planning. Devices or ‘learner response systems’ can be used in class to provide
you with immediate information about how students answ
