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Visual analysis is a commonplace technique in geography pedagogy yet it is rarely used in the Australian literary studies context. This article explores the potential for visual analysis to contribute to the shared understanding of a work of literature in a university classroom setting. The use of visual analysis geography can encourage students to read texts closely and map them spatially using pen and paper. It proposes that literary studies educators may turn to innovative methods derived from geography to engage students with literary works. This article discusses a visual analysis assignment which centres on Jennifer Down's Melbourne-based novel Our Magic Hour (2016) for a Literary Studies subject at RMIT University delivered predominantly face- to-face in 2018-2019 and then entirely online in 2020. I describe it as a "messy mapping" assignment which encourages students to acknowledge the limitations and erasures of positivist maps, while trying to capture relationships between emotion and place. I argue that "messy mapping" can activate the many connections and overlaps between texts and students' own personal worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents pedagogic experiment focused on teaching future geography teachers to work with story maps with the use of three applications (Knight Lab StoryMapJS, Esri ArcGIS StoryMaps, and Google Tour Builder). The experiment was carried out by questionnaire form at two Slovak universities. The respondents were students of the geography teacher training program, whose task was to select and learn one of the mentioned applications to create a story map. The statistical analysis of the research results confirmed that the choice of the application by the students was influenced by their previous experience with the applications; it was not difficult for students to develop a story map using the selected applications even though they did not have enough experience about the selected applications before the experiment; and students would make more use of story maps than other applications in their educational practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geography undergraduate students have broad academic backgrounds; consequently, teaching statistics can be especially challenging. Unfortunately, there is a lack of up-to-date and geography-specific literature on the pedagogies of statistics instruction on an undergraduate geography degree course. In this paper we detail, discuss, and reflect on a range of innovative attempts to improve engagement and attainment. Many of the examples revolve around technological platforms to enhance student engagement, but also to improve and simplify module management, an under-valued part of delivering a team-taught module. We discuss a variety of quizzing platforms as effective ways of engaging students with content, but, also, as a method of scaffolding teaching, whereby student comprehension is gauged, and content is adapted on-the-fly. We also highlight that use of frequent formative quizzing can increase module engagement through a substantive increase in attendance in an era of lecture recording. We also reflect on differences in engagement pre-and-post pandemic. Overall, we highlight the benefit of incorporating technology into teaching geographical statistics, but caution that this must be on a case-by-case basis and should be used for clear pedagogical reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographers have long advocated for decolonizing geographic research and curriculum to produce forms of anti-oppressive knowledge and learning. While these calls have become more prominent in recent years, these conversations are rarely translated into a reflection on pedagogy and how we integrate anti-oppressive teaching in the classroom. This paper argues that introducing contemplative pedagogy into our classrooms presents one step toward teaching and producing anti-oppressive geographic knowledge. Anti-oppressive teaching and learning requires challenging oppressive forms of knowledge and asks that students and instructors develop self-reflexivity, reflect on their privilege, and learn to see the world through the experiences of others. Contemplative pedagogy helps both students and instructors engage more deeply with these challenging tasks by equipping students to reflect on their own experiences and positionalities and integrate contradictory and challenging viewpoints. I argue that by incorporating contemplative pedagogy and mindfulness into geography classrooms, both instructors and students will have a set of tools with which to transform the learning experience and provide students with the skills to productively engage in these difficult, but necessary, conversations around issues of privilege, colonialism, injustice, racism, and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on Revellers welcome in the New Year 2023 in TV pictures. Topics include working in transnational education in China showing the interregnum of COVID-19 restrictions lasted longer before an abrupt change in policy; and quality assurance and digital transformation of curricula in the respective schools and institutions.

The article presents the authors' experiences in designing a storytelling map guide for the botanical gardens of Palacký University, Czech Republic, from a pedagogical point of view. The authors introduce a three-pillared original concept. The overall educational contribution is a combination of educational, thematic and technological knowledge which supports successful engagement in the storytelling process. In the Storytelling Map Guide for the Botanical Gardens and Greenhouse Collections, the first pillar represents the educational aspect. Botanical knowledge and familiarity with the study area, i.e. the Palacký University Botanical Gardens, represent the thematic pillar. The technological pillar is covered by knowledge of software, cartography and application design skills, including an overview of contemporary storytelling applications. Finally, the educational impact and benefits to students of geoinformatics are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]