James Penstone
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Posts by James Penstone
Settlement Functions
Dec 11th
Image: Some rights reserved by Odalaigh
Theory 1:
Explore the first button on this flash animation:
Mr D Geography on Settlement Function
Theory 2:
The Rural Urban Fringe
Dec 11th
Image: Some rights reserved by Aaron Villescas™
Using thorough research (referring to web sites, text book(s), and your own notes (including any notes on relevant videos you have watched)), answer the following questions:
1) What changes are taking place at the Rural Urban Fringe as a result of urbanisation?
Make sure you refer to:
- urban sprawl
- counterurbanisation
- recent developments
It is worth structuring examples of recent development at the RUF as part of your answer. For example:
- Residential function: commuter villages / "suburbanised villages"
- Industrial function: New high-tech industry – especially Science Parks [example: Cambridge Science Park, UK]
- Retail function: Recent Out Of Town Shopping Centres [example: Merry Hill, UK]
2) What are some of the main advantages of these changes (developments)?
3) What are some of the main disadvantages of these changes (developments)?
4) What are some of the solutions to the problems caused by overdevelopment of the Rural Urban Fringe?
A Map of Major World Disaster ‘Hot Zones’
Dec 11th
This map could inspire some interesting discussion about the distribution of different major disasters. Click on it see the larger version.
Image: Stephanie Fox, io9.com original link
Settlement Hierarchy
Dec 10th
Image: Some rights reserved by Lincolnian (Brian)
Very simple introduction to the concept of settlement hierarchy:
http://www.slideshare.net/RichardH/1-what-is-a-settlement-hiearchy
Activity:
http://www.effectiveict.co.uk/flash/training/flash19/Settlement%20hierarchy.swf
http://www.geointeractive.co.uk/subsample/setthierarchy.htm
Very useful for recapping site, situation, pattern, function and hierarchy:
Settlement Characteristics Worksheet (from http://www.geographyalltheway.com)
Recap:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/settlement/set_charrev4.shtml
http://www.geography.learnontheinternet.co.uk/topics/characteristicsofsettlements.html#function
http://www.s-cool.co.uk/gcse/geography/settlements/urban-hierarchies.html
Understanding Comparative Advantage
Dec 7th
Having played the desert island game, you should be in a position to develop your understanding of an important economic concept which is used to support international trade. 2 videos should help. The first is a rough-and-ready video with an easy to access example:
Now, MJMFoodie gives an old but polished example, and introduces Adam Smith and David Ricardo’s perspectives on these matters:
Trade Unions
Dec 3rd
The IGCSE Economics syllabus requires you to:
- describe trade unions and their role in an economy;
Watch the following videos and answer these questions:
- What roles do Trade Unions have in the economy – what do they do?
- What are the possible advantages of Trade Unions?
- Detecting bias – Are these videos in favour of unions? or against?
Now research some of the possible arguments against Trade Unions from an economic perspective …
LastPass–A Very Handy Password Manager
Dec 2nd
Image: Some rights reserved by izik
Like most people, I have more passwords for various internet sites than I can possibly remember.
For ages I have used Firefox as my main browser and set it to remember my passwords, which was a handy way to overcome my memory deficiency. You can do the same with other browsers.
From a Firefox-user’s perspective, this can be problematic: (a) you can see them pretty easily from Tools / Options / Saved Passwords and, although it is possible to lock them with a master password, my understanding is that (b) Firefox stores them in a simple text file that can easily be retrieved if you have the right know-how. This is potentially a major security problem, if for example, you lose your laptop.
The other issue with the above approach to passwords is that you have to set up your passwords across any separate computers you use. There are online syncing facilities for passwords available, such as Foxmarks. Online syncing of passwords, however, makes people understandably nervous. Having your passwords out there somewhere in the cloud feels less secure than the fact that your laptop might get stolen.
I have started using an online syncing service, however, and I think it is great: LastPass. You need to judge for yourself whether you are comfortable with online sync. I currently reserve some paranoia – I have not yet submitted my bank passwords, although that seems irrational given my understanding of how it works, and the fact that I have already submitted many key identity-linked passwords such as email accounts. I think I will move to linking bank passwords as well sometime.
You install the software on your computer. You give the software a master password which is stored locally on every computer you set it up on. The master password is needed to unlock the encrypted list of passwords which are stored online. The master password is only stored on your computer(s) when you are logged in, and even then, only after you have typed it in. (You can save it on the computer but that defeats the point.) Ultimately it stays safely in your head.
It has lots of useful features like:
- one-click sign in to sites which it recognises you have a password for
- worlks across different browsers (Internet explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc) and different operating systems (Mac, Windows, and Linux)
- it can generate rock-solid passwords for you when you sign up to new accounts
- it can save fill-in form information for quickly filling in online forms
- there are mobile versions available
As I say, you’ll need to decide whether this idea for managing your passwords is for you, but weigh it against the approaches many people use to handle passwords (including the very vulnerable one password for all) and it soon makes a whole lot of sense.
It also comes highly recommended by some well respected organisations:
http://www.economist.com/node/15141284?story_id=15141284
http://lifehacker.com/5041463/lastpass-saves-and-syncs-passwords-between-all-your-browsers
Revenues –Total, Marginal and Average
Dec 2nd
By now you should understand the graphs for
a) Total Product (b) Average and Marginal Product (c) FC, VC and TC (d) AFC, AVC, ATC, MC
You should also recognise the ultimate assumption of firms – profit maximising
Now we turn to revenue.
Image: Some rights reserved by saturnism
You now need to:
- Recap on the difference between perfect competition and monopoly market structures
- Understand the different equations for cost and the equations for calculating revenue
- Understand the behaviour of revenue for a monopoly (a price giver acting in imperfect comp) (this includes relevant graphs, trends of graphs and explanations (you might also possibly recognise the role of elasticity)
- The same as above, but for Perfect Competition
- Understand the purpose of studying revenue and how relates to previous learning on output / product and costs
First of all, recall the main differences between monopoly and perfect competition:
Now make sure you know the Golden Equations – complete this work sheet before moving on:
Golden Equations MS Word version
Golden Equations Google Doc version – make your own copy before you can edit
Now attempt to complete this spreadsheet worksheet. Take your time – work through it slowly and deliberately. There are two tabs to complete, one for monopoly situation (first) and one for perfect competiton. You might like to research a little to help give as full answers as possible for the text boxes.
Once you have checked through your answers to the above, you can review your overall understanding with this video:
Revenue Curves For Firms by pajholden
Finally, you should practice drawing the curves you have learned using the activities above and then try to annotate them with their key features and explanations
Economics Game: Ricardo, Coconuts and A Desert Island
Dec 2nd
This is a good online game (you need Flash player in your browser) to learn about and develop your understanding of the concept of Comparative Advantage.
Great for IB Economics students, and possibly handy for IGCSE level students too.
Image: Some rights reserved by Dana Moos, Realtor
Play the game here: http://desertislandgame.com/
Extra: By the way, the name of the guy you play is Ricardo and, in case you don’t already realise, this is significant. Look the name David Ricardo up (on wikipedia for example) and find out why.
Experiments in Online Drawings
Dec 1st
As a teacher of Economics encouraging use of collaborative tools such as Google Docs, I am keen to find a good solution for students to (co-)create drawings they can quickly access, share and publish online.
Google docs now of course has a drawing app as part of its suite of online software. This is, as far as I can tell so far, very good. I have still yet to use it with students. One of its main advantages has to be the ability to add the same sharing controls as you can on other Google Docs. I will give it a go soon.
Recently, I experimented with an alternative. Dabbleboard which in some ways still feels like the beta software it is. However it carries some advantages which I like:
- Add extra ‘pages’, effectively making a slide show of drawings (see example below)
- You can save / embed / download the end results quite easily.
- Intuitively interprets gestures – a rough line gets picked up and converted in to a neat straight line
- You can click and type text without having to select the text icon
- The controls are generally good (such as quick clone, multiple selection for grouping)
- Integrates with a tool called tokbox so you could record/video conversations in response to the drawings (I haven’t used this)
- People can join a drawing without signing up / registering – just share the email link / embed the image for others to access
Disadvantages:
- Over-sensitive interpretation of your rough gestures – drawing a curve all to easily becomes a square, for example
- Less control over editor rights – when I embedded it for access to the students so that they could take control, any ‘random’ guest visitor could take control without my knowing who – lots of fun in class, but a wider worry for who can access and edit (the embed below is locked for editing, but its a shame it is all or nothing approach).
Overall a good option for a rough and ready drawing facility that produces good results. Will experiment further with the sharing / collaborative side of things.
