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By Melanie, 11, November, 2011 7:02 am

We do like a good party here at Ordnance Survey and this week it’s the first birthday of Digimap for Schools. Sadly, there was no birthday cake this time, but there’s plenty to celebrate!

Digimap for Schools is an online mapping tool providing access to Ordnance Survey mapping for the whole of Great Britain at a range of scales. It’s simple to use with a login and password and pupils and teachers pick it up in minutes. Almost 3 000 schools have already subscribed and are making use of Ordnance Survey mapping across the curriculum.

To celebrate it’s first year, we’ve made a short film showing Year 5 pupils at St Marks Primary School in Southampton using Digimap for Schools and Geography teacher Mr Beare talking about why it’s so useful in their school.

We are also going to be creating ‘mystery maps’ showing a mystery location of particular geographical information. Continue reading 'Happy birthday Digimap for Schools'»

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By Adam, 30, September, 2011 10:16 am

On 17 July 2006 I stared at Ordnance Survey when my family and I relocated to the Isle of Wight from London. Yes, it was a culture shock! I remember it was a hot summer that year and the novelty of being able to walk along the beach and commuting by ferry was still exciting.

Today I leave Ordnance Survey after five and a bit years and in that time I have learnt many things, made friends and tried to become the best Civil Servant I could. There have been many projects I have worked on within the consumer space most notably being involved in the creation of the map shop and Ordnance Survey’s foray into the social media space.

Map shop
On the map shop; the team and I have taken the map shop from strength to strength, adjusting and creating new way to help customers buy the right maps for their adventures. The team consisted of colleagues from Information Services, Finance, the Customer Service Centre and Supply Chain. Matt, Sophie and I, over the last couple of years, have tried out different ways of engaging with the public and I would say this time was the time I am most proud of. Continue reading 'Moving on'»

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By Paul, 19, January, 2011 5:30 pm

The Education and OS OpenSpace teams were in London last week for this year’s BETT Show. In excess of 20,000 visitors descended on Olympia to discover the latest uses of technology for teaching and education.

At the BETT Show

We were there to demonstrate a number of educational mapping tools. Centre stage was Digimap for Schools, the web service that provides access to Ordnance Survey mapping for every classroom in the country. There was also a lot of interest in OS OpenSpace, with its Web-Map Builder, and all the freely available mapping data that is now downloadable from OS OpenData.

Continue reading 'At the BETT Show'»

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By Melanie, 16, November, 2010 8:58 am

It’s always interesting to see our maps in action and last week I was lucky enough to visit Year 7 pupils at Graveney School in Wandsworth, London.

I was there for the launch of ‘Digimap for Schools’ the new online mapping service which will change the way our maps are used in the classroom. Now pupils of all ages will have access to a wide range of mapping scales – from our most detailed mapping showing every individual building, to an outline of the entire country.

Pupils getting to grips with Digimap for Schools

Inspirational geography teacher, Sarah Jones, showed children how to use the online mapping and gave them the challenge of identifying a route for a fun run near Clapham Common. The kids were amazing!

At age 11, they understood scale and were able to easily measure distances. They all knew the different map symbols and were able to identify footpaths and cycle paths, railway stations and places of worship (with a tower, not a spire!).

Baroness Hanham, our  Minister, and our Director General, Vanessa Lawrence CB, launched the service and were really pleased to see the enthusiasm with which the kids talked about maps.

Baroness Hanham and Vanessa Lawrence CB launch Digimap for Schools

Digimap for Schools is supplied through JISC Collections for Schools and has been developed by EDINA – who provide mapping services to universities and colleges – meaning that pupils will be able to use the same mapping all the way through their education.

For the last nine years, we have given all 11 year-olds a free OS Explorer Map of their area, issuing over 6 million paper maps, but seeing how well the kids engaged with technology and got to grips with the online service, it certainly looks like this new online service will prove to be popular.

We’d love to hear from any teachers out there -what do you think?