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Retorts

Geographical Knowledge

A recent education report released shows that many children do not know the location of places such as Cape Reinga, Dunedin and Cook Strait.

Dr Denis Dutton, a Canterbury University senior lecturer, says if children have no idea where Cook Strait is, they are making no sense out of the many references made to Cook Strait in the media.

Facts about geography are not being presented in a spatially related way -- that is my problem. The media presume everyone knows where PNG is, which is wrong! I could find Papua New Guinea on a big map if it was labelled, and I had a few minutes opportunity to look; not otherwise.

Use the map for Cook Strait. Look it up in the Index for map page and grid reference or coordinates. Then turn to the page and search the map in a geographical/spatial context. Soon you will discover it and recognise the name -- reward!

In July we saw a lot of PNG on TV. Seldom will TV give a map, certainly not let you find it spatially, and only for insufficient time -- 1/4-second sound byte.

On CD-ROM, the user types some keys and sits for one minute for the computer to take over a stupid kind of Information Technology search. This does not assist me to learn. School globes are rare in shops and atlases are going out of fashion.

How can you learn about planets going around the Sun by looking at a TV? And the stars. Even Patrick Moore, of The Night Sky, uses three dimensions to demonstrate.

I haven't learned any places for the 30 years since I have watched TV. This technology is misused and not appropriate.

Don S. McDonald, Wellington