Friday, October 03, 2008

Can you guess what it is yet?

My first go at an ArtTrack was less than successful! "What's an ArtTrack?" I hear you ask. Well, Andrew Brown and Tom Barrett got all in a Twitter after TeachMeet thanks to a throwaway comment in response to John Davitt talking about the Track Stick. This lead to an exchange of messages on Twitter:
@tombarrett - great meeting you too - when are we starting the trackstick/word challenge?
08:17 PM September 29, 2008 from twitterrific in reply to tombarrett

@tombarrett - could we start a site or flickr tag for them? They find out the new word and then tag their image of it?
08:30 PM September 29, 2008 from twitterrific in reply to tombarrett

@whereisab Flickr tagged images would be a good way to do it - I like that idea - I have just thought we could do Google Earth artwork !!!!
08:34 PM September 29, 2008 from web in reply to whereisab

@tombarrett - how cool would that be? Walkable art, or a spelling contest! :-)
08:36 PM September 29, 2008 from twitterrific in reply to tombarrett

@whereisab The playground is our canvas!! - I have a had a whole bunch of ideas for using them - can't wait to get one.
08:36 PM September 29, 2008 from web in reply to whereisab

@tombarrett - we need to make them social though - I love the idea of serendipituously finding others doing the same thing
08:38 PM September 29, 2008 from twitterrific in reply to tombarrett

@whereisab A spelling relay - lots of kids each spelling a word, TrackStick as baton !! :-D
08:40 PM September 29, 2008 from web in reply to whereisab
Somewhere along the way, Tom coined the name ArtTracks, Andrew wrote a blog post (Spelling that makes you move?) and Tom created a Flickr group (LearningTracks). It was fascinating watching it develop and it will be interesting to see what happens next.

However, while waiting, I decided to have a go myself. A special GPS no-prize is available to the first person to guess what it is I was trying to draw:

My first ArtTrack

It was a bit of a failure. However, I learned three things:
  1. My GPS unit is not stunningly accurate. (I especially like the point that shows I apparently jumped onto the Sir Henry Wood Building roof and then off again!)
  2. I think I'll get on better by choosing when to record the points myself rather than letting the software do it automaticaly.
  3. I'm going to have to go bigger, much bigger, or it's not going to work. :-)
at

7 comments:

  1. Christine McIntoshOctober 04, 2008 9:13 am

    Now write the mystery story in which a character apparently kills himself by jumping off .... you get the idea. And as for this joyous Twit conversation: it fairly ate up the screens of the Twits I follow! Had to look through tons to check on my chickens!

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  2. DavidOctober 04, 2008 10:25 am

    Hello Chris

    Not a bad idea - Tom was looking for stimuli to short stories too!

    I said "fascinating" and it was exciting too to see the tweets fly about but yes, "joyous" captures it too. It was like some of the fun of TeachMeet had spilled over into Twitter.

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  3. AnonymousOctober 04, 2008 3:52 pm

    Just found the first addition to the LearningTracks Flickr group which led me here!

    Thanks so much for giving it a go and sharing what happened. You made me laugh so much with your 1st lesson learned.

    "I think we are going to need a bigger boat!"

    ReplyDelete
  4. DavidOctober 05, 2008 12:21 am

    Hello Tom

    I need a bigger car park... and possibly a more accurate GPS receiver.

    ReplyDelete
  5. JohnOctober 06, 2008 10:36 pm

    Hi David,
    interesting, so if I've a set of waypoints what is the easiest wat to get them on a map?

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  6. DavidOctober 07, 2008 10:53 pm

    Hello John

    The GPS software I use generates a KML file which goes straight into Google Earth. I've never used it, but GPS Visualizer looks promising.

    ReplyDelete
  7. JohnOctober 08, 2008 9:25 pm

    Thanks David,
    I'll check out GPS visualizer. i had a wee go today with my iPhone and class added it to learningTracks pool
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/troutcolor/2924313487
    I think this has lots of possibilities and of course my wee guys were happy as they were not 'working';-)

    ReplyDelete