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:



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. :-)