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:
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!)
I think I'll get on better by choosing when to record the points myself rather than letting the software do it automaticaly.
I'm going to have to go bigger, much bigger, or it's not going to work. :-)
I spoke at TeachMeet08 on the subject of Mobile Games - games you can play on a mobile phone. I tried to talk about how they might be useful in an educational context. I must admit to being a bit disappointed with myself. Ewan McIntosh was being very fierce in enforcing the no Powerpoint rule - and I panicked. I tried to do my spot without the aid of s presentation safety net and it didn't go well. You see, I use a presentation in much the same way as a drunk uses a lamppost - more for support than for illumination. It helps keep me on topic. Without a presentation, I fear I was a bit rambling (well more rambling than usual) and I definitely missed some stuff out that I meant to say. I got so confused at one point that Mark Pentleton had to remind me (via the Twitter backchannel): "it's Wednesday and you're not on an escalator" - perhaps you had to be there. :-)
However, it was after the event that I really got annoyed with myself. I'd read the wiki and I knew about the "No Powerpoint" rule... but I also knew about the get out clause. The TeachMeet rules say, "No PowerPoint allowed... unless... you're doing 20 slides for 20 seconds each". (I think it used to say this on the TeachMeet08 page too but I couldn't face ploughing through the history to see if it had been deleted and who changed it!) Anyway, that was my plan (and despite appearances to the contrary, I had planned what I was going to say). I created a presentation of twenty-three slides and planned to spend much less than twenty seconds on a number of them and a bit longer than twenty seconds on a few. You can see the result below as I've saved my presentation as a movie and added a soundtrack with more or less what I was going to say. It lasts seven minutes and thirty-five seconds - which I think is pretty darn good! (And if Ewan had been there, looking fierce and warning me when I had two minutes to go, I think I could have delivered it inside the seven minute mark!) So, this is what I might have said if Ewan hadn't frightened me. :-)
In the Flashmeeting chat from my bit of the evening Fons shared a link to 7scenes as another source of GPS enabled activities. I haven't had a chance check it out properly but it looks interesting. Also, after I'd spoken, a chap from Wild Knowledge came up to tell me about what they were doing. It's not exactly game based but I think their GPS based activities look interesting and they will probably feature in a post in the near future.
Also, in the Twitter backchannel, Derek Robertson reminded me of Spore. I was aware of Spore, but his prompt set me looking for information on Spore for phones other than the iPhone. The results of this search will form the basis of a future rant! You have been warned.
Finally, while in the Twitter backchannel, I can't resist blowing my own trumpet again. On the backchannel Ewan said, "David Muir always makes me want to be a teacher again when he speaks. Just as well he's the one teaching the teachers every day." From somebody I admire and have learned a bucketload of stuff from, I am more than a little pleased with this comment. I think I want Ewan to be a teacher again too - I would certainly love to have him teaching my children. Scottish Education's loss is very definitely Channel 4's gain. (Although I'm slightly confused by the second bit of the comment - I think he's saying that it's just as well I'm not in school, causing chaos with pupils!)
So there you are. My seven minute presentation more or less as I meant to do it complete with links and associated ramblings. Let me know what you think of mobile gaming in education and please tell me if you are doing it already.
Disclaimer bit!
Opinions expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of my employer. The use of any copyright terms or material is not a challenge to the ownership of those materials.
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