After following a link to John Davitt's New Tools website earlier this evening, I noticed that John has a really cool tool on the front page. It's called Davitt's Learning Event Generator and looks like this:

Of course you'll have to play with the interactive version and press the 'roll' button a couple of times to see the seductiveness of John's thinking. I love the concept and the intention of getting teachers thinking 'outside the box' about how what they have been teaching for years and years can embedded in children's lives and learning, differently.

Here are a few rolls of my dice:

do how a light works as an illustrated diagram

do glaciation as a 10 second movie shot on a mobile phone

do life cycle of tadpole as a tableau maybe with Playmobil/clay models

Just wonderful and perfect for illustrating how we at Kings Road Primary School need to continue to develop our Creative Curriculum project at my phase meeting tomorrow.

At the beginning of August I attended the Essex International Jamboree in Thorpe-le-Soken. This photograph was taken at the closing ceremony using my Apple iPhone 3G. This device has a built-in GPS receiver and is able to determine the exact position for latitude and longitude whenever required.

Usefully, location information is made available to the camera application when taking photographs with the iPhone. The latitude and longitude information is stored in the photograph's EXIF header within the file.

Using Yahoo Map's API, the EXIF data can be read and once interpreted, a location pointer can be layered on a given map.

Ultimately this means that viewing sets of photographs can be location specific. Imagine browsing your library of photographs by location. Using a map of the world I could easily find my photographs scattered in far away places including New Zealand, Thailand, Caribbean, and America.

Of course, this isn't new technology as such. Placing photographs on a map has been achievable for some years and the process of 'geotagging' images with location data is well understood by many. What the iPhone does is make geotagging very straightforward as all the location information is stored automatically at the point of taking the photograph. All that's required now is for a piece of software that can interact with the mapping API to do the rest.

With a little bit of work I was able to develop a little module that allows the location of geotagged photographs to be displayed on a map. So you kinda get a "I was 'ere" tool that shows exactly where you were standing when the photograph was taken. Unfortunately, this uses Yahoo Maps rather than the very impressive Google Maps interface - but hey, nothing is perfect.

...oh, and to see the map you'll have to view the full blog entry.

I've recently got quite excited by photographs that have been geotagged with location information. This is an example of EXIF file header which can be found in files. I have highlighted the GPS location information which is stored by the Apple iPhone 3G.

ExifTool is useful tool. It is essentially a file editor that enables this information to be modified.

 

 

ExifTool Version Number 7.41 File Name jamboree-small.jpg Directory /Users/jonathan/Desktop File Size 28 kB File Modification Date/Time 2008:08:30 23:54:50 File Type JPEG MIME Type image/jpeg JFIF Version 1.01 Exif Byte Order Big-endian (Motorola, MM) Make Apple Camera Model Name iPhone Orientation Horizontal (normal) X Resolution 72 Y Resolution 72 Resolution Unit inches Modify Date 2008:08:01 20:21:27 F Number 2.8 Date/Time Original 2008:08:01 20:21:27 Create Date 2008:08:01 20:21:27 Color Space Uncalibrated Exif Image Width 360 Exif Image Height 263 Gamma 2.2 GPS Latitude Ref North GPS Longitude Ref West Compression JPEG (old-style) Thumbnail Offset 191 Thumbnail Length 5904 Date/Time Digitized 2008:08:01 20:21:27+00:00 Profile CMM Type ADBE Profile Version 2.1.0 Profile Class Display Device Profile Color Space Data RGB Profile Connection Space XYZ Profile Date Time 2000:08:11 19:51:59 Profile File Signature acsp Primary Platform Apple Computer Inc. CMM Flags Not Embedded, Independent Device Manufacturer none Device Model   Device Attributes Reflective, Glossy, Positive, Color Rendering Intent Perceptual Connection Space Illuminant 0.9642 1 0.82491 Profile Creator ADBE Profile ID 0 Profile Copyright Copyright 2000 Adobe Systems Incorporated Profile Description Adobe RGB (1998) Media White Point 0.95045 1 1.08905 Media Black Point 0 0 0 Red Tone Reproduction Curve (Binary data 14 bytes, use -b option to extract) Green Tone Reproduction Curve (Binary data 14 bytes, use -b option to extract) Blue Tone Reproduction Curve (Binary data 14 bytes, use -b option to extract) Red Matrix Column 0.60974 0.31111 0.01947 Green Matrix Column 0.20528 0.62567 0.06087 Blue Matrix Column 0.14919 0.06322 0.74457 Image Width 360 Image Height 263 Encoding Process Baseline DCT, Huffman coding Bits Per Sample 8 Color Components 3 Y Cb Cr Sub Sampling YCbCr4:2:2 (2 1) Aperture 2.8 GPS Latitude 51 deg 51' 18.00" N GPS Longitude 1 deg 14' 32.40" W GPS Position 51 deg 51' 18.00" N, 1 deg 14' 32.40" W Image Size 360x263 Thumbnail Image (Binary data 5904 bytes, use -b option to extract)

 

I've been using the excellent GPS Tracker software on my iPhone 3G device to track routes and positions. At the weekend we competed in a pursuit race, which, due to the staggered start time and coupled with the fact Cracker is the fastest (sailing) boat in the harbour, our race is VERY short. We had other complications too, including a very low tide meaning we couldn't even get to the race course until moments after our race started (!)  and a flat engine battery meant it was always going to be tough to win!  However, we had guests on board and it turned out to be just good fun. It was also good to be back in Brightlingsea again having spent much of the season on the South Coast in Cowes and Ramsgate.

In two weeks time, we are off again - to West Mersea this time to compete in the annual Dabchicks Regatta. In fact it was exactly a year ago when Geoff came aboard and together we formed what he affectionately calls 'the engine room'. Amongst his other phrases, many of which can't be mentioned here (!), was BSBS (Brightlingsea School of Boat Speed). We did well that year and elevated ourselves into the quite unique club which we now know as 'BSBS'. Wish us luck!

"We are the engine room", eh Geoff?

Whilst the BBC are still dragging their feet with providing Windows only versions of their iPlayer software for downloading programmes, I've been using an alternative solution.

Paul Battley has found a solution using Ruby script run as a command line application. This is a cross platform tool that will work on Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. There is a GUI interface as well, though the author recommends using the command line which works perfectly well within a Terminal window.

./iplayer-dl --pid-list=download.txt

The downloader is able to handle bulk downloads through creating a list of programmes using the PID identifier in a text file.

Download the latest iPlayer Downloader software. On a Mac you'll need to have installed Apple's Xcode development environment.

 

Ever since Sir Ken Robinson spoke about Creativity and learning at TED, I've been keeping a watchful eye on subsequent presentations.

Johnny Lee captured my imagination, maybe because he's a geek as well? Johnny has begun to explore ways in which the Wii Remote can be applied to other situations where a device able to track movement using infra-red opens up new opportunities.

The accelerometer on the iPhone 3G opens up new possibilities in much the same way. I love playing Cro-Mag Rally for example, where the phone becomes the steering wheel. Having a spirit level on your phone rates quite high on a scale of geekiness.

That aside, Johnny has discovered that you can use a $40 handheld device to create an interactive whiteboard. He found that the Wii Remote has a powerful infra red camera in the tip of the controller. By putting an infra red LED inside the tip of a pen, the Wii Remote can detect movement across a projected surface. Very neat. An interactive whiteboard for the cost of about £30.

Johnny continues by demonstrating how the Wii Remote can detect head movements by tracking an infra red LED attached to a pair of glasses and in an instant, find yourself moving within a 3D environment. This is definitely one to watch.

 

With so much consumer choice for home electronics equipment, it's a minefield for anyone trying to decide what device to buy. My neighbour was looking to buy a mobile phone recently and found it incredibly difficult knowing what which manufacturer and model to purchase. With over a thousand mobile phones to choose from, this isn't a straightforward decision. 

Searching around a bit, I stumbled across TestFreaks. It aggregates reviews from several different sources, many of whom are written by consumers. Each device is rated against several criteria, design, value for money, features, ease of use, and performance. These vary depending on the device being reviewed.

I've been looking at buying a games console so that I play some of the latest games which are somehow all available for consoles rather than Macs and PCs.

Why not look for reviews of your next consumer product?

 

 

I'm having a lot of fun with InstaMapper's GPS Tracking application on my iPhone 3G. The client application takes live GPS data from the iPhone's position and transmits this to their servers at regular intervals. Using GPS positioning, the iPhone software can calculate the speed at which you are travelling and also the heading as a bearing.

However, it isn't until you log in to the InstaMapper GPS Tracking website and analyse the data that the iPhone has transmitted, that things become really interesting.

After a recent trip to the Lakeside Shopping Centre to collect a repaired MacBook, I looked at the data recorded. Journey time home was 20 mins from start to finish, travelling at an average speed of 48 miles per hour. The InstaMapper site also overlays each GPS position when data was transmitted onto a Google Map showing my entire journey to and from the Centre.

...and of course, using Google Maps as the mapping engine, it can also be viewed using the Satellite view.

I've started to cycle more regularly and next time I shall take the iPhone with me to track the route, speed and distance travelled.

Unfortunately, with Apple's policy on not permitting 3rd party applications to multi-task on the iPhone, the application only transmits data when it has been launched and is the running foreground application. This means you can't have the device constantly uploading GPS data - which is a real pity as this would then become the ideal anti-theft security system. Well, it wouldn't stop the iPhone from being stolen, but you'd be able to track the device quickly and within just a few metres. I'd love to see InstaMapper creating a variant of their tool which perhaps just uses a Unix application which runs in the background and posts GPS data - it doesn't need a GUI. Is this possible?

There are inherent dangers of having a device posting GPS data of course, not least having someone close to home knowing exactly where you are at every heartbeat. Hmmmm.  Or, as in this case, being busted for growing Cannabis plants. 

It'll be unfair for me to say that I haven't blogged for ages because I haven't had the time to do so as I've had the same amount of time as I have always had. I hate the expression 'I just haven't had the time to...' because that really means 'I've chosen to do something else' which is ok really - life is a busy place to be and we each have different priorities and needs.

That said, although my blog may have experienced the odd piece of tumble weed, my online presence as been as busy as ever - I'm just spread around a bit (!)

I couldn't begin to recount everything that has happened in the last four and a bit months, but you might try skimming through some of those 'other' online places.

I've invested much of my time building a Kings Road Primary School community, involving pupils in Year 4 initially and gradually bringing others into the online space. Building online learning communities is not a trivial task, and requires a fairly careful balance of ingredients for trust to be gained and responsibility understood. I'm delighted to see the fruits ripening as pupils are confidently posting articles whilst developing an understanding of language and audience.

• Bouncy Bouncy
• your new teacher
• My Afternoon at Maldon!
• new friends
• my house

more

The Orion Online site is thriving too. Take a look at some of our recent activities:

• Building new friendships at the Essex International Jamboree 2008

more

The mobile blog is pretty full-on, and kinda tells it's own story of where I've been and who I've met along the way. Using the iPhone 3G to blog is not only a delightful tool to use, but have began tagging photos with GPS location information. Watch this space for more on GPS location tagging.

• Peace and tranquility
• Geocaching at Queens Park Country Park
• iPhone Inclinometer
• Brightlingsea Pursuit Race - the GPS Trace
• Beer o'clock

more

...and of course there is also my online presence on Facebook and currently features my sisters wedding, she looked stunning. Take a look: album 1 | album 2.