Archiv für den Monat: März 2010

1st Spatial Learning Test

We had a further testing session in the Bodelschwinghschule in Münster, Germany, on March 25th and 26th.

We visited a new class, fourthgraders again, where we had a first spatial learning test with the 24 students. We devided the children in four groups, tested geocaching with the XO-Laptop, with a common GPS device displaying distance and direction and with a paper map. The fourth group just had some other assignments in class. As pre and post test the children had to draw a sketchmap of the school ground with all features they could remember. We tracked the children’s wayfinding, to compare the results in a spatial and temporal extent.

Henning prepares the kids for Geocaching

Common geocaching with GPS-device

Geocaching with a paper map

Besides that we continued Usability-Testing with the same class as in the January tests. After having examined the Geocaching activity the last time, we concentrated this time on the freshly developed Geotagging activity. See Screenstories in the TechBlog. The children had to tag different features on the school ground. In the assignment they could choose out 5 out of 9 features, like „tree“, „building“, „infrastructure“… They created maps with symbols for the choosen features.

Henning explains how geotagging works

Tagging of the slide

The task was well understood and the children solved the assignment very quickly, having much fun. We realised little problems in the symbology again. We had a quite small error in the GPS data. The tags appeared between 2 and 7m away from their real position.

XO-map with some geotags

During both days, we installed the GI@School MultiTouch-surface and a Google Earth Interface in the classrooms, to keep the non tested children happy 😉 They loved the new technology in class and were exited about the new way of exploring maps.

Multitouch surface Google Earth

Bodelschinghschule XO Learning Test Day2 077

After the easter holidays we will evaluate the test results in detail. With this successful session behind us we now are exited and looking forward to the tests in Rwanda in May.

Usability Workshop at University College of London

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In the end of March we participated at the Second workshop on geographic information usability in London at the University College of London. We presented our work in the OLPC project and the results of the first test at the Bodelschwinghschule with a focus on the geodata usability. It was a good opportunity to get feedback from usability experts that are not involved in our project and to take a look on other work with a geographic information usability aspect.

Conferences and a job opportunity

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The papers we submitted to the ESRI International User Conference 2010 (July 12–16, San Diego, California) and the ESRI 2010 conference (April 27–29, Darmstadt, Germany) were accepted. Furtheron, the results of our first usability tests are going to be presented at the Second Workshop on Geographic Information Usability taking place on March 23rd in London, Great Britain.

Additionaly, there is a new job opportunity for students, sponsored by ESRI, dealing with the development of an ESRI- and OLPC-based GIS environment. This will enable teachers to prepare geo-games and to analySe data collected in the field in order to support the children’s perception and understanding of their environment at local, regional and global scale. Schools will be enabled to communicate and exchange geospatial data on their respective local environment. The job will be combined with a Bachelor thesis.