Tested To Destruction "TTD": mobile devices good enough for fieldwork?

Image of a Trimble fieldwork kit
used by Geology student here
at Plymouth University

Many of you may have probably wondered what electronic devices are durable enough to take out in the field, without having to attach numerous protective covers.  If you watched the Gadget Show last night you would have seen the team testing a number of mobile devices out in the field and I can assure you they were not handling them carefully.  If a device can take this sort of abuse it has a good chance of lasting on just about any of our field trips!

Devices (that survived...even being subjected to explosives!) included:

* Kodak Playsport camcorder -  also reviewed on CNET UK
* Garmin Oregon 450T (GPS) - also reviewed on Free Geography Tools

The full test can be seen on video via Gadget Show blog. I'll leave it up to the viewers to decide what they would choose!

Mscape now available on the HP website.

The Mscape software that many of have used is no longer available from the www.mscapers.com website as the site has been pulled down (forums and all!), users are now greeted with an error message. A particularly sad demise of a perfectly usable website and software, which had a very active user base. Fortunately the software can still be found on the Hewlett Packard Labs website, but with extremely limited information on building your own mediascape. At the time of writing this post, Create-A-Scape still provides users with their own method for creating mediascapes, though you will need to use the HP lab link to download the last version of MScape. So those of us with Windows Mobile GPS enabled PDAs can still continue to enjoy the software.

Some of the original Mscape software developers have now formed a company called Calvium. Currently the company has published a GPS Draw software for the iPhone.  There is indication that they are programming for the Android too, which is good news. I had heard through various sources that they were considering software 'similar' to Mscape, but of course due to copyrights etc, it will not be Mscape!

The main feature of Mscape which is particularly appealing, is the ability to use your own maps.  When building teaching and learning materials for remote fieldwork locations, you don't really want to be depending on your 3G networks, for two main reasons: cost and availability.  What does the future hold? There are applications coming out on the Android Market, such as MapDroyd, that allows users to down load a whole country or even the world, for free! This application of course uses the popular open source map Open Street Map, the very same map source functionality added to MScape not long before its demise. Here's looking forward to a greater wealth of mobile applications for teaching and learning!

Mscape and other logos are the property of their respective owners.

Google App Inventor for Android

Im keeping a keen eye out on mobile devices software that have some educational potential and functionality that relate to the science and technology disciplines and could be made freely available to students. Google have now released an application 'inventor' for its android based phones. Its esentially a way to write your own 'Apps' without actually getting involved with the nitty gritty of hard core programming. Its very much a visual programming language. I think their video says it all, with a basic example.

For me the bit Im excited about is that to quote Google:

"...App Inventor provides access to a GPS-location sensor, you can build apps that know where you are. You can build an app to help you remember where you parked your car, an app that shows the location of your friends or colleagues at a concert or conference, or your own custom tour app of your school, workplace, or a museum."

A piece of free software that allows access to the GPS is good news for field work as far as Im concerned. It will be interesting to see how good this software is...

Peer Assisted Experiential Learning (PAEL) in Earth Sciences presented at GEES event

The above slides were presented at the GEES Geoscience student learning event 'Overcoming Barriers to Learning in the Geosciences', Wednesday 20th January 2010, Aston Webb building, University of Birmingham.

Providing details on how the PDA rescource was developed and feedback from the student experiences.

New Trimble Juno SC available for fieldwork

After much deliberation, the Experiential Learning CETL (University of Plymouth) now has a set of Trimble Juno SC PDAs for use in fieldwork. These devices come with built in GPS (2-5 metre accuracy), SIM modem, camera, Wifi and bluetooth ideal for numerous teaching and learning contexts.

The picture shows the PDA housed within its own bespoke OtterBox. The box is designed to take the usual knocks an bumps and incorporates a screen protector. It has been quoted on some sites as acceptable for 'light rain' use, although we recommend using AquaPacs to ensure complete protection from the elements.

The software we currently deployed on these devices for our own educational contexts include: ArcPad, Memory-map, MScape and TrackMe.