DigGeog

With the summer term underway and the prospect of local fieldwork, I thought I’d mention Maps Direct. For schools, this is really the only option for using the Ordnance Survey’s stunning new product, MasterMap.

For the uninitiated, MasterMap reduces the UK to approximately 450 million individual objects (or to be more specific, TOIDS). Probably the most advanced and ambitious national mapping system in the world, MasterMap delivers constantly updated data in five different layers. Indeed it is helpful to think of MasterMap as a database rather than an actual map. The OS has produced a Product Viewer which allows a tantalizing glimpse of MasterMap. Here for example, thanks to Ed Parsons.com, is a screenshot of the topgraphy and imagery layers.

Unfortunately MasterMap is prohibitively expensive, and requires specialized software, making it inaccessible to schools. The long running debate about whther the OS should be charging for its data was recently given a re-airing in this Guardian article, It’s helpful to read a response by Ed Parsons, CTO of the OS, on his excellent blog Ed Parsons.com. Ed understands and supports the need for organisations such as schools to access the latest OS products, and this is where ESRI, with their Maps Direct for Schools step in.

Essentially, Maps Direct allows teachers and students to access the MasterMap topography layer through a web-based interface. Although there is no option to turn individual information layers on and off, the website does provide some simple GIS tools, including a postcode look-up, simple measuring and shape drawing tools, and an excellent flood-fill tool to colour the TOIDS with a single click. (For some reason, red seems appropriate!) Anyone who has tried to add colours to a LandLine map by painstakingly adding and filling polygons will be delighted at the flood-fill feature which really lends itself to land-use mapping tasks. The interface is simple and students will need little guidance, as the image below indicates.

click to enlarge

Like many teachers I was a little sceptical about Maps Direct. I experienced many problems with the first version, however the website is much faster and more reliable now. It requires Internet Explorer 6. The copyright license is a quite hideous piece of legalese, effectively preventing teachers from accessing the data at home, but allowing them to store it on a laptop for purposes of teaching learning and planning. The cost is quite high, (£205 per year with a discount for a second years subscription.) The good news is that eLearning Credits can be used to soften the blow. I wonder to myself how many schools are blowing their ELCs on Learning to Learn modules, pupil trackers and VLEs. I contend that Maps Direct is a far more valuable way to spend ELCs.

The site contains a few suggested learning activities and a useful introductory guide for students. In almost all cases the first activity for younger students is of course to get them to find their house, followed by measuring the distance to school. They might colour in their own house and those of their friends. Once the initial excitement has worn off, it’s time to extend their skills. Lacking access to a network room, I prepared an activity that involved printing off a black and white map of the school grounds at 1:1250 scale. I then erased a couple of buildings, and after teaching the basics of scale drawing and surveying, got the students to go outside, complete some measurements and replace the missing buildings onto the printed map. The website was then used to assess the accuracy of their efforts. Later this term I shall be using Maps Direct as the basis for a building survey in my local town and the flood-fill tool will be invaluable.

One small tip, which will probably be perfectly obvious to some. I was confused by the coordinate search which invites you to input the British Grid reference, yet doesn’t respond to the letter code identifying the 100km square. The answer I discovered, after reading a wikipedia article is to use an all numeric grid reference. The graphic here is helpful, so for example the Easting of square ST would be preceded by the digit 3, and the Northing by the digit 1.

In summary, Maps Direct is a really useful and simple online GIS. It’s quite expensive, but there is a free trial period. Students really enjoy using the service, and it certainly enhances map skills lessons and fieldwork activities. Don’t be put off by the copyright notice! It’s a perfect way to claim your ELC entitlement.

Should ESRI decide to include the MasterMap imagery, and tweak the interface to allow the adding and removal of individual layers within the topography dataset, Master Map would become an even more useful tool.