EveryTrail round my block

I discovered a couple of my Trails in the layer that I created with my iPhone (download above example in Google Earth), though the pictures are (as expected) pretty dreadful.

It’s not necessary to use an iPhone – you can upload any .gpx file from a GPS device to create a trail. If you don’t have a GPS it’s no problem, simply mark a path on the map provided. You can import photos from a Flickr account, and if they’re geotagged, they’ll automatically show up in the right spot.

Sidmouth Flickr images

My Sidmouth photos in Every Trail

EveryTrail is a great option for fieldwork notes and images, and is quite simple enough for students to use independently. The ease with which trails can be created shared, displayed and seamlessly viewed with Google Earth make it a really great classroom application.

We used My Moving Map for this activity (mentioned in a recent post), which was designed as a quick 5 minute demonstration of some of the differences between paper and digital maps.

download the GPS track for Google Earth

The applications on test are..

Each application was tested on a short bike ride around my block. I live in a rural part of the South West and phone reception is patchy – though actually O2 is the only carrier that works properly in my area. There’s no wifi or 3G reception and part of my route takes me through a GPS blackspot consisting of a lane with high banks and overhung with trees. I recorded a track and then uploaded it to the relevant web site. If the application permitted, I took  photographs and recorded waypoints.

The first application to be tested was My Moving Map website / iTunes

This is a simple application that transmits your position to a website from which others can view your location, simply by entering your email address. It was extremely simple to set up and use. In operation, one merely taps the screen to broadcast the location of the device, which can also be seen on a Google map. The My Moving Map website not only offers a real-time map showing your location, that can be embedded in a blog (not WordPress I found) but also allows tracks to be downloaded as a csv file and KML for viewing in Google Earth. Here’s a map showing a recent walk during which My Moving Map constantly pinged my location.

Without the ability to create waypoints, the application is limited, but could be fun for certain classroom situations. You could envisage giving your phone to chosen students to go on various missions around the school while their progress is being tracked on the interactive white board. The application is is missing a software lock (necessary for all GPS applications on the iPhone) It didn’t seem to work well in my jacket pocket either. For what is does though this is a great application and well worth £1.19.

Next I tested RunKeeper. website / iTunes

RunKeeper is a free application and simply records a track that is uploaded to an excellent website where it can be viewed on a Google Map and speed evaluated against altitude. The RunKeeper site also logs your trips. The track data is very accurate, but there’s no export option which is a shame as it precludes the use of sites such as Magnalox and GPS Visualiser. A software lock works well.

RunKeeper is very highly recommended and I’ll be using it frequently. I’m not convinced that there’s much value to the geographical curriculum though for a collaboration with the PE department it would be excellent. Ollie Bray has also reviewed this application and seems to be impressed. It would be my first choice for monitoring runs and bike rides.

Next up was EveryTrail website / iTunes

This is a really useful application for geotagging photos. Just walk around and use the camera. At the end of the trip, upload the details to the EveryTrail website where it can be analyzed and viewed in a mumber of ways. The EveryTrail website is a popular resource among the geotagging community. See the details of my test here.

The GPS track was very accurate, the application has a software lock and is extremely easy and reliable to use.  The trail can be exported to Google Earth or as a GPX file. A great little application and definitely worth the £1.79. There is a real niche for this kind of application for fieldwork. I’d love to be able to add notes and recordings as well. The only other limitation is the notoriously poor iPhone camera!

Finally I looked at iTrail website / iTunes

This is a wiki-style project that aims to create free geographic data for everyone to use. I took a look at the area around my school and was delighted to discover that the coverage is very patchy, raising the prospects of a nice school project based on my favourite maxim, Chris Durbin’s ‘Real Geography, Real Outcomes’

To get going requires a little more than a GPS and a web browser. The Open StreetMap wiki provides a very good Beginners Guide. Start by creating an account and locating your home area. You then go out and collect data with a GPS. This as straightforward as walking, cycling or driving around an area while recording a tracklog. The next stage is to extract data from your GPS, save it as a GPX file, (I use Easy GPS for this) and upload it to the OSM server. Don’t forget that GPS Visualizer offers a range of options for viewing your GPX data in the classroom.
The next stage is to edit the GPX file to create OSM data. There are a few options for this, the simplest by far is to use the online Flash editor provided, that allows you to edit map data in your web browser. Finally the map is rendered and changes can be seen in OSM, (although this doesn’t happen immediately.)

I started contributing data for my local area this morning.

When I’ve done a little more experimenting, I think that this could be a really excellent way of teaching mapping to quite young students.

The globe is nicely rendered and pans smoothly. I was quite impressed. Providing that you have an internet connection, the transition from globe to the maps (provided by Tele Atlas) is seamless and rapid. The maps themselves are hardly beautiful, but are nevertheless functional and detailed. It can be a little disorientating at certain zoom levels with a lcak of named locations with which to get your bearings. The maps are rendered very quickly, especially by phone standards, and they take up very little memory.

If Wayfinder Earth remains free to use, then I’d say it’s an essential mobile application. I noticed that when I tried to link Wayfinder Earth to my GPS it wanted to go to an internet shop and upgrade. At this point you are buying into the existing Wayfinder Navigator sat-nav system. I’ve used Wayfinder Navigator for a while and really like it. It’s has just been improved with a nice visual makeover. As a sat-nav program it’s quite easy to use, has a postcode look up, gives very good directions and clear visual instructions and even warns of some (but not all) speed cameras. The Wayfinder website gives more information, and there’s a generous free trial period. You need a suitable phone and a bluetooth GPS.

What WayFinder Earth is not, is any kind of mobile Google Earth. As a mapping program for your phone, it’s brilliant and will work all over Europe and North America. You will want to buy a GPS and upgrade once you’ve tried it! I don’t know how much it is to purchase and use as a fully featured sat nav program , however I’m guessing it will be the same as Wayfinder Navigator, (99 Euros).

Thanks to Ogle Earth for spotting the release of Wayfinder Earth today

I have written an article about teaching with GPS, which can be found at Juicy Geography. The page includes links to some Google Maps I prepared that show how GPS Visualizer can be used to plot fieldwork data.
GPS Visualizer seems to grow new features each week and is a brilliant application for displaying yourGPS data.. The other essential utility featured is Easy GPS. I hadn’t realized until recently that it now manages GPS tracks as well as routes and waypoints. Both these programs are free.

This is the very first arrow:

There are lots of surf shops in North Devon, the arrow is placed on the window of the only shop manufacturing surfboards locally. If you’re in Braunton, text the code on the arrow to the SMS number provided, for a personal message!

This arrow has been placed somewhere on a beach. I’m not saying which beach, or where the arrow is located, but it’s not hard to find!

There’s a message for weekend / London surfers to be discovered.

Tomorrow I will be moblogging directly from a GCSE fieldtrip on Exmoor, (providing there’s an Orange signal!) I will also be testing some handheld GPS units and Phone2GEarth as well. The idea is to use the the phone to locate and photograph the fieldwork sites. The phone images will be geotagged in the evening.

The moblog link is here

The handheld GPS units will be used in conjunction with a traditional gun clinometer to measure the gradient of the river bed and the valley sides. The results will be available on this site in .gpx format so that they can be viewed in GPS Visualizer. It will be interesting to evaluate the accuracy of the traditional method compared to the modern.