Notes for a talk on Thursday at Sussex University

1. Mobile Devices and Learning
Sussex University
Designing a GPS course
Richard Vahrman, LocoMatrix
7th March 2013

2. Object: to design a GPS course for
teenagers
• Week long course
• What is GPS?
• What is it used for?
• Where do you find it?
• What can you do with it?
• Creating games
• See Locomatrix Invisible Buildings esp. video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_
embedded&v=8U7L0YKi-bc

3. Maps
• Using maps with GPS
• Use for SatNav
• Available resources – Google, Open Streetmap
• APIs
• Tiling

4. GPS: where else?
• Apps like 4Square
• Twitter – e.g. #UKSnow
• Trip Advisor
• Where else?

5. Coordinates and Haversine
• Any point on earth described with 2 coords –
lat/long – what do these look like
• Calculations=Haversine
http://www.movable-
type.co.uk/scripts/latlong.html
• Calculate distance/bearing/midpoint from 2
lat/longs
• Destination given distance and bearing
• Intersection of paths

6. Where am I?
• Working out the dimensions of your playing
area
• Creating a simple metal detector program
• Creating a grid in a field
• Other ideas
• Use of other phone features

7. Assessing the Work
• How to do it?
• Awarding an Open Badge (Mozilla)
http://openbadges.org/en-US/
• How this might fit in with other modules