Alternative Access Project: Mobile Scoping Study Final Report
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| Mediascape application incorporating maps downloaded from Digimap showing some point and polygon triggers.
However, the “Ambient Woods” study [33] where children explored a woodland with various augmented digital media sounds a note of caution, concluding that student initiated requests for digital information were more successful in promoting “independent activity and reflection” than environmentally (location) triggered media. This concurs with concerns tutors at Kingston had with the immediacy of data capture using digital devices and suggests that convenience of mobile can reduce rather than enhance the learning experience if applied unthinkingly. That said, we strongly believe that a well designed tool such as Mediascape that makes it easy to create powerful location based learning experiences would lead to a substantial increase in the use of Digimap and other EDINA content for fieldtrip work. The “Ambient Woods” concept [33] of the mobile device as a data logger, where the device is connected to a sensor or probe and records measurements for immediate or later analysis can be extended beyond a learning experience to large scale scientific data gathering employing members of the public to crowd source data. Anthony Steed and Richard Milton [34] from UCL report on a study of environmental carbon monoxide pollution that uses a set of tracked, mobile pollution sensors attached to a PDA device that recorded measurements as volunteer pedestrians and cyclists navigated an area in central London. The authors found that the accuracy of GPS in urban environment was a significant limiting factor obscuring identification of pollution hotspots by placing pedestrians in the middle of the road or wrong side of junctions. 
Example of a GPS trace where you cannot immediately tell which side of the road the pedestrian is on – from Steed and Milton [34] Digimap OS Mastermap was essential in the analysis stage both to visualize results but perhaps more importantly to improve the accuracy of the GPS traces. Using knowledge of building footprints, the geographic extent of trail and features such as bus stops and junctions on the route the authors were able go from plotting maps of pollution at a 20m scale to a 5m scale. Even for those that do possess advanced skills in GIS, interviews we conducted suggest that we could do a lot more to assist educators in exploiting Digimap for field trip work. The suitability of data download is critical, as most of the time field trip cannot rely on web access, so the data has to be downloaded and cached on the device. Those that have been through the process of downloading our data and transferring it to mobile have not found it particularly easy. Typically more than one product is wanted for fieldtrip work so download facilities that only allow one product ( e.g. OS Mastermap, Historic, Geology) to be downloaded are not optimal. Even when the field trip organizer has downloaded all the content they will often have to use a desktop GIS to realign and rescale the products so that they can be layered into a composite map of the field trip area. Speaking to field trip organizers it is clear that for the purposes of mobile a much simpler download tool is needed, that simply allows the user to select an area of interest and obtain a cacheable dataset that incorporates data from a number of products and collections ( OS, Geology, Historic) that can be easily deployed on a range of mobile devices. One solution is to create a new download service that allows downloads of data across collections in addition to the existing collection oriented downloaders. Changes to the current licensing regime may facilitate this as it should lead to more institutions subscribing to the full set of Digimap collections rather just Ordnance Survey. However we need to recognize that only a limited number of people will have the technical skills to make use of raw data and deploy it to a mobile device. We suspect a much wider group of people would want to use Digimap data for fieldtrip work if we could make the process as simple as panning to an area in a map a clicking a “make this map mobile” button. Bringing this requirement together with the work we have done in the technical evaluation strand of the scoping study on HTML5 Cache and HTML Local Storage we think it might be possible to extend the existing “My Maps” functionality in Digimap ROAM so that when a map is bookmarked an HTML5 Cache manifest is created with links to all the map images required to view and navigate a 1km area around the map. Once the map is bookmarked in this way the user can retrieve the bookmark link (for example via QR code) on an HTML5 compliant mobile browser which will then automatically download all the images and features and store them in the browser for later use in the field. The technical issues described in the evaluation work we did on HTML5 Cache and HTML5 Local storage would need to be addressed but the simplicity of the solution is appealing. As well as use in the field, Digimap also has an important role in the preparation and planning of the trip. For example a botany graduate[35] employed both modern and historic maps to locate potential sites for monkshood native habitats. Ideally we would be able to go one step further, allowing Digimap users to easily transfer the work they have done preparing for a field trip ( deciding where to go ) to actually using the material in the field on a mobile device. Similarly, once the field exercise is completed any data gathered during the field exercise could be reviewed by superimposing the data on the original field material or incorporating the data into an automatically generated micro site that provides a summary of the places visited and observations recorded [36]. The augmented “map table” described in the section below could be another mechanism for students to share and reflect on their experience in the field while events are still fresh in their mind. The conclusion from this is that the design of a Mobile Digimap offering to support fieldtrip work must address an integration of activity before, during and after the field exercise. This was a point stressed by many of the people we spoke to and must be the guiding principle for any Digimap fieldtrip implementation.
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