Christine Rodriguez

ECI 511: GPS UNITS

Description:

Geocaching is a high-tech, worldwide treasure hunt where a person hides a cache for other to find (Lary, 2004).  The longitude and latitude coordinates to find the cache are placed into a GPS unit in order to determine location.

Findings:

Prior to reading the article I was completely lost as to what geocaching was and what I was to do with a GPS unit other than use it to find my way from work to the new mall opened in Timbuktu!  As an instructional tool the GPS unit can be quite impressive and fun for student use.  In the article Lary describes how he used the GPS unit with some students finding various landmarks on the schools campus.  Lary also detailed how students became extremely engaged because the GPS unit was similar to that of a game boy!  In order to correctly use the GPS unit Lary stated that it was necessary to discuss coordinates and longitude and latitude, so that students entered the coordinates into the unit correctly.  He also explained how he put students into groups in order to figure out how to find their cache (the mysterious landmarks).  The one downside I see to using this unit would be once again, like most hardware devices, cost.  Although a fun tool to use, I don?t think it would lend itself very easily to all content areas and there would be potential for damage.

Reflection:

Being an ELA teacher most tools, concepts, and strategies lend themselves to my content area.  I must say with this particular hardware I did find it a bit difficult to figure out how I could incorporate a GPS location system into my poetry unit.  After long thought, I thought, a may be a long shot, but if given the opportunity my students could use lines, rhythmic beats and pentameter to find a certain cache that I have hidden.  So, for instance if my students could successfully figure out the beats and meter of a poem then enter those coordinates into the GPS, they would be successful in finding the cache.  An alternative could be the Travel Bugs program that was discussed in our online posts.  Travel Bugs would use the same concept as the handheld GPS unit minus the actual unit.  Students would still get the opportunity to utilize a tracking system to find a specific items or goal, whatever you decided to attach to the travel bug.  The bug would keep a journal of its travels that students would check as they pick up the travel bug from various areas.  All content areas could utilize this program at this same time maintaining the same concept used by the handheld GPS units.

Posted at 11:14PM Nov 27, 2006 by RODRIGUEZ, CHRISTINE in General  |  Comments[0]