iPhone in Education (2 of 5): TrackMe

During the recent Teachmeet at the Scottish Learning Festival, John Davitt introduced me to the idea of a Track Stick. I was so impressed with the idea that I ordered one off eBay for about £80. Then about 30 minutes later, I realised that I could do the same thing for a fraction of the price with my iPhone! Of course you do have to have an iPhone first – so I guess it’s actually quite an expensive option!

Anyway, I’ve been using an application called TrackMe (that currently costs £1.79) from the iTunes Apps Store. It’s fantastic and has huge potential.

TrackMe uses the GPS functionality of the iPhone to record where you are at regular intervals. You can view your current position and ‘track’ within TrackMe, where your track is superimposed over a Google Map. You can also export your Track to email to use with other web based tools such as Google Maps and Google Earth.

How to Use TrackMe

Once you have downloaded TrackMe from the App’s Store.

Here’s how it works:

1) In the ‘Settings’ of your iPhone go to the brightness menu and turn the screen brightness down to the minimum setting. Next go to the ‘general’ menu within settings and turn off ‘Auto-Lock’. The reason for doing both of these things is that TrackMe only works when the GPS is on and the GPS only works when the screen is on. By completing both of these things before you start will maximise your iPhone battery life.

   

2) Now return to the home page and select the TrackMe icon to start running Track Me.

3) As long as you have a GPS signal the opening screen of TrackMe will show your current Latitude, Longitude, Altitude and give you a rough idea of accuracy to the nearest metre.

When you are ready to start tracking your journey press the ‘Start / stop tracking my position’ button at the bottom of the screen.

To see your current tracks press the ‘Tracks’ button at the top right hand corner of the screen. 

4) The next menu will give you a list of your current and archived tracks. The example shown below is from a Mountain Bike Trip at Gentress in the Scottish Boarders.

 

‘Tapping the Route’ takes you to the Google Map of the route.

5) In the Google Map screen there is the option to ‘Export’ your data file. Depending on what you want your data for; you might not need to do this.

 

6) If you decide to export your data, you have to do this by email. Simply type your email address into the top box can tap on ‘Get GPX file by email’.

 

7) Once you have received your GPX Track File the data now really starts to become powerful – particularly if you want to display the information in 3D in Google Earth or in Google Maps.

If you want to display your track in Google Earth. The first thing you must do is download your file from your email.

 

8) Next you must convert your file into a format that Google Earth can recognise. This can be done using free on-line file converters such as GPS Babel (http://www.gpsbabel.org). You should convert your file to a .kml file.

 

9) Once you have converted your file. Right click on it and select ‘Open in Google Earth’ and your track will appear as a Google Earth Overlay. The overlay is dynamic this means that you can ‘play it’ using the menu at the top of the Google Earth Screen. It will show you how quickly you walked your track.

 

This really is a powerful application, with lots of potential! There are obvious links to Geography Fieldwork and Outdoor Education. But there are also a number of other uses such as Google Earth Graffiti, where children could write out words and send each other messages. What a cool way to do a spelling test!

By the way, my new TrackStick has also arrived and I guess I’ll be writing more about that soon!

Comments

[Bertie..]

Ollie, in the interest of fairness TrackMe and other simlar progs are available for other phones, mostly cheaper ones that don't keep going look at me I'm really impressive doing things other phones did sometime ago - not that I'm dissin' your iphone really. ;-)

[Stuart Meldrum]

This is ace, I'm going to have to take this for a spin soon!

[john]

Hi Ollie,
this is interesting stuff.
My class managed some simple shapes with my iPhone today:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/troutcolor/2924313487/
We used SnailTrail which is 59p

[OllieBray]

Bertie - As you seem to get a new phone every couple of weeks, I'm sure your knowledge will be far more superior than mine on this one!

Stuart - Good to hear from you. Let me know how you get on!

John - Nice photo John - I will check out Snail Trail.

OB

[Nick]

So when are you doing GEOCACHEing outside with them ? Get them away from screens !