GPS hide and seek

This term Monday was used to prepare the students for a hide and seek using GPS apps on their smartphones. For the Android users I recommended GPS essentials. For the iOS users the default compass app displays the latitude and longitude.

The new Smartboard IQ supports casting but, as in the past, the connection holds for only a few brief minutes before it is dropped.

The onscreen keyboard disables any physically connected keyboard, which is problematic from a usability standpoint. There must be a way to enable a physical keyboard, but I have not determined what that might be.

This term I did not preselect a hide. No papers with coordinates were printed. I hid within range of the WiFi and sent the coordinates out by email and Canvas Inbox. Coordinates were shared in the default format for GPS units. I had two GPS units with me and my Moto G60 running the GPS Essentials app. The GPS units put me at N 06° 54.478', E 158° 09.526' in degrees and decimal minutes. My three devices disagree by a few digits so I included an alternate fix of N 06° 54.472', E 158° 09.522' from GPS Essentials. GPS essentials also provided the geofix in deg min sec as N 06° 54' 28.6", E 158° 09' 31.3" and decimal degrees N 06.907957,  E 158.158715 or E 158.258774. GPS Essentials seemed unstable in the last two digits. 

Just a couple meters south of the semi-hidden picnic area was a nice view of a green valley. From my hide I set up a 12:00 PM timed release of my coordinates by Gmail. At 11:57 I sent a Canvas Inbox message. 

Readings were somewhat unstable for the GPS units as well, perhaps due to the overhead forest canopy. 

I thought I heard voices by 12:12 PM. I was unable to discern if they were students looking for me or not. Voices were heard again at 12:14 PM but faded by 12:19 PM. Then at 12:20 I could hear that someone was moving through the grass on the slope below me. That was unexpected as a line of latitude would not take one into the valley. A student had apparently gone to far south.

At 12:21 Rizal came up from the valley. He explained that when he reached the public health classrooms his latitude was essentially correct but his longitude was too large. He needed the longitude to go down, so he followed that logic down into the valley. Whereupon the latitude was too small and required a right turn back up the slope. He had been with students but was now alone.

At 12:31 Fiji appeared, heading south on a line of longitude. He had been up at the public health building area but headed west to get the longitude correct. Once he had the longitude correct he worked on the latitude, eventually realizing he had to go south to correct the latitude. 

Ashalina followed behind Fiji.

Ashalina at the hide geofix.

After covering the use and capabilities of the GPS, the four of us used the trail to hike back out. This represented a record low successful find rate for the course. Never before have so many failed to find me. This may in part represent a failing of the new approach. Perhaps a more thorough introduction to GPS Essentials including a practice use on Monday might help.