Johannes Schlüter's presentation in the 2nd Workdshop on usability of geographic information, 23rd March 2010 at UCL, London. See details at http://www.virart.nottingham.ac.uk/GI%20Usability/index.html

1. Data Usability Aspects in
Children’s Geospatial Learning
Johannes Schlüter, 23. 03. 2010

2. GeospatialLearning@PrimarySchool
Motivation:
• GI science and geographic information in
general public
• MIT One Laptop Per Child
“It’s an education project,
not a laptop project”
- Nicholas Negroponte
Johannes Schlüter, 23. 03. 2010

3. GeospatialLearning@PrimarySchool
• Application for the XO-Laptop to foster
– Spatial Thinking
– Spatial Orientation
– and to improve the geography classes
• Framework with plugins
– Geocaching
– Geotagging
Johannes Schlüter, 23. 03. 2010

4. Geocaching with the XO-Laptop
Johannes Schlüter, 23. 03. 2010

5. Challenge for the software
– limited attention span of the children
– limited experience with computers, especially laptops
– no experience with geospatial applications
– it should not be necessary to know GI concepts in
order to use the application
– cross-cultural use without specific localization of texts,
symbols
– restrictive design rules of the XO make it difficult to
design a proper interaction
Johannes Schlüter, 23. 03. 2010

6. GI usability aspects
• Player position
– symbology
– data accuracy (GPS, continious)
• Treasure position
– symbology
– data accuracy (GPS, acquired once)
• Base map (OSM)
– symbology (predefined symboles)
– data quality (VGI)
Johannes Schlüter, 23. 03. 2010

7. Test Results
• most children had prior experience with GI
• Level of detail
• OSM data do not provide enough detail
• symbology wasn`t always self-explanatory
• children had orientation problems they assumed the
north on the map is straight ahead
• all children had fun!!!
Johannes Schlüter, 23. 03. 2010

8. Thanks for your attention!
Question?
Blog: http://52north.org/GeospatialLearning/