1. Do we have to get the GPS marker when we are taking our pictures or can we get it afterwards? (Taylor)
2. Once we've taken 2-3 for the GPS marker can we move around the location and take more? (Taylor)
3. If I want to begin designing my own app separate from this what's a good place to start? (Nicole)
4. Can we meet you via Skype? (entire class)
2. Once we've taken 2-3 for the GPS marker can we move around the location and take more? (Taylor)
3. If I want to begin designing my own app separate from this what's a good place to start? (Nicole)
4. Can we meet you via Skype? (entire class)
Hi Class 62, nice to meet you! :D
ReplyDeleteTaylor, it's *much* easier to get it afterwards. Just take the photo first, and we'll sort it out later using Google maps, just by moving your mouse around on a map. I'm not sure what question 2 means. If we ignore working out the GPS location while taking photos, and sort it out once we have all final selection of photos from the class, does this answer your questions?
Nicole, if you've never done any programming before, I suggest you check out Scratch to learn how to make some fun things. You can do this on a desktop computer. Scratch is free and can be downloaded from here: http://scratch.mit.edu/
(I can send your class a bunch of Scratch resources from teachers around the world if any of you are interested. There's also lots of projects that kids have made using Scratch on their website that you can download, take apart and mashup to make your own versions.)
If you or anyone else in your class has done a bit of programming and know stuff like If/Then, loops, what a variable is etc, then I would suggest you check out Corona from http://anscamobile.com to make apps for mobile devices (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android phones and tablets).
A 14 year old boy (with some help from his mom) made Bubble Ball on the App Store using Corona. A little bit more about him here:
http://blog.anscamobile.com/2011/01/robert-nay-talks-bubble-ball-before-the-3-million-downloads/
and some easy, fun things you can do with Corona here:
http://blog.anscamobile.com/2010/10/make-a-game-in-8-minutes-with-corona/
and more here:
http://blog.anscamobile.com
The thing is that to make apps for mobile costs a bit of money. (For your class' app, it's already part of my yearly Apple developer's subscription fee, so for your class it's free.) You can try out Corona for free and learn with it, but to put our app onto a phone requires you paying Ansca first. Corona is the nicest easy way to make fun apps. There are cheaper ways, but they're not so much fun and often much more complicated. The education price for Corona is here:
http://developer.anscamobile.com/forms/educators-and-students
Your augmented reality app isn't made with Corona, but with Apple's Objective-C and XCode. It's a much more complicated programming language but allows us to make the augmented reality stuff which isn't possible with Corona.
You can find out more about Xcode and Objective-C here:
http://developer.apple.com/xcode/ (WARNING - deep deep geek territory)
All that geeky power though allows us to make really fun things like Felicity from Thin Air:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LDHy5XGrWw
See how art and science together can make some really cool stuff? Can't have one without the other.
As for a Skype meeting, sure - I'd love to meet you all and answer your questions and learn a bit more about you all. Here's a timezone convertor so you can see the differences between Dundas in Canada and Melbourne in Oz.
http://www.worldtimebuddy.com/?lid=2158177,6167865
First thing in the morning when you start school would work best for me. :D
I hope you're getting lots of great ideas - I'm excited to see how you will create this app together. I'm sure you'll surprise me with your creativity and brilliance!
- Ian