Wednesday 6 May 2009

Big Adventures Small Technologies

Islay High School has been developing some ‘interesting’ trips. Amongst the usual and wonderful, skiing, Outward Bound, Sports, etc. trips. We have been going for bigger adventures too. This has been developed by one of our Deputy Head Teachers, Stephen Harrison.

The first adventure (Trip is far too small a word these) was in 2003 to Costa Rica. No Blog though lots of memories for those involved.

Though this was the start of the adventure the start of the project was 2 years before that. That is when the pupils committed to going and to raising the funds to go and commit to the training regime.

The second adventure was in 2005 to Ecuador. They tried to Blog but hadn’t quite got the hang of it. Though the photos are wonderful.

The third adventure was to Malawi and this time the Blogging was better but still a bit stilted due to access issues. Though the response on the BBC Island Blogging site was tremendous.

This adventure takes a slightly different format as it is covering 2 countries, Palau and Borneo.

An earlier Blog post gives some of the detail but loads more to come. The pupils have setup a blog and will be starting to post to it soon.

That's the background. This is what I am looking for.

What technologies should they be taking?

I have spoken to one of our suppliers, Lanway, and asked about a small, robust UMPC or netbook. They are suggesting that they can borrow a solid state UMPC with built in Camera (Both Video and still) and takes a SIM card. Though I will have to check out if they can connect to the local network after reading this.

They will also be taking an Olympus SW790 (Thats the one that can be dropped and used in water upto 3m).

I am a little concerned about charging. I have been looking at solar chargers. Anyone know anything?

and lastly GPS tracking………. I am a complete novice at this and would welcome any help.

And the last catch all What would you take?

Looking forward to the responses.

 

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