Conceptual design „GEOCACHING for elderly people - Outdoor ICT“

 

This course design is based on the conceptual design of the Fachhochschule Kärnten (FH - Carinthia university of applied science). In opposite to the FH concept I see the main target group of a VHS course not in people with “safety in the handling of PC-Windows workstations and the internet”.

In my opinion the main target group of a VHS course is:

·         Elderly people at the age of 50 to 65

·         with no or few computer and internet skills

·         with preference for outdoor activities in leisure time

In the following you can see my recommendation for adapting the FH Kärnten concept:

Conceptual design FH Kärnten

Redesign Sissy

·         Theoretical introduction (2 hrs. á 60 mins.)

o   Basics and background of GPS

o   GPS Equipment – overview

o   Introduction to Geocaching (basic principles, different types of caches, geocaching gateways, rules of conduct)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

·         Practical Part I (3 hrs. á 60 mins.)

o   Practical work with GPS equipment

o   First searches of geocaches

o   Recording of the distance covered during the search as GPS tracks

 

·         Working with geocaching gateways (theory)
(3 hrs. á 60 mins.)

o   Evaluation of the recorded GPS tracks

o   Practical use of geocaching gateways

o   Preparation for the creation of a geocache in small groups. Each group creates a different type of geocache.

 

 

 

·         Practical Part II (3 hrs á 60 mins.)

o   Hiding and searching of the participants’ own geocaches

o   Final competition after consultation with the participants (choice of “best” caches, etc.)

·         Introduction (3 hrs. á 50 mins.)

o   Get to know each other

o   Basics PC – Internet - Geocaching :
To familiarize with the topic geocaching, learning methods depend on the computer prior knowledge (basic principles, different types of caches, rules of geocaching)

o   Short GPS equipment overview and tips for „What they should look as best agers when buying a GPS device“ (simple handling, key size, display …)

o   My digital cam and me:
Making sharp pictures, copying pictures from the camera to the computer.

·         Practical Part I (4 hrs. á 50 mins.)

o   Practical work with GPS equipment

o   First searches of VHS-owned geocaches

o   Recording of the distance covered during the search as GPS tracks

 

·         Working with geocaching gateways
(4hrs. á 50 mins.)

o   Evaluation of the recorded GPS tracks

o   Practical use of www.geocaching.com (search of caches, downloading waypoints, logging the find of a cache incl. images)

o   Preparation for the creation of a geocache in small groups. Each group creates a different type of geocache.

 

·         Practical Part II (4 hrs á 50 mins.)

o   Hiding and searching of the participants’ own geocaches