Technical research for suitable software :

Institute E seniors has first asked their technicians to study the software "OPENSTREETMAP" (www.openstreetmap.fr or www.openstreetmap.org) and also two editing tools « Potlatch2 and JOSM », in order to be able to prepare courses supports for their teachers.

The technicians took as example the creation of a pedestrian circuit in an area of Paris called "The circuit of churches of the Marais." They got into the role of a senior living in the Paris area.

But here are the technical difficulties encountered :

-impossibility to create new routes on the existing ones and especially to keep them; there is a moderator for the site and he removes post of the daily updates , unless he can agree that it is of general interest and therefore worth keeping

-the only additions accepted by the moderator are paths created in the countryside, which is not an interesting case for us,

-it is therefore only possible to keep their creations on paper , which greatly reduces the interest,

-difficulty of understanding by all students because the site is in English and all their seniors are not bilingual,

-the existing icons have a label different from that usually used in France : this means some more difficulty of understanding for their seniors,

-to create new icons you need to download another software and work on two software at once: another difficulty for their seniors.

After their next steps before making or offering course materials for their teachers are :

1. Go thoroughly into the site “GOOGLE EARTH” and in particular explore the possibility of keeping the work.

2. Go thoroughly into the editor "JOSM" as to make it compatible with their goals.

3. Finally discovery new products that could be used for the project and that they have to study as well: http://showmystreet.com/ and TripGeo (Google procuct) http://tripgeo.com/Home.aspx

And also http://www.vianavigo.com/

Before the beginning of the courses/workshops, the teachers made tests and discovered that these programs were not “user-friendly” so we decided to use "google maps" for the workshops.

Indoor activities :

- 5 series of ICT courses with the subject « geolocalisation, google maps, geocaching ».

We made this series of courses in the different places all over Paris where we usually offer courses about digital technologies :

Pole Actiseniors of the Town Hall - 4^th quarter of Paris

Centre d’animation MJC Mercoeur – Paris 11ème

Centre Social CAF paris 12ème

Centre d’animation Daviel - 13^th quarter

Maison des associations eue de la Saïda – Paris 15 ème

Centre Eseniors – rue du Cambodge – Paris 20 ème

Periods : Winter 2012, Spring 2012, Autumn 2012, Winter 2013 and Spring 2013.

Here is a link to the French tutorial about Google Maps :

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9zbxeqeaogkbWZLRllCU05aVjg/edit

After the courses, we asked the learners to complete a questionnaire.

The main questions were :

- What I have learned is useful for my life

-The training methodology was adequate to my knowledge and needs

-I will share the new tools I learned about with friends/colleagues/family .

-My motivation increased while using the tools

-If you haven´t done so yet, are you planning to buy GPS tools/devices ?

-Did you discover a new way of using ICT?

The results have helped us to adapt our courses.

Here you can see the statistical of the main resultats of the questionnaire:

In each case, we used the local spots of interest as support for the course and could create maps for local trips.

- many private lessons at home for learners with more difficulties and to follow some group courses …

Outdoor activities :

- use on the outside of the maps produced during the courses:

Paris is a big town and it is very difficult to make nature walks but we have made cultural walks, in particular routes in the old quarter of Paris «Le Marais».

Some students have made cards to make trekking in the suburbs of Paris :

- in the forest of Fontainebleau where there is a lot of marked hiking trails

- we intend to organize trips in Giverny (circuit of impressionism and house of painter Monet) in the beginning of summer 2013 and will be using maps on smart phones

-testing geolocalisation

During holidays we have tried different experiences with a few learners :

«treasure hunts» in Limousin based on geocaching.

People need smart phones or GPS or walking sticks with MP3 to make the game.

At the end, we find a cache where is the treasure!!!

The targets are multiple : family, children, hikers, music lovers and the themes are various : sightseeing, nature, heritage discovery, old crafts,

But before starting this geocaching game, the travel time, the difficulty, and the distance to be covered are noted on a paper: so the people can test their physical capabilities and decide if they are able to made or not this game.

For example:

1) Geocaching about diamonds in a little town where this stone was extraction

2) Circuit of the "Masons in the Creuse area" : geocaching in the typical villages build with the expertise of these professionals masons and study of their construction methods

3) Rando Geocaching about tales and legends of «Plateau de Millevaches» - a circuit of about 10 km (foot or VTT)

4)Musical geocaching steps on the theme of water around lakes with MP3 …..

http://www.felletin-tourisme.fr/activites-loisirs/geocaching/

Dissemination

All this activities have been achieved thanks to the publicity of our project made in different forums and by distribution and displayed in many libraries of our specific flyer as well as repeated announcements in our regular newsletter.