Geocaching, treasure hunt for teachers

Geocaching, treasure hunt for teachers.

18 April, 2011

New Zealand Post Primary Teachers Association Professional Conference 2011

Secondary school teachers from across New Zealand will take to the streets of Wellington in a treasure hunt geocaching style.

Head of digital technology at Papatoetoe High School, Gerard MacManus, will lead a group keen to try out the technology at the Post Primary Teachers’ Association professional conference on Tuesday April 19 from 4:30pm.

MacManus’s Get Lost geocaching project is an innovative take on the ministry of education’s guidelines on education outside the classroom, a way of working with technology while extending outside of the classroom walls.

MacManus developed the programme for Papatoetoe High School where students used cell phones, global positioning system devices and Auckland public transport to navigate locally through geocaching.

The Wellington-based workshop will see secondary teachers from across New Zealand equipped with GPS devices taking part in the high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world.

They will locate hidden containers, geocaches, and log their findings online. Each geocache will be concealed in the Civic Square and Wellington waterfront areas,” said McManus.

“I have a passion for technology and I am keen to share this with teachers. I attended an exciting geocaching workshop at a uLearn conference and begun to make connections with the directions for learning in the New Zealand curriculum,” he said.

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