Walking Through Time: Interview – Petra Leimlehner, Peter Pratt and Chris Speed

Sep 4, 2009 by milly-shaw

Petra Leimlehner, Peter Pratt and Chris Speed from Edinburgh University talk about Walking Through Time, aka ‘Googlemaps for history’.

What is Walking Through Time?Walking Through Time is Googlemaps for history. It’s a mobile application that allows you to view historical maps in the field, using GPS.The Google view of the world is only relevant now in this time. But people have other maps in their minds. We’re using Walking Through Time to recover those histories and give them geography. it also has a social aspect, as students can share their notes and develop social networks across time and space.What problems/issues is WATT tackling?Anyone can use it to create stories and dialogues, but students can also use it for research.How would you like other software developers and users to get involved in what you are doing?We’re speaking to other people who have developed native iPhone and Android applications, to find out what they can do that we can’t. We also want to see how other types of people might use Walking Through Time, ie school teachers.What developer communities have you been involved in and if none, why not?Because it’s a web application we’ve been involved in the web developer communities, as well as working with colleagues of course.What is the coolest or most exciting thing in educational software development?We start with people and pencils, not technology! Having said that, we’re excited about all the collaboration, the opportunities to harness other people’s technology.