[IAEP] [support-gang] Peru Quest, beyond the quake

[Yamandu Ploskonka]

You are right, the Inca Road thing could be *powerful*.  Just imagine 
those Peruvian kids and teachers actually having something practical to 
do with their XOs!

Hmmm.  I've been trying to find again contact information for Cheryl 
Vitali and Lynn Thornton, pioneers in using computers in class, who do 
have also a lot of experience with this sort of international projects, 
a couple of which I had the honor to participate in 15 years ago.

We need to put together some sort of a challenge, a task, a quest.  
Something kids can feel excited to be part of, both there and here.  And 
maybe a way to keep this active during the summer here.

Oregon trail was open source? I MUST look into that.  Nah, for Maya 
Quest and the rest I was just an envious South American teacher looking 
north.  I think I learned about Maya Quest in a Boy's Life magazine 
given to me when I was running an American style summer camp in Uruguay.

On 04/20/2010 03:54 PM, Caryl Bigenho wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I Googled "Inca Road Map" and found several maps online.  I was 
> surprised to see that it went to many places I have been to, including 
> a small part of the "inca Trail" above Machu Picchu including the 
> famous "Sun Gate". The wildflowers and blue morpho butterflies there 
> were spectacular!
>
>  Because it traversed so many places in Latin America, the Inca Road 
> heritage is widespread.  This is an excellent project that could 
> include many, many different collaborative projects by the students... 
> for example, students could take pictures of places along the Inca 
> Roads near their homes and share them internationally via a special 
> blog that could be set up.
>
> A side note... many Peruvian children make a pilgrimage to Machu 
> Picchu as a part of their education.  During the day, the site is 
> over-run by school groups with their teachers.  If they have XOs, they 
> could bring them and do an "Inca Roads" project of some type there.
>
> Caryl
>
> P.S. Yes, I remember the open-source game, "Oregon Trail." I also 
> remember the text version of the commercial game, The Hitch hikers 
> Guide to The Galaxy."  I got the "babblefish"!  Did any of you?
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 09:57:36 -0500
> From: yamaplos at bolinux.org
> To: elena.valhalla at gmail.com; iaep at lists.sugarlabs.org; 
> sebastian at fuentelibre.org; kiko at escuelab.org
> Subject: Re: [IAEP] [support-gang] Peru Quest, beyond the quake
>
> I do not known how open Google is to derivatives, they have some of 
> the best resources for topos nowadays, and at least for the area 
> involved near La Paz those maps are usable.
>
> Anyway, for a game we do not need anything strictly "real".
>
> One of the excitements of doing many of the Inca Roads is the many 
> ecological levels you cross, and that can be simulated and does not 
> need to correspond strictly with a topo.
>
> Taking the Takesi Inca Road from La Paz you climb up to a pass around 
> 14.000 feet and then go walking down from there.  It's chilly, sharp, 
> barren, lamas and sheep, a cobalt blue sky (and snow in winter), and 
> then you get to an area with peat, and eventually it starts to green 
> up.  Physically you can go from snow to lush tropical jungle in a 
> single day.
>
> I have probably a thousand pictures of my time there.  Let's assume 
> someone puts a structure together for a learning game, I probably have 
> a picture that would fit anything there to show what a place looks 
> like, excepting maybe wildlife.
>
> Now, if we could work with Sebastian and team to do a more Maya Quest 
> kind of thing...
>
> Something that could connect US and otherworld people to what they 
> will be doing in Peru (I hear they will even cross into Bolivia around 
> July).  Hmm, Summer time.  Bummer.  Australia?
>
> As Kennedy said, "it is not that America has good roads because it is 
> rich, it is rich because it has good roads".  The Inca roads cover 
> what are now 5 countries, totaling thousands of miles, and this was 
> the best network of roads *in the world* in the 15th century, all of 
> it paved.  The Inca empire was *very* rich, though class inequality, 
> very strict and ruler-centered policies inhibited progress and 
> innovation, which eventually spelled out its doom.
>
>
>
>
> On 04/20/2010 09:23 AM, Elena of Valhalla wrote:
>
>     On 4/20/10, Yamandu Ploskonka<yamaplos at bolinux.org>  <mailto:yamaplos at bolinux.org>  wrote:
>        
>
>         The best map I know is very copyright-ed and rather expensive (German).
>         The original reason I purchased a GPS a  few years back was to do the
>         data pick-up so as to have a Free Inca Road map, at least for one of
>         them in Bolivia.  Another one of Yama's coma projects :-p
>              
>
>     Is there any aereal photography with permissive licensing available?
>     If there is (and I know it's not that likely) the volounteers from the
>     openstreetmap_ project could help tracing it, and their data could be
>     used in a FOSS game
>
>     unluckily, at a quick glance I don't think that there is already much
>     data in the area
>
>     _openstreetmap:http://www.openstreetmap.org
>
>        
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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