I have been thinking about developing a Moodle plugin that displays a Google Map.
This plugin could be used for several purposes:
- When students introduce themself to their fellows, they could mark their hometown on the map (like the resource link to Frappr here in the Using Moodle forum).
- Assignments with geo tagging, like:
- For biology students: Find certain plants in your neighboorhood and mark them in the map.
- For civil engineers: Mark all bridges in your neighboorhood on the map and describe of what type they are, ...
- For history students: Mark all battlefields of ...
- ...
I think that in most cases all students of a group should work on the same map (like a wiki).
I would like to start on this plugin after Moodle 1.7 has been released. I'm planning to begin at the end of this year.
Before I start:
- Has anybody worked on that already?
- Have you further ideas what should be in implemented in this plugin?
- What about the Google Maps API Terms of Use:
The API may be used only for services that are generally accessible to consumers without charge.My initial idea was to use the plugin for a small training/elearning business that (of course) charges their customers. That's not allowed. What about universities that take tuition fees from their students?
Google also offers a Google Maps API for Enterprises that can be used for paying customers, too. According to their FAQ that service starts at 10.000 $ per year and is so far only available in the United States and Canada. For my purpose that service is far too expensive. I have sent an email to the Google Enterprise Group asking if they have any license in between the 'free of charge' and the enterprise license, but haven't got an answer yet.
Who of you could use the 'free of charge' API, who would need a commercial license? Who could afford it?