Tracking Movements with Metadata
Student from Carson High School, Carson City, NV analyzes metadata.Copyright Daniel Ingram, Carson High School, Carson City, NV
Metadata is an important tool used to organize, calculate, and log information. In this activity, students become detectives as they learn to extract metadata from digital images, analyze the metadata and locate when and where the images were taken. Students gain knowledge on the use of metadata and its application, from engineering to law enforcement. From this activity, students also learn to be proactive in regulating the pictures they take with their smartphones and minimize their image submissions to the web.
Engineers create information unique to their field. Prior to the digital age, engineers had to rely on a plethora of paperwork and analog files to help research, organize, and plan a given project. Today, in the digital world, engineers create and organize metadata formats for specific engineering file types. They also might write code to help them process large amounts of information. This allows specific information to be gleaned from a multitude of files in a very short period of time.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Define their role as a “cyber-citizen” in regards to the ethical practices of locating and using metadata attached to image files.
- Gather, process, analyze, and disseminate metadata from image files.
- Use web-based tools to convert latitude and longitude coordinates to street addresses or map locations.
- Responsibly regulate their own digital image submissions to the web.