Education or training course?

[+WHarkness]

I am seeking a training/education course on geocaching in Northern Florida in early March. Is there a source for these? I have searched the web, searched the lengths & depths of geocaching.com and the Groundspeak Forums without seeing anything. If anyone has a lead on this, please post.

[+briansnat]

Sometimes a park system might run an intro to geocaching course, but they are few and far between. most people just learn by picking up a GPS and doing it.

 

Hanging around these forums is a help and there are a few books out there including The Idiots Guide to Geocaching, which I've heard is helpful.

[+scnascar]

I am seeking a training/education course on geocaching in Northern Florida in early March. Is there a source for these? I have searched the web, searched the lengths & depths of geocaching.com and the Groundspeak Forums without seeing anything. If anyone has a lead on this, please post.

 

I can't help you very much with Florida but I can tell you Groundspeak has a great DVD that is packed with some great info. I also say just lookup some caches in you locale area and go for it.. Makes for great hands on training

[+badlands]

You could try posting in the South and Southeast forum, you could probably find someone to take you under their wing for a few hours. Most cachers enjoy having new cachers along as they get to relive the excitement of a new type of hide through the eyes of the newbie.

[+StarBrand]

Look for an Event cache - you will meet lots of folks willing to help you out.

[+emb021]

Go to the Florida Geocaching Association site and ask. www.floridacaching.com

 

I know that in the south florida area, there were some organized geocaching classes done thru the local park system BY local cachers, but they didn't set them up as geocaching events. So you wouldn't have found out about them via the events, and the only way other cachers knew about them was when I saw the fliers and posted stuff at the FGA forums. (go figure).

[dsandbro]

I have asked my local community college to offer a short course on geocaching (stretching to a whole semester would be difficult). They are always asking for suggestions for possible classes to boost enrollment.

[+Syndam]

Check with your State Dept of Forestry or Dept of Parks. Oregon is great, the Oregon Dept of Forestry offers a course called "Geocaching 101" every year.

 

For those of you in Oregon:

July 27th (Sat) 7:00 PM: Geocaching 101 (Smith Homestead Day Use Area)

Did you know that it’s possible to pinpoint your exact location anywhere on Earth at almost any given

time? A Global Positioning System (GPS) is a helpful tool for work and play. As a result of participating in

this program, visitors will enjoy a nice stroll at the Smith Homestead Day Use Area while learning basic

concepts about GPS navigation and the sport of Geocaching.

 

The programs are free and open to all ages. They are conducted at easily reachable locations off Highway 6 in the Tillamook State Forest. Average program length is one hour.

 

Oregon Dept of Forestry Summer Calender

[+Whistlen]

Do a Google search for "geocaching powerpoint" likeI did and found half a dozen or so on line. I took 2 different ones, changed the pics to local stuff and some other changes then used it at a Ham Radio Club meeting. About 50 present and 2 got into it that I know.

[+Team Flipper]

North Florida, you say? Training? Well, you missed this by one day. This was the event on Saturday. I wasn't able to make it, but I heard it was a blast:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...01-8d52f92745ff

[+Mandlair]

Hi WHarkness,I think you found they place to be for knowledge. On the forums very infomative and nice people.I've learned almost all I know from the people here.That was my start and then took there information in the field and have been sucessful.14 caches 1 dnf,went back and found it. Thanks again for the people on the forums.

[dan30143]

Hey I got my GPS at Christmas and immediately went to a training class sponsored by the Ga. Parks. I hope the instructors aren't reading this, they tried hard, but it was pretty well useless. About 25 students, four instructors/volunteers and 842 questions about how to turn on units? How to enter info? how make it "type" each particular to a single GPS. I like older people, my mom's one, but there were so many retirees who weren't real tech saavy that by the end of the day, we hadn't covered squat.

Luckily, there was a die hard geocacher there who encouraged us to find this website and start hunting. I learned more finding my first cache (across the street from where I work) than I did in an all day class.

 

Just start using it.

 

Dan

[+WolfTrekker]

If there's an REI near you check with them. Some stores offer classes in GPS navigation that include geocaching.

[+Night Stalker]

The local junior college has a couple of classes a year on this. It is run by local geocachers and whenver it is held a lot of the locals show up to help out.