higher education m-learning and e-learning scenarios for a geospatial wiki

Originally published: Safran, C.; Ebner, M.; Garcia-Barrios, V. M.; Kappe, F.: Higher Education M-Learning and E-Learning Scenarios for a Geospatial Wiki. - in: E-Learn - World Conference

on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education ; 2009 (2009)

Higher Education m-Learning and e-Learning Scenarios for a Geospatial Wiki

Christian Safran

Institute for Information Systems and Computer Media, Graz University of Technology

Austria [email protected]

Martin Ebner

Social Learning / Computer and Information Services Graz University of Technology


Victor Manuel García-Barrios



Frank Kappe



Abstract: Several fields of higher education, like geology, architecture, or civil engineering, rely on visual information in the context of learning, a considerable part of it moreover location-based. Geotagging, a phenomenon recently spreading through he online and mobile world, offers innovative possibilities to support teachers and learners in such fields. One such approach is the composition of geotagged information with a collaborative environment – a so-called geowiki. A prototype for an educational geowiki, TUGeoWiki, has been developed at Graz University of Technology. This publications outlines possible application scenarios for TUGeoWiki in higher education, taking into account e-Learning as well as m-Learning scenarios.

Introduction In the last months a remarkable movement towards geo-locating software occurred and maybe this is one of the next trends in the online world. Nowadays more and more cell phones are equipped with a GPS-receiver. Examples include Nokia N95, Apple’s iPhone and the G1. The main intention was to bring the possibility for navigation on mobile devices, but simultaneously a new phenomenon appeared, which is called geotagging. Geotagging allows users to add global coordinates to their pictures or to track positions of their cell phones. This information is used by software (for example Locr1) or online services (for example Google Latitude2) to enhance online information by exact positions. Beside discussions about ethics or privacy this additional information also offers new possibilities for teaching and learning. Especially for such learning fields, which are strongly based on geo-located information, like biology, geology, civil engineering, architecture and some more, lecturing achieves a new dimension. Furthermore by combining typical Web 2.0 technologies and geo-location possibilities a further contribution to e-Learning 2.0, as defined by Stephen Downes (Downes 2005), can be achieved. Wikis offer an easily useable tool for 1 http://www.locr.com, accessed 2009-04-28 2 http://www.google.com/latitude/, accessed 2009-04-28


on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education ; 2009 (2009) online collaboration and mashups provide a technology of joining contents from various sources to enhance the available knowledge base. In this paper we present an idea how geo-located information can enhance lecturing in Higher Education. The role of Visual and Geotagged Information in Learning The main idea is to bring the work on-site or in-field back to the lecture room and keep the learners on collaborating. The research work is based mainly on two ideas:

(1) Visual and geotagged information enhances education in several fields (2) Collaboration and sharing enhances the learning outcome

In subjects like civil engineering, geology, architecture etc. education is strongly based on visual information. Brohn (Brohn 1983) pointed out that the “language of intuition is visual, just as the language of analysis is abstract and symbolic.” In several research activities we were able to point out the importance of visualisations, animations, as well as interactions for civil engineering (Ebner and Holzinger 2003; Holzinger and Ebner 2005; Ebner, Scerbakov et al. 2006). Especially for explanations of highly complex engineering models new technologies offered a completely different way of teaching and learning. Still visualisations lacked at one particular point: The connection of the abstract engineering model and the real world. The major competence of any practical engineer is to abstract an appropriate model from nature to develop a quantifiable mathematical model. This shows that the knowledge about the particular environment where a building will be placed is highly important. Different geological behaviours lead to different building measurements. According to (1) there is an obvious need to enhance learning material, especially pictures and real-life simulations, by global coordinates to combine engineering models and reality. Furthermore if learners collect real-life material there is mostly no possibility to share and collaborate on it. Bearing in mind the power of Web 2.0 technologies, wikis seem to be an appropriate tool for exchange between high numbers of learners. Lot of different research work carried out that wikis can successfully be applied in education (Augar, Raitman et al. 2004; Caddick 2006; Ebner, Kickmeier-Rust et al. 2008). Wikis in general highly support the characteristics communication, collaboration and contribution to a pool of knowledge. Depending on the degree of freedom as well as the possibilities of active contributions within a learning community successful learning occurs (Bruns and Humphrey 2005; Mitchell, Chen et al. 2005). Furthermore there is an impact for graduates on cooperative developing new knowledge as solving problems (Kirschner, Van Vilsteren et al. 1997). From a learning research perspective the TUGeoWiki project presented in this publication aims to collect various types of learning material, which were taken on-site or in the field by visualising the global coordinate on Google Maps automatically in any contributions. By using the mashup technology (Tuchinda, Szekely et al. 2008) content and location can be shared by teachers as well as students and instead of writing essays for their own learners they share their experiences, pictures and observations online in a number of articles. In this publication we would like to address the following research question: How can a geowiki be used for lecturing in Higher Education? TUGeoWiki – a Collaborative Tool for Geotagged Information

As shown in the preceding chapter, learning in certain fields like Geology can benefit from the integration of geospatial with visual information.

Another technology enhanced learning approach proven to enhance especially informal learning is the application of Wikis as collaborative online tools (Granitzer, Stocker et al. 2008). Wikis are a technology developed by Leuf and Cunningham in 1995 (Leuf and Cunningham 2001). They are designed to provide a simple tool for knowledge management, with users being able to collaboratively create and edit pages. Another of the central aspects of a Wiki is the revision history tracing every modification to a specific user. Recently, tools like wikis are being used to support collaborative aspects in e-Learning (Fucks-Kittowski, Köhler et al. 2004).

The potential integration of the two concepts of geospatial (visual) information and collaborative work with a Wiki in order to enhance learning performance and experience has been researched at the Graz University of Technology for two years. The key goals for this research were the development of an (a) lightweight, (b) geospatially focused and (c) collaborative learning approach.


on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education ; 2009 (2009) With the term lightweight we want express that our approach is meant to implement only the most

necessary aspects of a full geographical information system (GIS) necessary for the educational purpose. The term moreover describes the intended user interaction as being as unobtrusive as possible and based on well-known software and usage paradigms.

The term geospatially focused refers to the GIS related part of the approach, as it is focused on providing and working with geospatially related information. Students can benefit in their learning process from the extension of such information with geospatial information (geotagging) and the creation of a link to real-world space.

Finally the approach researched should be intended for collaborative work on such geospatial information. The application areas include the search for, and work with, but also the compilation of information in the course of informal learning scenarios.

In the course of this research a geospatial Wiki application has been developed (Safran and Zaka 2008). TUGeoWiki is a Web-application based on the open source MediaWiki3 software used in Wikipedia. The original application is extended in two ways.

On the one hand TUGeoWiki modifies the MediaWiki paradigm of pages for the individual entries in the Wiki into places. By definition every entry in the geospatial wiki is bound to coordinates and relates to a real-world place. This is achieved by extending core data structure of the MediaWiki software and by adding special pages to view and add information bound to geospatial coordinates (Mediawiki 2008).

These special pages are designed as mashups with Google Maps4, or Microsoft’s Live Search Maps5. Additionally a link to the MediaWiki Geohack extension is created, which offers the display of the coordinates in numerous other map sources (Wikipedia 2008).

On the other hand TUGeoWiki provides a mobile application for the usage in the field. The mobile application offers the possibility to search for places in the vicinity of the current location or relate images to certain places. It supports the use of internal and external GPS sensors for the identification of the mobile device’s current location. The mobile application serves as a tool for the communication with the TUGeoWiki server and thus supplements the usage with a mobile browser (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: TUGeoWiki mobile application architecture

The current version of the mobile application was developed using the Java Mobile Edition (Java ME)6 in order to be compatible with a wide number of mobile devices. Currently extended versions are implemented as native applications for Android7 and Symbian OS8 devices.

Learning Scenarios with a Geospatial Wiki

The first successful evaluations in the course of civil engineering excursions revealed, beside potential

improvements, the need for a closer inspection of possible learning scenarios with a geospatial wiki in higher education. These scenarios are used to describe possible applications of the geowiki and their impact on the learning process.

3 http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki, accessed 2009-04-16 4 http://maps.google.com/, accessed 2009-04-16 5 http://maps.live.com/, accessed 2009-04-16 6 http://java.sun.com/javame/, accessed 2009-04-16 7 http://www.android.com/, accessed 2009-04-16 8 http://www.symbian.com/, accessed 2009-04-16


on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education ; 2009 (2009) Generic e-Learning Scenarios

TUGeoWiki is designed to be usable in e-Learning scenarios without a mobile learning component. In this case the Web application is used per se, abandoning the mobile application. The two main scenarios for this application are yet again focused on the support of field trips.

The first possible example is the preparation of students for such a field trip. In various situations it is preferable that students have already engaged in information on the locations they are going to visit. Teachers may create place stubs in the Wiki; short articles already geotagged for a certain location, but containing little of no further information but the location’s title. These can be extended by the students in advance, either collaboratively or in individual work. The version history feature of the Wiki offers the teacher possibilities to check the distribution of the work done over time, as well as the individual participants work parts in collaborative work.

The second possible generic example focuses on post-processing the information gained on a field trip. Again teachers may prepare place stubs in advance and students may compile information about the individual locations. Moreover images can easily be added to the final places in the Wiki, if they are geotagged. An alternative variant to using the mobile TUGeoWiki application in the field is the application of a geo tracker. This external device logs geographical coordinates to timestamps. Later on these tracks can be used to post-process images taken by synchronizing the coordinates of the track with the image creation times. Available software can be used to add the coordinates into the images’ EXIF header information. These geotagged images can be uploaded to TUGeoWiki and used to find fitting places in the Wiki. Generic m-Learning Scenarios

As previously mentioned, one of the core concepts of TUGeoWiki is the design to be used in the field. The

principal learning scenario in this context is the use of mobile devices like mobile phones to access the TUGeoWiki application. These mobile devices are used to retrieve the coordinates of the current location and access existing places in TUGeoWiki in arbitrary vicinity. As such the application is used to retrieve background information on the current location i.e. compiled by a teacher beforehand and made accessible to provide spatially contextual information. The students can use this information during the process of learning in order to better understand relations of a location to theoretical concepts or other locations (Lonsdale, Baber et al. 2004).

The second learning scenario in the mobile context is the application of TUGeoWiki for the compilation of information on real-world locations by the students. On the one hand textual information can be added to existing or newly created places. On the other hand the device can be used to create geotagged images of a location and add them to a place in TUGeoWiki. In this scenario the creation of place-stubs in TUGeoWiki by the teacher beforehand is advisable to provide a core skeleton of the intended structure. The impact on the learning process in this scenario lies in the compilation of the information itself, the digestion of the direct experience gained during the field trip and the informal learning during this task (Specht, Kaibel et al. 2005).

This second scenario can be extended by a collaborative component. The features of the Wiki allow several students to work on the same places and collaborate in the compilation of information. The learning process is enhanced by discussions and the need to create a unified perspective on the location. The change history of the Wiki provides means for personal accountability of the students for their part in the final work, a central prerequisite for effective cooperative learning (Johnson and Johnson 1994). The advantage of this scenario is that the students can do their work on the actual locations concerned. Alternative scenarios, with one part of the collaborating students in situ and another part working remotely, as proposed by (Kravcik, Specht et al. 2003), can also be implemented with TUGeoWiki. Limitations

While the first evaluations with lecturers on excursions have shown a positive perception of the e-Learning scenarios, especially the m-Learning scenarios face several limitations. One of the main limitations of collaborative m-Learning scenarios is the need for mobile devices providing GPS service and Internet access for all students. Although some of the students already have access to suiting equipment this can still pose a problem to the majority.


on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education ; 2009 (2009) Concrete Scenarios and Extended Paradigms for TUGeoWiki

In the course of the evaluation of TUGeoWiki three concrete scenarios where successively developed.

After the initial development the geowiki approach was tested in a field trip of Civil Engineers, applying a variant of the second e-Learning scenario (field trip post-processing). In this scenario the lecturer was equipped with a Nokia N959 mobile phone, supplying an internal GPS receiver, and the TUGeoWiki mobile application. The lecturer was asked to use the phone to create geotagged images of the field trip, which were subsequently uploaded to TUGeoWiki and assigned to places. In this scenario TUGeoWiki was solemnly used as an application to create and provide geotagged learning material. Figure 1 displays one of the resulting pages in TUGeoWiki.

Figure 2: Screenshot of the results of the first evaluation

The evaluation of this scenario was meant to provide basic feedback on the workflow of compiling

information and images in the field, as well as the application of TUGeoWiki from the desktop. The feedback was taken with a short interview after the excursion. The lecturer stated that taking the photos with the mobile device was easily possible, although the localization with GPS posed some problems. The initial synchronization with the GPS signal can take several minutes and GPS is not available without line-of-sight to the corresponding satellites (i.e. indoors). The upload and subsequent search for existing places in a user-defined radius was perceived as extremely useful. As far as future development is concerned, the integration of additional data for a location, like geological or hydraulic data was encouraged. The application of TUGeoWiki for field trip post processing was well

9 http://www.nokiausa.com/link?cid=PLAIN_TEXT_430087, accessed 2009-04-22


on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education ; 2009 (2009) perceived, but the interviewed lecturer also pointed out the possible advantages of the application in a collaborative scenario.

As a second concrete experiment the second e-Learning scenario (collaborative post-processing of field trips) was implemented for another civil engineering field trip in a follow-up study. The students were equipped with a mixed technological equipment of digital cameras and one Nokia N95. The teacher was furthermore equipped with a Holux M-24110 external GPS tracker and the students asked to synchronize the time settings of the cameras with the data tracker. Images for the creation of the field trip report were taken collaboratively throughout the trip and subsequently geotagged using the GPS track. The resulting image set was uploaded on TUGeoWiki and relayed to the places created for the field trip. One-on-one interviews were conducted with the participants of the field trip to investigate the usefulness of this scenario.

Figure 3: Preparation material for geological field trip prepared with TUGeoWiki

The third concrete scenario implemented for the evaluation of TUGeoWiki focuses on a geology field trip. TUGeoWiki is used for the students to get prepared for the trip. The scenario combines the first generic e-Learning scenario (trip preparation) with the third generic m-Learning scenario (collaborative work in the field). The preparation of this scenario revealed the need for an extension of TUGeoWiki’s content paradigm. While the previous experiments had shown the basic usefulness of the place paradigm in a civil engineering scenario, which is basically focused on building sites, geologists have extended requirements, as information can rarely be mapped to individual locations. The two additional paradigms of areas and tracks need to be supported. An area is represented by a polygon on a map and is useful for the description of larger-scale geological conditions. A track is represented

10 http://www.holux.com/JCore/en/products/products_content.jsp?pno=341, accessed 2009-04-22


on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education ; 2009 (2009) by a line connecting a number of locations and describes an actual sequence of locations visited in the course of the trip. These additional paradigms are currently in the course of being implemented for evaluation.

As far as the concrete scenario is concerned, a set of place stubs was created and prepared for the field trip. The places were collected into a Wiki category and are collaboratively filled with information by groups of students assigned to them. During the field trip the group will be equipped with digital cameras, a mobile device and the GPS tracker. On the one hand the mobile device will be used to add information in the field and thus extend the previously prepared articles. On the other hand the images will subsequently be geotagged, uploaded and added to the existing places in order to enrich them with visual information from the actual trip. Figure 3 depicts the collection of the prepared place stubs.

Summary & Conclusions TUGeoWiki helps to enhance lectures of on-site or in-field based education. The automatic display of the position of the content increases the value of each article in the online collaboration setting. For example a special building activity becomes obvious because of the shown geological environment. Furthermore, because of the use of a Wiki System, exchange between learners gets easier and by bringing information together the quality of articles increases dramatically. From a didactical point of view the use of TUGeoWiki should also be researched in further fields of study to investigate whether there are potential usecases. Moreover the mobile application requires further development to support more mobile devices and a mobile stylesheet must be added to conveniently retrieve also information on the cell phones just in time and just in place. It can be concluded that the use of TUGeoWiki had an impact on learning and teaching and there is a great potential for geo-located applications in future. References Augar, N., R. Raitman, et al. (2004). Teaching, learning online with wikis. Beyond the Comfort Zone: proceedings of the 21st

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higher education m-learning and e-learning scenarios for a geospatial wiki

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