using technology in fieldwork: practitioner’s perspectives and transformative experiences brian...
TRANSCRIPT
Using technology in fieldwork: practitioner’s
perspectives and transformative experiences
Brian Whalley – Sheffield
Derek France – Chester
Julian Park – Reading
Katharine Welsh – Chester
Alice Mauchline – Reading
Enhancement of Fieldwork Learning Project
Change ........
In the last 40 years, what has changed?
In aviation?In the way of the world?In people's behaviour?
Internet, computing, ICT
In an increasingly complicated, complex worldFieldwork can, and should, reflect this.
Problem solving (PBL, IBL) is one way to integrate some aspects of this complexity into educaton
In Education
Use of ICT – Web and Web 2.0– But how good are the ICT skills of
graduates in the real world?
Does the 70 – 30 'principle' still apply?– 70% of modules have assessment of:70% exam and 30% CA/non-exam
(usually a term paper or essays)
Learning experiencesNOT: ‘pile ‘em high and lecture ‘em
long’– And then examine them!Sage on the stage from this;
the lecture?
Traveling scholar and student
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco (The Sage of Bologna?)
(The Sage on the Page?)
Fieldwork is for:
• Development of observational skills• Facilitation of experiential learning• Encouragement of student responsibility for
learning• Development of analytical skills• Provision of a taste for real research• Kindling a respect for the environment• Developing personal skills• Lessening barriers between staff and
students
(Gold, et al, 1991, Teaching Geography in Higher Education, Chapter 3)
and yet, Fieldwork .......is too often
• Look and tell• Look and see (and note)• Measure a few things and process data
– Often with 19Cequipment
• Give a presentation, write an essay, report• And challenged because it is 'costly'• And may not be as effective as it could be
Towards Fieldwork 3.0Emergence via Better Alignment Using• Portable hardware (sensors via USB)• Web 2 (hardware and 'apps')• Web 3 – the Semantic Web• Student needs and expectations• Delivering Real Learning Experiences• Appropriate assessment and feedback • Cognitive psychology and• Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Trial and error - how can we provide good learning experiences?
'You know what a learning experience is? A learning experience is one of those things that says, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.’
(Douglas N Adams, 1992)
Photo: Chris Ogle
How to avoid the panic?
Trial and error - how we can provide good learning experiences.
And, inevitably:Skills (and employability)
What skills? Traditional typology'Professor Snape's' perspective, 'in today's competitive job market, the pressure is on students to obtain a ‘good degree’ '.
(Higgins, Hartley, and Skelton, 2001)This begs the question:
‘what makes a good degree?’
and thus, how might it be (best) delivered?What is a graduate in 'topic x' ?
Enhancement of Fieldwork
By setting out better aligned programs (ie student involved and ‘directed’) fieldwork
By using technology in various ways, especially ‘smartphones’ and tablets/iPads
By incorporating skills within these as well as academic attributes
We can now do this as
Many/most students have smartphones than can use ‘apps’
(although not all students can afford them yet, USA as well as UK; but iPads per group can be loaned)
Internet/3G connectivity (Web 2) helpsPeople and groups can be linkedUse of technology in the field hands
learning to students
'Emergence' in fieldwork:designing better fieldwork
experiencescovering:
• Defending fieldwork & providing Value for Money• Techniques for problems solving (for students)• Producing Real Life Experiences (employability)• Dissertation(capstone) preparation and training• Assessment, Feedback, Criterion referencing• Feedback provision on learning experiences
Defending Fieldwork(Jenkins 1997)
• Rigorously review your department’s fieldwork programme
• Clearly integrate fieldwork into the whole degree programme
• Provide statements for peers on the value of fieldwork
• Get students to articulate what they have learnt from fieldwork
• Ensure there are demonstrable employability skills for students
• Demonstrate through research/ evaluation studies the effectiveness of your programme
Fieldwork
• We take it as read that students benefit but (cost effective) fieldwork
• Our project is to promote better student experiences with technology in fieldwork
• And that they become more digitally literate in the process
Ethics• Quality Education (Teaching)• Use of equipment (mobiles,
smartphones) ethical or green policies? REEs in manufacture
• Should we require students to use their own?
• Air Miles and carbon footprints?• Dealing with people• (Value for Money)
Howard Gardner
• The Disciplinary Mind• The Synthesizing Mind• The Creating Mind• The Respectful Mind• The Ethical Mind
Gardner, H. 2007, Five Minds for the Future
6 Competenciesstudents need to gain
Competence – encouragement by challenge and remarks to achieve skills levels
Confidence – promoting remarks to show themselves, and others, their achievements
Critical thinking – which is what we have been wanting all along in 'Thinking skills’, used in problem solving
Creativity – in what students do and how they do it
Collaboration – bringing in team-working and ethics
Commonality – of purpose, to achieve specified (and unspecified) objectives
Curtiosity – being curious courteously (Kipling).
Marcia Mentkowski
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi
In fact, we tend to say ….
• ‘Yes, the students enjoyed it’• ‘We enjoyed it too’ and, after a few months..• ‘Same again for next year?’• ‘It is arguable that in geography, …fieldwork is intrinsic to
the discipline …., yet I know of no controlled study of [its] effectiveness’ Donald Bligh 1973
• (How) do we look at feedback from the field trip?
• Thinking specifically here of First year – bonding, basic skills, report writing and communication
• Second year using field trips for dissertation preparation, project planning, reporting
Course revision to incorporate these aspects?
Theory into practise• Using Maskall and Stokes (2008)• Designing Effective Fieldwork for the Environmental and Natural
Sciences
• Using ‘Preflights’ – (stuff done in advance; G. Novak, Whalley & Taylor 2008)
• Using work on Troublesome Knowledge• Using employability skills and affordances• Trying to provide better experiences and
feedback• Providing ‘value for money’• Being ethical
Fieldwork
• Positives:• Students (mostly) tend to enjoy it• Tutors too (if they believe in it!)• Students should learn effectively from it (as well as)• Remembering it and what they did (affective)• Collaboration via teamwork
• Negatives:• Can be costly (for whom? Institution, students)• Is it Value for Money? (and Time and Effort?)• Cost Utility Analysis : Cost Effectiveness Analysis
Learners
Learning Activity
Field EnvironmentIntended
OutcomesAcquisition of knowledge;Academic and social skills;
Increased motivationAttitudes; progression
Physical nature, location andFeatures; cultural context;
available resources, data Information, instrumentation
Needs, motives, social and interpersonal skills,Preferred learning styles, disability,
Prior experience of fieldwork
Learning styles orThinking styles
(Sternberg)
Influences on learning, afterMaskall and Stokes,2008
Learning(after Beetham 2002)
acquiring skills
constructing knowledge and understanding
developing values
participating
• Student-centred• Constructivism• Activity based• Experiential• Communities of
practice
Using digital tools
Using digital resources
Using digital etiquette
Using digital communications
media
River Discharge Study
Beach and Dune Study
Lab. Analysis and Compilation
Sampling Beach
Sampling Dunes
River Velocity measurements
River cross profile measurements DownloadGPS data
GPS dataanalysis and section plotting
Calculatevelocity data
Combine data Data analysis
Several groups(working independently)
Comparison of between-groupresults and report writing
Vegetation surveys(with key and photos on netbook)
Beach-dune profile surveys(GPS + Netbook)
Field ------ Lab
Photographs Micrographs Size analysis
DownloadGPS data
Combinedata
Combinewith satellite images
+ Other reports etc
Report Writing and Submission
[ podcasts - digital reporting - vidcasts ]Pre-fieldtrip preparation
Project alignment
Linking technology (smartphones and tablets) to fieldwork
Is now possible
The limitation is now instructors’ imagination
(Not ease of use, battery life, applications etc)
Trip space
Team Space
Personal space
Knowledge space
OtherPersonal space
Educational Spaces
… lab, home, library ….
Student +Computer(desktop,laptop,‘netbook’)
Student information environment
Rich Internet Applications
PLE Field space
In the field