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Rationale Our combined department of Earth Science and Geography is using tablet PCs to facilitate mapping and field-data collection in a variety of classes. Our classes and research rely increasingly on GIS (geographic information systems, or computer-based mapping and spatial analysis), and we have frequent field trips that involve collection of data such as stream flow measurements, vegetation type, habitat characteristics, and GPS locations of sample sites. Mobile technology can aid field work. We find that having a GIS perspective and a visual assessment of a field location helps students better understand the processes and patterns that shape those locations. In addition, students can maintain more focus in their projects because they are not forced to leave their work in the lab, but can carry their work home, to class, and to presentation situations.
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Students in the Field Using Mobile Mapping
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Instructional Design Using Mobile Mapping Geography and earth science courses frequently contain a field component. Our students are used to and expect to go on field trips, and often we ask them to map what they see. In addition, many of our classes include GIS mapping and exercises as part of the laboratory section. The natural extension of these two strong aspects of our department is to combine the field work with computer mapping which is what we have accomplished with mobile mapping. The curricular redesign that we have integrated is simply to take the students out to the field location, each with a tablet PC, and have them map their surroundings. On each of the tablet PCs are all the background data they might need (aerial photographs, soils, geology, census data, tax parcels, and the like). Implementing mobile mapping into the courses that we've done so far (see Quick Facts) has been quite smooth. This ease of implementation is largely due to the fact that the faculty members that have taught with mobile mapping each have an expert knowledge of the GIS software and use of the tablet PC.
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Digitizing landuse with the tablet's pen
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Mobile Mapping Technology Tablet PCs are essentially laptops that can be written on. The hard drive and processor are comparable to that of a desktop computer and all the traditional software programs that are used on standard computers or laptops can be used on a tablet PC. The big difference in the tablet PC is the pen and the screen. The pen-based technology acts as a mouse and becomes an extremely useful method of digitization when using the mapping software, ESRI's ArcMap. 'Digitizing' is the use of the GIS software and the tablet pen to draw such features as streams, faults, or polygons around stands of trees. A GPS receiver can be attached to the USB port to map in real-time, with the data stored in a GIS on the tablet's hard drive. Click here for step-by-step tips on using mobile mapping. Incidentally, some colleges (for example, Penn State University, Occidental College, and San Diego State University) are using PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant), such as iPaqs and Palms, for mobile mapping. We have begun an investigation into the use of PADs with enabled GPS receivers and ESRI's ArcPad as an alternative to or augmentation of the mobile mapping technology we currently employ.
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Mobile mapping - Using the GPS receiver attached to the tablet through the USB port.
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Impact on Teaching In teaching, the tablet PCs have allowed us to bring GIS into classrooms across campus as well as on field trips in a variety of disciplines. This has greatly expanded our use of GIS in a range of disciplines and contexts. In addition, the tablets have increased flexibility in what we can ask students to do in class. Because Vassar's campus is now almost entirely wireless, we can pull up, for example, county planning reports or journal articles to examine while mapping, which increases our flexibility in teaching thus making it more interesting for both the faculty member and the students. We can take the discussion out of the classroom, into the departmental lounge, across campus, or to meetings and field trips off-campus.
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Impact on Student Learning Students show an increased awareness of the relationship between adjacency and locational factors in explaining environmental phenomena. On field trips, the ability to visualize surrounding conditions (such as, climate, census data, or historical variables) at multiple scales, while at a site, helps students to quickly understand the process of explaining phenomena geographically. In the classroom, the tablets allow us to project and discuss maps and data in ways that make the place-based material more accessible and intuitively clear to students and faculty from a variety of disciplines.
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Assessment Results We conducted pre-course and post-course student evaluations of mobile mapping technology in two courses. These courses were taught in classes which the instructor had only a novice familiarity with GIS software. Also, classes at Vassar College tend to be small, so the statistical significance of our findings may be weak at this point. However, the findings are very useful in the way we go forward with mobile mapping in our teaching. We know that we need 1) longer lasting batteries for field work when using the workhorse GIS software, 2) a screen that has better outdoor visibility, 3) a field assistant to help with technological issues and mishaps, at least at the beginning of the course, and 4) rigorous training in the GIS software for faculty members first on desktop machines and then on tablet PCs. Assessment and evaluation of Field Archaeology in Fall 2006 and taught be Professor Lucille Johnson showed that the students gained confidence in their technological abilities and saw the value of working as a team and enjoyed using the technology. In all aspects of technology use, the students felt that they had gained skills. This course is described in more detail under Example 2 below. The number of students answering the pre-course questionnaire was four and seven answered at the end of the course. Prof. Johnson is teaching Field Archaeology again this semester and will use mobile mapping and will continue with her assessment of the ttechnology. In the Fall 2006 Ecology course taught by Robert Fritz, the results of assessment were not as compelling. Nine students answered the questionnaire before the course began and five answered the post-course evaluation questions. It is highly possible that these particular students were more confident coming into the course in their technological abilities and lost confidence as the course went on. They did show an increase in seeing the value of working as a team and in their understanding of the role that technology plays in ecology. The skills gained by the ecology students were in their use and familiarity with a tablet PC which included entering data into the tablet while in the field. This course is discussed in greater detail under Example 3 section. Prof. Fritz is using tablet PC technology in his Ecology course this semester and will conduct assessment of course learning outcomes. For anyone interested in our testing methodology and rubric used, please contact Meg Stewart ([email protected]).
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COURSES: Example 1 Writing about Kirsten Menking's "Geomorphology: Surface Processes and Evolution of Landform" course and the experience and results of using mobile mapping in a course redesign, Menking and Meg Stewart published a paper in the March 2007 in the Journal of Geoscience Education. The paper, titled "Using Mobile Mapping to Determine Rates of Meander Migration in an Undergraduate Geomorphology Course," discusses the ways that mobile mapping was used by the students in a short field exercise. Menking's students walk a stream that flows on the Vassar Farm with GPS receivers attached to the tablet PC through a USB port to determine the present position of the stream. Then using the tablet pen, the students digitize the stream on a 1959 aerial photograph of the Vassar Farm. The students measure stream channel migration from 1959 to the present. Using GIS in the field allows students to work with the aerial photographs, to digitize features with ease and detail, and to examine features simultaneously on the ground and in the GIS, at the scale of both features and large areas. The paper discusses other relevant uses of mobile mapping technology for additional field investigations such as coastal erosion, fault scarp studies, and dune migration. As stated in the paper, "The students would learn geological concepts while simultaneously learning how to use emerging technology."
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COURSES: Example 2 Professor Lucille Johnson, Anthropology Professor, took the May 2005 Mobile Mapping workshop and then used a tablet PC and a GPS receiver in the summers of 2005, 2006 and 2007 to map an excavation site in Denning's Point in Beacon, New York, with students. In the Fall semester of 2006 in Prof. Johnson's Field Archaeology class, students used tablet PCs at the Mohonk Preserve to map locations of early prehistoric human remains. Prof. Johnson presented the use of this technology at Vassar's Teaching With Technology Forum in April 2007 and more can be seen in Vassar's On Campus discussion of Prof. Johnson's work and also in an article in the Daily Freeman. Her Forum poster is shown below; click on it to see a larger version.
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Lucille Johnson's poster for the 2007 Teaching With Technology Forum at Vassar College. Click on the poster for a larger version.
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COURSES: Example 3 Robert Fritz, Biology Professor, was shown mobile mapping technology and quickly decided to buy ten tablet PCs and GPS receivers. With the help of Biology Field Technician, Keri VanCamp, Fritz integrated mobile mapping into his Fall 2006 Ecology course. Students used mobile mapping at the Vassar Farm to document locations of an invasive species. Says Fritz and VanCamp, "We really enjoyed working with the technology. It increased our confidence that the data collected were accurate and this technique was a way to get consistent observations from different individuals." Their poster for the 2007 Teaching With Technology Forum is shown below.
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Robert Fritz and Keri VanCamp's poster for the 2007 Teaching With Technology Forum at Vassar College. Click on the poster for a larger version.
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Former Students Learning on a Tablet PC
Professor Lucy Johnson gave a "class" to Vassar's Class of 1957 on June 8, 2007 for Reunion Weekend. She demonstrated how she and her students use tablet PCs to document test pit excavations.
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Presentation 2006 We presented our work on implementing mobile mapping in classes at the recent American Association of Geographersmeeting. To get a copy of the presentation materials, click the image.
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Faculty Workshops Mary Ann Cunningham, Kirsten Menking, and Meg Stewart held a faculty workshop on mobile mapping in May 2005. We had eight faculty members from the biology, chemistry, psychology, and anthropology departments participate. Over the summer of 2005 three of the faculty participants borrowed a tablet PC and a GPS receiver for research mapping.
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Other Mobile Mapping Projects Brian McAdoo, Earth Science Professor, used a tablet PC to map tsunami inundation, uplift and subsidence in Sumatra, Indonesia, immediately after the December 2004 tsunami hit southeast Asia. In addition, he and a student went to New Orleans to measure the maximum storm surge after Hurricane Katrina and used the tablet PC to map. "Having a very small, light and so far surprisingly rugged tool has been very helpful. The 'tablet' arrangement is nice, because using the GIS usually does not require a keyboard, so it is easy to whip out the tablet PC to show a satellite image along with a measurement on the spot." McAdoo is considering introducing tablet PCs in his Applied Geophysics course called Digital Underground.He always takes a tablet PC when he doing field work. Kirsten Menking, Mary Ann Cunningham, Stuart Belli, Marshall Pregnall,and Pinar Batur (from Earth Science, Geography, Chemistry, Biology, and Sociology), began an environmental assessment of the Casperkill watershed over the summer of 2006 and continued analysis through the summer of 2007. This multidisciplinary study involved at least 9 students and 5 faculty, in collaboration with faculty at Middlebury College and Furman University. Field-based mapping and assessment, as well as water quality monitoring, involved mobile mapping technology. The project is on-going. Jonathan Rosenthal, PhD candidate in Biology, University of Michigan, is carrying out a tri-trophic biodiversity study (primary producers, herbivores, predators) involving mobile mapping of vegetation on the Vassar Farm. Keri Van Camp, with Bob Fritzand Mark Schlessman, is using a tablet PC in vegetation mapping for a garlic mustard study on the Vassar Farm. This is work that was partially presented at Vassar's Teaching With Technology Forum. The work is on-going. Over October Break 2006, a tablet PC made its way down to New Orleans for Mary Ann Cunningham and Kirsten Menking's"Environmental Science in the Field: New Orleans" class. Loaded with geospatial data, students saw what the surrounding area looked like from above while driving around the flooded areas. Mary Ann Cunningham, Kirsten Menking, Brian McAdoo, andLucy Johnsonare investigating PDAs, GPS and ArcPad as a lighter alternative to tablet PCs and mapping.
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Quick Facts While the tablet PCs were granted to the Department of Earth Science and Geography in 2004, they have been used in multiple departments across campus. Departments: Earth Science and Geography, Environmental Science, Environmental Studies, Urban Studies, Chemistry, Biology and Anthropology Courses Impacted:Landscape and Urban Planning, Ecology, Geomorphology, Field Archaeology, Conservation of Natural Resources, Essentials of Environmental Science, Introduction to Urban Studies, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), student thesis projects, and summer research programs--Exploring Transfer, Undergraduate Research Summer Institute Number of Students Impacted: about 325 Number of Faculty Involved: 13 This project is funded in part by a 2004 HP Technology for Teaching grant and a 2008 HP Philanthropy and Education grant.
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References & Publications Papers written and presentations given related to our mobile mapping project: Stewart, Meg E., Jones , Virginia, Van Camp, Keri, Menking, Kirsten, Johnson, Lucille L., Fritz, Robert S., and Cunningham, Mary Ann, 2008, Taking it outside: Using tablet PCs to facilitate learning in undergraduate field-based earth science courses, Geological Society of America Abstracts-with-Programs, National Meeting, v. 40, n. 6, p. 349. Stewart, Meg E., Van Camp, Keri, Johnson, Lucille L., Fritz, Robert S., and Jones , Virginia, 2008, Assessing student learning outcomes when using a tablet PC for data collection in field-based classes in Archaeology and Ecology, North East Regional Computing Program Annual Conference (NERCOMP), Providence, RI, March 11, 2008. Menking, Kirsten and Stewart, Meg, 2007, Using Mobile Mapping to Determine Rates of Meander Migration in an Undergraduate Geomorphology Course, Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 55, n. 2. p. 147-151.Get the full paper here. Stewart, Meg, 2006, Notes & Ideas: Paperless, Wireless, Inkless Mapping: Academic Commons, September 25, 2006 Stewart, Meg, 2006, Vassar College Utilizing Mobile Data Collection and GIS: Geographic Information System Technology News: The Newsletter of the New York State GIS Coordination Program, Summer 2006 Cunningham, Mary Ann and Stewart, Meg, 2006, GIS Technology at a Small Liberal Arts College: The Importance of Administrative Support, Transformations, May 1, 2006. Stewart, Meg, Cunningham, Mary Ann, and Menking, Kirsten, 2006, Teaching environmental studies, urban studies, and geomorphology using tablet PC technology and GIS, Association of American Geographers National Meeting Program, Chicago, IL, p. 223. Menking, Kirsten and Cunningham, Mary Ann, 2005, Taking the Classroom Outside: Tablet PCs in the Field, Teaching with Technology Forum 2005 (Vassar College presentation). Helpful mobile mapping resources: Armstrong, M.P.and Bennett, D. A., 2005, A manifesto on mobile computing in geographic education, The Professional Geographer, v. 57, n. 4, p. 506-515. Clarke, K.C., 2004, Mobile mapping and geographic information systems, Cartography and Geographic Information Science, v. 31, p. 131-136. De Donatis, M., and Bruciatelli, L., 2006, MAP IT: The GIS software for field mapping with tablet PC,Computers & Geosciences, v. 32, n. 5, p. 673-680. Knoop, P.A., and van der Pluijm, B., 2004, Field-based information technology in geology education: Geopads, Eos Trans. American Geophysical Union, v. 85 (47). Manone, M.F., Umhoefer, P.J., and Hoisch, T.D., 2003, A digital field camp: Applying emerging technology to teach geologic field mapping, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 35, n. 6, p. 411. Neumann, K., and Kutis, M., 2006, Mobile GIS in geologic mapping exercises, Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 54, n. 2, p.153-157. Pundt, H., and Brinkkotter-Runde, K., 2000, Visualization of spatial data for field based GIS, Computers & Geosciences, v. 26, p. 51-56. Sleeter, B. M., Wood, M.J., and Halsing, D.L., 2006, Field Tools: An assessment of user needs and a development of tools for land cover change field work, Association of American Geographers National Meeting Program, p. 324. Web sites of interest: Vassar's GIS Blog Teaching with GeoPads - Mobile Mapping in Education Northern Arizona University, Tablet PCs in the Geosciences Purdue University, Teaching Soil-Landscape Interactions by Bringing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Technology to Students in the Field University of Kentucky, Mobile Technology for Teaching Grant University of Michigan, Interactivity in Large-Lecture Classess and Field Science Education University of Alaska, Anchorage, Tablet PCs for Field-Based Courses
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