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Rationale Teaching methods in introductory, undergraduate courses traditionally rely on static textbooks and/or course packs, with presentation delivered as a monologue (albeit impassioned) in front of a mostly passive, large audience. Add to this the advent of course websites with lecture notes and PowerPoint presentations and the students are left with little incentive to attend, much less participate. Clearly this model does not provide much opportunity or motivation for students to learn and critically think through the arguments being developed. In many introductory science courses the concepts being developed are often best illustrated using visualizations or demonstrations. But even the most stunning of images or spectacular exhibits, while motivating, offer the students only passive participation in the learning process. What is needed is a coupling of the rich imagery of many fields, advances in technology, and new pedagogical approaches, with the goal of revitalizing pedagogical approaches in survey-level courses and student-instructor interaction. Specifically, we are coupling the use of Peer Instruction techniques (as originally described by Mazur, 1997) in large classes with the use of interactive spatial concept challenges and image-based responder questions utilizing wireless Pocket PCs. The teaching challenges in field courses are bringing together data collection, exploration, and interpretation in a common context, rather than accomplishing each task individually. This enables a richer, more meaningful learning experience, only now becoming possible with increasing availability of powerful, mobile computing platforms like Tablet PCs. Student and instructor responses to incorporating information technology-base pedagogies in large-lecture and field courses has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic and extremely positive. Preliminary evaluation of the impact of these changes on students' educational exerpiences are also positive.
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Implementation (pedagogy) Our investigations look at both large-lecture survey and field-based courses. In the former case we are transforming the ubiquitous Instructor monologue to one interspersed with interactive spatial challenges. This entails outfitting a class with WiFi-enabled Pocket PCs, in a manner similar to the popular responder units seen in many university lecture halls today, albeit with significantly greater capabilities and pedagogical options. For the latter we've transformed the bulky mechanical equipment and paper-based resources a traditional field-student carries about to an ergonomic field computer, which provides a much richer educational environment for the student to record interact with their data and surroundings. Both of these projects benefit greatly from collaboration with our colleagues in the School of Education and School of Information. These additional resources bring to bear valuable pedagogical and evaluation experience, including a focus on IT-usability from a Human-Computer Interaction perspective, a key ingredient in applying IT successfully in non-IT domains.
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Implementation (technology) In the large-lecture courses "GeoPockets" or Pocket PCs (iPAQ 5550's, 6315's and rx1950's) are being used with our ImageQuiz software to deliver and engage students with interactive spatial concept challenges. ImageQuiz utilizes Pocket Internet Explorer as the interface, and in some cases Flash-based modules to support real-time, interactive experiences. In our field courses we are using Pocket PCs (iPAQ 5550's and 6315's) and "GeoPads" (ruggedized Tablet PCs), with our main focus on the Tablet PCs. These systems enable in-the-field, real-time access to powerful data collection, analysis, visualization, and interpretation tools, such as GIS, GPS, digital image capture, microphone-headset, and other supporting applications and technologies for gathering and working with spatially-referenced data. The most commonly utilized software components being ESRI's ArcGIS and ArcPad, Microsoft's Office Suite (including OneNote), Adobe Reader, and iTunes. It is important to note that we achieve all of this now with readily available, off-the-shelf software; we no longer necessarily need to develop custom applications to support this IT-enhanced educational environment.
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Impact on Teaching Our goal is to develop pedagogical approaches for large-lecture and field courses that enhance students' learning experiences through increased interaction with the concepts being explored. We envision success as generally applicable, easily adoptable pedagogical approaches to teaching large-lecture and field courses in domains beyond the earth sciences, the main focus of our pilot studies. Overall our preliminary findings in both cases indicate that the use of technology is transparent to the instructors and students. The Information Technology (IT) is neither distracting nor detracting from the concepts being covered. We also find that peer instructional pedagogies are readily adaptable and successful in an IT-enhanced environment.
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Impact on Student Learning We envision a successful impact on student learning in the large-lecture courses as increased student-instructor interaction and improved understanding and application of the concepts covered. In the field-courses we are looking for students to improve their spatial reasoning skills and take-away a more in-depth field experience. Our primary assessment vehicles are surveys, interviews and in-class feedback, from both students and instructors. Interviews with representative students and instructors are being used to gauge student feedback and to provide a detailed understanding of critical points. The Pocket PCs and Tablet PCs themselves are being used to capture real-time feedback from the students on the activities for which they were asked to use the devices. Where possible, comparisons are also being made between courses taught using traditional methodologies and IT-enabled pedagogies, by assessing student comprehension and performance on similar tasks. In the case of field courses, however, this is often more of a qualitative than quantitative outcome due to logistics and small class sizes.
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Students from "Extreme Weather" (AOSS-102) celebrate the first full-scale pilot of GeoPocket (Pocket PCs) and ImageQuiz delivering spatial concept challenges (top). Erin DiMaggio, a student in "Field Geology" (GS-440), using a GeoPad (Tablet PC) during a geologic mapping exercise in the Albion Basin, near Alta, UT (bottom). With regards to GeoPocket/Pocket PCs in large lecture courses: In a way, we're trying to integrate laboratory experiences into the classroom environment without taking up the entire class. The kids using this are accustomed to technology, and they're accustomed to multitasking -- they can interact with things and listen at the same time. This is a way for them to play with the material that's being presented in class. But it's not just play; they're learning something in the process. You can point out that they're right or wrong, but better yet, it's the perfect platform to explore the topic at hand. You can also pose a question and tell the students to talk to their neighbors before they answer, so that you encourage them to interact with one another. With regards to GeoPads/Tablet PCs in field courses: Students would get aerial photos of the area and, printed on transparency paper, a topographic map that they could lay on top of the aerial photo. On top of that, they'd have a piece of Mylar that they could write on. With the GeoPad, we're doing the digital equivalent of that, but with much better and richer abilities to manipulate and interact with the information and images. By providing more information and capabilities than we could give them in the field in the past, we're significantly adding to the learning experience rather than just replacing the old fashioned way of doing it.
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Quick Facts Dept: Geological Sciences; Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences; Biology; Environmental Sciences; Program in the Environment; Geography; Sociology Courses Impacted: 9 # Students Impacted: ~500 # Faculty Involved: ~20 This project is funded in part by a 2005 HP Technology for Teaching grant.
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References & Publications Mazur (1997) "Peer Instruction: a user's manual", Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall Knoop and van der Pluijm (2005) "GeoPad and GeoPocket: GIS-Enabled Field Science Education", Eos Trans. AGU, 86(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract ED53A-0332. van der Pluijm and Knoop (2005) "Using wireless (Pocket)PCs in Large Introductory Courses to Expand Discourse and Interactivity", Eos Trans. AGU, 86(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract ED53A-0333.
GeoPocket (http://geopocket.org)
GeoPad (http://geopad.org)
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