Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
the student experience and the quality of the work produced. This positive student
experience and high quality output also vindicates the approach of performing
in situ instruction (at least for GIS) over preparatory classes. The requirement to
acquire knowledge for an imminent problem (within the next few days) focused
students more than for a field trip weeks in the future. The development of a
geocollaboratory allowed much greater staff-student and student-student interac-
tion throughout the fieldcourse and meant the need for prior preparation was
reduced. This challenges notions of the importance of pre-fieldcourse student
preparation and suggests that as much, if not more, engagement is achieved when
alternative in situ learning mechanisms are developed.
We have also met the objectives of our larger project by demonstrating the role
of students' personal technologies on fieldwork (the use of students' own devices to
supplement University provided tools) and how the use of these technologies can
enhance the learning experience. We implemented an approach that allowed stu-
dents to utilize their informal skills (texting, social networking) to achieve aca-
demic goals. We were also able to make productive use of the students' personal
technologies to provide constructive feedback and direction during field exercises.
A number of further developments are planned for the TweetMap to enhance
future fieldtrips. The use of hashtags for the trips will be supplemented with a
Twitter fieldtrip username for all students and staff to follow (e.g. @KUMalta).
This will enable potentially greater engagement with trip alumni who can follow
that user after the trip and interact with subsequent iterations of the fieldtrip. Using
SMS notifications to deliver new tweets to followers of the fieldtrip username will
also remove the need to use txttools for mass communication with students,
streamlining the communication methods.
Acknowledgments This work was part funded by the transforming curriculum delivery through
technology JISC e-learning programme Mobilising Remote Student Engagement (MoRSE),
a collaborative project between researchers at Kingston University London and De Montfort
University, Leicester. It was also part-funded by the Geography, Earth and Environmental
Sciences (GEES) Subject Centre Learning and Teaching Development fund programme Mobile
Decision-making in the Cloud (MobiDIC) project. The work was undertaken by the authors
whilst they were academic staff at Kingston University. The innovative pedagogy led to an Esri
(UK)
Innovation in GIS award in 2010 and the TweetMap won an Esri
User Conference award
for 'Best Multimedia Map' also in 2010. The authors particularly thank the students who
contributed to the research undertaken and the overall enjoyment of the fieldcourse and trust that
the work informs future versions of the trip run by Kingston University. Malts!
References
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Cai G, Yu B (2009) Spatial annotation technology for public deliberation. Trans GIS 13:123-146
