Designing an Inquiry-based Fieldwork Project for Students Using Mobile Technology and Its Effects on Students’ Experience

Abstract

The objectives of this research are, first, to find mobile technology-informed ways of designing inquirybased fieldwork, in support of students' inquiry processes and, second, to evaluate how a technologyintegrated fieldwork project can affect students' knowledge and experience. In order to achieve these objectives, the study adopted a set of core design principles and guidelines for the creation of inquirybased fieldwork projects, detailing tips and an example (i.e., the Yangdong Village Project) of these principles and guidelines' application. In addition, this study used a questionnaire to determine the influence of the project on students' understanding of the investigation area and their inquiry-related behaviors. It also analyzed conversation between students, to examine how students' learning processes are supported in fieldwork through use of mobile technology. A total of 86 high school students (ages 17-18), from four schools located in the Seoul metropolitan area, participated in the project. The results of the analyses showed that participation in the project helped students become better informed about the area they investigated. While they were conducting the field tasks, they showed more inquiry-driven behaviors, such as being more active and adventurous, more talkative, and more responsible (88.7%). Technological support for the process of field inquiry was prominent in three situations: location identification, data capture, and monitoring. The functionalities of mobile technology that students used during the field inquiry would reflect not only the characteristics of the task, but also the types of mobile technology involved in the project.

The Effect of Outdoor Lessons in Natural Sciences on Students’ Knowledge, Through Tablets and Experiential Learning

“…Compared to traditional learning, mobile learning is more complex, primarily because students are exposed to the real world in which they handle material, compared to the digital world presented by the mobile devices (Chu, 2014). Positive effects on the knowledge and understanding of students have been observed regarding the use of mobile devices outside the classroom (Chen et al, 2005;Cheng et al, 2007;Churchill & Kennedy, 2008;Costabile et al 2008;Lee;Pfeiffer et al, 2009), as well as on the motivation of students (Demir & Akpinar, 2018;Lai et al, 2007;Zacharia et al, 2016). Mobile devices can be used in the class to follow instructions (Dyson et al, 2009), to record results (Boyce et al, 2014), to record photographs and films (Boyce et al, 2014;Zacharia et al, 2016;Zimmerman & Land, 2014), to view pictures, photographs, short films, animations and simulations (Cruchill & Kennedy, 2008;Falloon, 2019;Tarng et al, 2015), to define organisms (Silva et al, 2011), to interact with the teacher (Nouri et al, 2014), and to solve problems (Lai et al, 2015).…”

How Do Students Experience a Deprived Urban Area in Berlin? Empirical Reconstruction of Students’ Orientations

“…Type 4 students, in particular, also develop abstract perspectives about the issue of development of deprived urban areas. Thus, the fieldwork underlines the great potential of working locally (Ellwood, 2004;Hope, 2009;Lee, 2020). A different learning process occurs when deprived urban areas are experienced vividly and in-situ compared to when students deal with them abstractly in the classroom (Elwood, 2004).…”

“…However, deep learning is not necessarily stimulated by taking students into the field (Kent et al, 1997;Dummer et al, 2008;Fuller et al, 2006). In addition to active learning settings, some researchers also emphasize the importance of direct experience gained during fieldwork (Lee, 2020;Hope, 2009;Elwood, 2004). Up to now, a few studies have investigated the importance of direct experience during fieldwork in human geography (Elwood, 2004;Hope, 2009;Nairn, 2005).…”

“…The project aim is necessary because empirical findings about the implementation of fieldwork reveal that teachers rarely follow the recommendations to complete fieldwork (Remmen & Frøyland, 2014;Oost et al, 2011;Lössner, 2011). Thus, both nationally and internationally, it appears that superficial geographical learning often takes place on field trips in the sense of a "look and see" attitude (Lee, 2020). Concerning Berlin, the city is popular for field trips with secondary school students, particularly because of its role as the capital city and as a divided city until reunification (Dannenberg, 2013).…”

A Portfolio Model for the Teaching and Learning of GIS Competencies in an Upper Secondary School: A Case Study from a Finnish Geomedia Course

“…The options cover a wide range of existing online resources to enable the development of basic learning tasks (such as browsing through different map levels or finding and marking a location on a map) and also provide the opportunity to create more demanding explorative tasks. For example, an inquiry-based task will allow students to collect geographical data in the field by using GIS applications, and also to develop observation skills and promote their learning about the use of GIS (Lee, 2020). Student-centered knowledge production dramatically increases learners´ awareness about and understanding of the phenomena being studied (Chatel & Falk, 2017).…”