HR: 1330h
AN: ED32B-1199 INVITED     [PDF]
TI: GeoPad: Innovative Applications of Information Technology in Field Science Education
AU: * Knoop, P A
EM: knoop@umich.edu
AF: University of Michigan, Dept. of Geological Sciences, 425 E. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 United States
AU: van der Pluijm, B
EM: vdpluijm@umich.edu
AB: A core requirement for most undergraduate degrees in the Earth sciences is a course in field geology, which provides students with training in field science methodologies, including geologic mapping. The University of Michigan Geological Sciences' curriculum includes a seven-week, summer field course, GS-440, based out of the university's Camp Davis Geologic Field Station, near Jackson, WY. Such field-based courses stand to benefit tremendously from recent innovations in Information Technology \(IT\), especially in the form of increasing portability, new haptic interfaces for personal computers, and advancements in Geographic Information System \(GIS\) software. Such innovations are enabling in-the-field, real-time access to powerful data collection, analysis, visualization, and interpretation tools. The benefits of these innovations, however, can only be realized on a broad basis when the IT reaches a level of maturity at which users can easily employ it to enhance their learning experience and scientific activities, rather than the IT itself being a primary focus of the curriculum or a constraint on field activities. The GeoPad represents a combination of these novel technologies that achieves that goal. The GeoPad concept integrates a ruggedized Windows XP TabletPC equipped with wireless networking, a portable GPS receiver, digital camera, microphone-headset, voice-recognition software, GIS, and supporting, digital, geo-referenced data-sets. A key advantage of the GeoPad is enabling field-based usage of visualization software and data focusing on \(3D\) geospatial relationships \(developed as part of the complementary GeoWall initiative\), which provides a powerful new tool for enhancing and facilitating undergraduate field geology education, as demonstrated during the summer 2003 session of GS-440. In addition to an education in field methodologies, students also gain practical experience using IT that they will encounter during their continued educational, research, or professional careers. This approach is immediately applicable to field geology courses elsewhere and indeed to other field-oriented programs \(e.g., in biology, archeology, ecology\), given similar needs.
DE: 6605 Education
DE: 9805 Instruments useful in three or more fields
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting