HR: 11:50h
AN: ED32A-07    [Abstracts]
TI: Web-Based Resources to Help Students and Faculty Prepare to use Information Technology in the Field
AU: * Mogk, D W
EM: mogk@montana.edu
AF: Dept. of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, United States
AB: Teaching in the field is undergoing a revolution as new information technologies are being used to support a wide range of instructional activities in geology, oceanography, ecology, and related disciplines. In particular, the use of ruggedized laptop and palmtop computers with integrated GPS, GIS, data management, imaging and note-taking software presents a fundamentally new way to map and collect other data in the field. By bringing information technologies into the field, it is now possible to integrate many types of data such as digital elevation maps, air photo and satellite imagery, a variety of geophysical and geochemical databases (e.g. chemical anomaly maps, aeromagnetics, gravity). This allows students to engage much deeper levels of decision-making, problem-solving, and critical-thinking while still in the field setting. This technology also allows instructors to more closely monitor the progress of student projects in the field, and to assess the process as well as the products of student field work. For professional geologists, data acquisition and interpretation using digital technology in the field will rapidly become the industry standard, and now is the time to begin to prepare students to regularly use these new capabilities. To address the new possibilities of teaching with information technology in the field, a workshop was convened in February 2007 at Montana State University to aggregate and disseminate the practical advice and experience of geoscience instructors already using this technology. The outcome of this workshop is a website that contains advice on "best practices" in using these information technologies in field instruction including sections on: definition of learning goals, thinking skills and problem solving strategies, student and faculty preparation, selecting hardware and software, data resources, logistical consideration, GPS and learning, taking e-notes, mobile collaborations, and examples of field exercises. This website provides examples of how this technology creates better (or at least different) learning opportunities for students; identifies barriers so that interested novices can effectively acquire, use, and maintain information technologies in field instruction; provides "how to" advice on the design and implementation of learning exercises; creates a collection of teaching activities to be used as models for others to follow; and, compiles the experience and advice of current practitioners to help identify "best practices" in using this technology. This website should help to minimize the technical, pedagogical, and practical barriers that make it difficult for novice users to efficiently and effectively use this technology in field instruction. Material on the website was contributed and shared by the "GeoPad Writing Group". This project was supported by NSF grant EAR 03-06708.
UR: http://serc.carleton.edu/research_education/geopad/index.html
DE: 0810 Post-secondary education
DE: 0820 Curriculum and laboratory design
DE: 0825 Teaching methods
DE: 0845 Instructional tools
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting