In an earlier post (Mobile Learning Module for Geography 1190 – Exploring Coordinate Systems Using a Mobile Device) I outlined a plan for using an iPhone app (Fugawi iMap) in a learning module designed to reinforce first year geography student’s understanding of using coordinate systems and topographic maps. Over the past two weeks I have tried using a modified version of the module in two different classes. This post describes the experience of using the module in a first year physical geography class.
The Adjustments
Two significant adjustments had to be made to the module.
(1) It had to be reduced to a one hour activity from the original plan of two hours
(2) The size of the groups had to be increased.
This semester I am not actually teaching the course (GEOG1190) for which this module was intended. Fortunately another geography instructor, Rory Crowley, was also interested in trying it. We tested it on his class. This was great, but meant that we had to squeeze a module that was originally designed for a two hour class into a one hour time period. To compensate I met with the actual phone owners a day before the exercise so they could be trained on the app, and we reduced the number of activities the students were asked to do in the module.
Out of a class of 34 students, 8-10 initially self -identified as iPhone users. On the day I met with the students to compensate them for their purchase of the application and to train them on its use six showed up. One of the self-identified iPhone using students was actually at the class when I did the training and compensation, but indicated that he was not planning on attending class on the day we did the exercise. Of the six students that were trained and compensated, five showed up for the exercise. Consequently, the group sizes went from 3-4 to 6 -7.
The Experience
The assumption was that was going to be an exercise to reinforce the students understanding of coordinate systems, and to make it more real to them through a real-world experience. The reality was that despite having completed the several weeks of classroom work on the concept, including three lab assignments, the students’ understanding was poor and they spent an inordinately long time doing the classroom portion of the exercise (determining their current coordinates, and the coordinates of a single destination from a map). It was also apparent that the majority of students were quite content to spend a long time on classroom part of the exercise and not terribly excited about going outside. This surprised me as it was a beautiful, sunny fall day. Once outside a number of groups did not follow the instructions completely. Of the five groups, only one group photographed themselves at a destination. Some other groups had difficulty with the idea of travelling to a destination and recording the coordinates at that location. As one student pointed out to me, “Look using the phone we can just drop a pin at the location and see its coordinates. Why walk there?” Surprisingly four of the five groups navigated successfully to an unknown location by entering the coordinates of the unknown location into their device.
The Results
The group answers to the reflection questions related to the subject matter of the module (coordinate systems on topographic maps) ranged in quality. In the case of one group their initial lack of understanding of the subject seemed to prevent them from making meaningful observations based on the exercise. There was certainly no indication from the answers that the exercise had resulted in any student epiphanies regarding coordinate systems and topographic maps.
The answers to a question regarding the perceived value of the exercise were more encouraging. The groups were asked the following question, “Did this exercise improve your understanding of coordinate systems?”
Group 1 Response (the group that didn’t find the unknown location)
“Yes it did improve my understanding of using coordinate systems because of the hands on aspect and also the iphone application.”
Group 2 Response
“Extra practice, but overall no. Good to see coordinates in the real world.”
Group 3 Response
“No the absolute locations ie UTM coordinates did not match and the app was confusing. Its tiles are so slow to load pls hard to see the app as a map. Google maps is a superior location device but lacks the utm/decimal degrees. The idea itself is okay but would benefit from a lesson on the app itself or a better app in general (in the event that one is created) maybe a scavenger hunt type location activity would help affirm when we found our location. Also 1 person with a phone in a group of 6 is hard – no everyone can participate.”
Group 4 Response
“It was good practice to review how to calculate coordinates. However, we had issues using the Fugawi app.”
Group 5 Response
“Yes. It was a good review of the labs. We got first -hand experience using it in a real-life situation”
Group 3’s response is a little difficult to understand as the map tiles should have already been loaded on the device and a Google Map view of the map area can be accessed through the application. This was the group that seemed to have the weakest understanding of the coordinate system concept at the outset. This lack of understanding may explain the statement “UTM coordinates did not match”.
Lessons Learnt
The Fugawi iMap application, although inexpensive, is not as intuitive as other iPhone apps. It can also be “finicky”. Assumptions that the iPhone users who loaded the app on the phone would take a handout home and practice using the app before the exercise were misplaced.
This could get expensive. Paying students to load apps on to phones who then don’t come to class is annoying.
The device specific nature of the application ultimately lead to overly large groups. A cross-platform application would help. A free application like Google Map might be used, but the relationship of the exercise to topographic maps would then be much less clear.
Don’t overestimate the student’s abilities. This applies both to the concept they are learning, and their ability to use their devices.
Don’t underestimate the student’s abilities to be inefficient in their use of time. I think this was particularly the case in this situation because time wasting had no consequence for the student grades.
Some General Thoughts/Impressions/Questions Without Answers
(1) Mobile learning by definition is going to require that students have some self-motivation and initiative. By itself, the experience of getting outside the classroom, trying something new and using iPhones did not seem to result in a dramatic increase in student engagement. There were no grades or assessment associated with the exercise. Is the carrot and stick approach of grades and assessment the only way to motivate our first year college students to actively engage with these mobile learning activities? If so, in the typical student’s mind, will the mobile learning activity take on the same relevance as the traditional classroom activity? Will these mobile learning activities be perceived as just another irrelevant assignment that you do to get the grade?
(2) The students who did this exercise were not part of a program or cohort of any kind. Typical of first year university transfer students at Langara, there was a wide range in the number and type of courses each student is taking. For each student this translates into exposure to a wide variety of methods of delivering curriculum. This exposure is different for each student. On top of this most of them are working. Does incorporating another method (mobile learning) for delivering curriculum into parts of some courses enrich the student experience, or does it simply become another source of stress and confusion?
The Future
I will keep refining and developing this module. Following the experience with the first year students I tried the learning module with a small (15) group of second year students that are taking an introductory survey course on geomatics. I know this group of students has a fairly strong understanding of the subject matter of the module. I am awaiting their feedback.