Investigations into the role of technology in Geography · 2016. 9. 1. · technology in...

Elizabeth Gladwell 2015‐2016

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Investigations into the role of technology in Geography

Fieldwork

Out with the field sketches and in with the ipad – How useful is

technology in geographical fieldwork?

Fieldwork is a fundamental part of geographical enquiry and it has been shown to give pupils a positive

experience and the opportunity to ground their geographical skills ideas, values and attitudes in a real

world situation (Barratt et al. 1997). The Department for Education has included fieldwork as an integral

part of the GCSE and A‐level reform. There is now strengthened content requirements for fieldwork,

particularly at GCSE, in that students must be offered different approaches to fieldwork undertaken in

at least two contrasting environments and schools must confirm that they have offered all students

these opportunities (Geographical Association, 2015). With this change Perse Geography is reassessing

how it approaches skills and fieldwork and we will be integrating fieldwork into every year’s Scheme of

Learning from Year 7‐13. From September 2016 end of year exams will also contain a fieldwork

component making these summer exams from Year 7‐10 more in line with the new GCSE and A – level

format. This academic year is also ‘The Year of Fieldwork’ as part of this celebration, ESRI, Field Studies

Council, the Geographical Association, Ordnance Survey and the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)

are working together and there are many interesting new areas of research being published this year –

particularly a project from the GA called Spatially Speaking on the uses of GIS in fieldwork.

There has been much research into the use of technology, GPS and virtual fieldwork (Green and King,

2004). However, as many of the studies come to the conclusion of, virtual fieldwork is not a substitute

for getting into the field (Taylor, 2005) and the department also hold this view. As a result I am going to

focus my research on the collection and presentation of primary data and enhancing the fieldwork

experience and not virtual fieldwork. In order to do this I will review current practise from a Field

Studies Council (FSC) centre and use this experience to trial the use of the ipads to support data

collection in the field at The Perse. Fieldwork is a fundamental part of Geography at The Perse and as a

department we already use technology to support the geographical enquiry process through use of

Google Earth, GPS handsets and GE graph to help students in the GCSE and A2 course to collect and

present data. The use of ipads in fieldwork is a new area of usage both at The Perse and for the FSC.

Little has been written about the use of ipads for fieldwork and I am interested in the practicalities of

using them in the field and students perception of them as a fieldwork tool.


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Existing uses of the ipad in fieldwork

Field Studies Council

The Field Studies Council (FSC) is a large organisation (each year over 140,000 people experience FSC

education) and it is a longstanding charity that teaches environmental education. The FSC has been

providing GCSE and A level fieldwork opportunities for a number of years and the FSC also receives

training from the Geographical Association and has achieved their Secondary Quality Mark (a

framework that has been developed by the Geographical Association supporting the teaching of quality

geography). The Perse has also used FSC centres for GCSE fieldwork preparation in the past.

As part of the preliminary work into how we could use ipads more effectively I visited a Field Studies

Centre in Juniper Hall in Surrey on 14/15/15. This site had been recommended to visit by FSC Head

Office (Jason Lock) as a centre that was taking the lead in the use of ipads in Geographical Fieldwork.

Juniper Hall offers many opportunities to undertake a wide range of fieldwork studies, leased off the

National Trust the centre has access to deciduous woodland, rivers and rocky coastal environments. As

we are looking for new sites to undertake the reformed GCSE and A‐ level fieldwork this visit also served

as a very useful reconnaissance opportunity.

I was met by one of the FSC tutors, Joise Mclaren who has been using ipads at the centre for over 3

years. The centre currently has 25 ipad Air’s and has built up their collection over the last 4 years. ipads

are used regularly by the centre and they are currently finalising how to embed their use further into

the new specifications fieldwork demands when the finalised specifications come out in January.

Juniper Hall could be a potential

site for L/U6th fieldwork as an

established provider under 2.5hrs

from the Perse School.


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ipad covers & practicalities

Juniper Hall ipads all were housed in Lifeproof cases (see below). These cases had been used by Juniper

Hall staff on many fieldwork trips throughout all weather conditions. That year and Josie had seen these

being sat on by students as well as fully submerged while students were collecting river data. She was

clearly very happy with their durability. At £89.00 these would represent a significant cost to the

Geography Department and would perhaps only need a half class set once effective and substantial use

of ipads in the field had been identified and embedded into the Schemes of Learning.

Ipads at Juniper Hall are currently transported between the FSC centre and sample sites by the students

although staff at Juniper Hall are looking into a Peli cases. The Perse Exploration Society already uses

Peli cases to store and transport many of its fragile and high cost items such as the recently purchased

radios. Peli cases could be an effective and safe way of transporting ipads even without cases as the

foam inserts could store them until needed in the field. Again there is a significant cost involved as a

case large enough to store half a class set or 15 costs around £173 (see below). Currently the ipads are

charged overnight using the charging cables that come with the ipads and they have had no problems

with the ipads needing further charging during the day. The Field Studies Centre is looking into a

charging trolley such as the ones that we currently have at The Perse to improve security and ease of

charging.


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ESRI ArcGIS & Collector Apps

FSC have been working with ESRI UK to incorporate their GIS technology into their geography fieldwork

courses to help develop a deeper understanding of the world through geospatial data analysis. The tools

they provide can help students during their geography fieldwork to interpret and evaluate data from

many sources to develop theories and test their knowledge. This software is clearly promoted on their

website and was the first app that Josie was keen to talk about as their ‘flagship’ technology. Bearing in

mind that from my basic web search ArcGIS Basic (Single Use) costs £1,600.00 + VAT this is not a low

cost option. As the FSC is a large organisation they have a discount on ESRI software that they can also

extend to schools making the GIS software perhaps more affordable.

FSC have worked with the Open University to develop a web‐based system for collating data from

student groups using mobile devices, even in areas without internet connectivity called the Field

Network System. This essentially was using Drop Box to upload pupil data and present a class set of

result tables and charts, for the students to interpret and discuss, rather than having to go back to the

classroom to do it manually. The time saved can then be used to explore the subject matter in greater

depth. FSC’s field teachers can also use the system to review the students’ geography fieldwork and

personalise their support to meet the needs of each group.

On closer questioning of how the FSC Centre at Juniper Hall uses the ipads in the field it was clear that

not only do we have the wifi only versions of the ipad (without GPS) the extent to which the full

functionality of the ESRI GIS software was being used practically by Juniper Hall was very minimal. On

reflection a more cost effective method to produce roughly the same results would be: pupils loading

up the study area in school, while there is wifi access, from Digimaps or Google Maps (both of which

The Perse already has access to) and just use their geographical skills or even the GPS handsets or

personal phones to find their location and plot on the information manually.

ArcGIS – Collector App. This is an

extract from the FSC showing that

students can use their GPS locations

to assess flood impact / risk on to a

map even while offline


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Other useful apps

Decibel Ultra

Decibel Ultra is a free app that can be used to measure sound levels. Measuring sound

levels can be a useful tool in distinguishing noise pollution as part of an environmental

quality survey in an urban study.

Currently pupils at The Perse have used their personal phones to play a ring tone and have inferred the

noise levels by measuring the distance at which that can walk away from the phone and still hear the

noise. Being able to measure the noise levels directly would be a far more accurate and reliable method

of data collection and enable students to draw more reliable conclusions from their data collection.

On trailing Decibel Ultra at Juniper Hall I found the app to be very intuitive and it has a dual meter

display, one showing average noise levels and the other indicates peak readings. This is particularly

useful as it allows students to make decisions about the data that they want to collect and be able to

justify their choices as part of the reflection on data collection methods – a vital part of the enquiry

process. The app can also record up to max. 1200 measured points these can then be copied or e‐

mailed to a student’s account on returning to school and they include date and time formats for ease of

data interpretation.

Current data collection for noise

survey’s that, although simple not

that accurate or reliable.

A screen shot from Decibel Ultra

showing the clear dual display and

easy to read output.


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Skitch

Skitch is a free app that Juniper Hall staff use as an enhanced method of field sketching

and annotating photos. Skitch is an easy to use and somewhat basic app that allows

students to annotate images with arrows, shapes, text, and pictures. Juniper Hall staff use this app

commonly to introduce a study area and allow students to take notes on the context of a sample

location while out in the field. On using the app at Juniper Hall I found that the app was simple to use,

but did not have as much functionality as Explain Everything which allows students to connect sample

locations and be more creative with their data presentation. As a result I would not reccomnend this

app for downloading onto the Geography ipads.

Freeze Paint

Freeze Paint is a free app on that enables students to copy parts of a photo onto other

photos or to make multiple copies of parts of an image on a single background image.

On trialling the app at Juniper Hall I found it simple to use as all you have to do is point

your camera at the area you are interested in and rub over the part of the image on the screen you

want to 'freeze' and copy. Then you can look around, point the camera at something else and add it,

until you’ve made a collage of images. This is could be very useful to capture series of images showing

geographical changes. For example in urban fieldwork students could collect a series of parts of an

urban transect along a base OS map. At Juniper Hall Freeze Paint was being used by students to select

from a coastline study area the process of erosion though series of coastal landforms to illustrate the

stages in formation – cave, arch, stack, stump etc. As there are multiple potential uses for this app and it

is free I would encourage the department to consider downloading this app onto the Geography ipads.

A screen shot from a students work

on Skitch from Juniper Hall. The app

although simple and effective is a

little too basic and does not allow as

much flexibility of use as the app

Explain Everything which we currently

use in Perse Geography


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Edu Creations – interactive white board

Edu Creations was the newest app that Joise and the other staff at the FSC had just

started to use to help pupils present their data. The app allows students to use the ipad as a mini

electronic white board and create slides that contain photos, text and record sounds. Although on the

day of my visit I was unable to trial the app from the description and later investigation of the iTunes

description (https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/educreations‐interactive‐

whiteboard/id478617061?mt=8) it appears that essentially this app is very similar to Explain Everything

and therefore not a useful addition to the Geography ipads app collection.

Conclusions from the existing uses of ipads in fieldwork

The visit to Juniper Hall FSC was extremely useful and it has allowed me to focus my study on the use of

a couple of practical applications of ipads in basic fieldwork collection and to understand how ipads are

being used by other educators. In particular Juniper Hall staff had concluded that many of the apps

specifically designed for geographical fieldwork were not particularly useful when compared to the free

apps that they had adapted for specific uses, such as Freeze Paint. Apps that collected data such as

Decibel Ultra were also limited in terms of their usefulness and they had recently returned to using tape

measures and meter rulers over the use of measuring apps due to issues with accuracy.

Off‐site use of the Geography Department ipads is currently not possible at The Perse due to the lack of

protective cases, wifi restrictions and insurance issues. However following my investigations the

Geography Department is looking into the possibility of purchasing Lifeproof cases and the IT

Department has now gained more comprehensive insurance to enable the ipads from all departments

being taken off site in the future.

A major issue that has been highlighted is the fact that the School ipads are only wifi enabled and

therefore do not contain GPS functionality. This is very restrictive for using some of the higher end

geographical software available such as ArcGIS. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are fundamental

tools for learning geography (GA, 2015). GIS are the most powerful set of tools in existence for the

analysis and visualisation of spatial information and is central to the application of geography to real‐

world problem solving. Its growing importance is reflected in the recent A‐level specifications, all of

which include modules that revolve around teaching and understanding methods of geographical

investigation (Peter O’Connor, 2008 GIS for A‐level geography). Although having GPS enabled ipads in

the Geography Department would be desirable. It would allow the collection of spatial data and the

presentation of multilayers of complex and interrelated data. However, it is a very expensive option that

I would encourage the school and Perse Geography to look at the use of GIS and ipads or other portable

devices as they become more affordable in the future.


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Pilot Study – Year 7

In order to start understanding the learning opportunities and challenges of using the ipads outside of

the classroom setting I first planned a lesson with a group of year 7’s looking at the Crime Topic of

Target Hardening (the process by which crime is made harder to commit). The aims of the series of

lessons was to help pupils understand how target hardening is used around the school site to prevent

crime being committed and to learn to use the app Explain Everything to present their findings.

Pupils were given a preparation lesson for the task by defining target hardening and they were briefly

taught about some possible methods of target hardening and details of how they worked e.g. guard

dogs and how they deterred criminals from entering a space were taught. A brief guide on how to use

Explain Everything was given at the front of the class using Air Server to demonstrate as the pupils

followed on their own devises the basics of the app. They were then asked to take the ipads and using a

map of the school site which they photographed and inserted into the App Explain Everything, walk

around the school site and photograph different methods they could see and locate them on their

digital map. This then was inserted, with a justification of how that method made crime harder to

commit. The pupils each used their own ipad but worked in groups of 3’s, this turned out to be very

effective as many pupils who had issues with using the Apps or camera function of the ipads were

supported by their peers.

An example of pupil’s work from the lessons.

Despite the difficulties the pupils did have fun

and managed to produce some quality work to

show the new skills that they had learnt and

apply their new understanding of Target

Hardening to a ‘real world’ situation.


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The lessons highlighted some of the basic difficulties of using an ipad outside; mainly the need for

waterproof covers as the pupils had to be called in early as it started to rain. It also highlighted the

importance of giving pupils time to understand functionality of the various Apps (Explain Everything /

Google Drive) before being set off to collect data and a refresher at the start of each subsequent lesson.

Pupils also had issues uploading their work onto Google Drive to be able to continue working on their

project between lessons. As ipads are used more commonly teaching the basic uses of apps will become

less necessary and this will allow more time to collect the data and interpret results – the real aims of

the learning and geographical enquiry. I felt that the task although useful to highlight the basic issues of

using the new technology was limited and only really reached the ‘understand’ level from Bloom’s

Taxonomy (see fig. 1 below) in order to really gain maximum learning benefit a greater range of the

ipads potential and a series of lessons would need to be planned to allow pupils the time to reach the

‘create’ level.

Figure 1 Bloom’s Taxonomy


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Investigating Microclimates using ipads – Year 7R

The aim of this series of lessons was to fully integrate ipads into an investigation and reach the ‘create’

level of learning in Blooms Taxonomy.

Lesson 1 – Understanding Microclimates

This lesson focussed on background research and using the ipads to understand the concept of

microclimates and to start using Explain Everything and Google Docs to save work. As I learnt from the

pilot study pupils need time to learn the new skills and practise using the technology on more basic

tasks before starting the investigation.

I also used the lesson to survey pupil’s baseline skills and perceptions of using ipads to compare with

results once the series of lessons had been completed. Using Google Docs not only allowed me to keep

an eye on pupil’s progress as they shared the work with me, but they could also continue working on

their research and write up from home.

Pupil feedback / lesson reflections:

It was interesting to see that only half the class had used the app before. It is hoped that in the future

this will be included in IT lessons as a core app for pupils to be made familiar with. As a result of this

data I talked to Rick Cross (Director of Digital Learning) and asked if there could be provision for some

basic tablet training to be included in the Lower School Schemes of Learning and this is an area he is

currently looking into.


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It was really pleasing to see that by the end of the lesson pupils had gained a much better

understanding of how to use the app and new skills that we in Geography will be able to build on in the

future. Below are some of the outcomes from a few pupils showing not only their new skills but also

their new understanding of microclimates and how the pupils were able to be more creative in how

they presented their research:

Examples of pupils work

and the different

approaches that they

took to presenting and

describing the key

terms


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Using Air Server to demonstrate the use of Explain Everything and walking pupils through how to save

their work was very effective (as shown by the pupil survey results where 57% of pupils found that after

the demonstration could use the app effectively). The task itself was quite basic (summarize the factors

that affect microclimates), but this proved to be a good idea as many pupils needed 1:1 help on using

Explain Everything. I found using peer support very effective as some pupils were far more familiar with

the workings of ipads and able to help others once they had finished the task. Having ipads meant that

it was also easy to set challenging further reading extension work via the internet and it was very

pleasing to see that 100% of the pupils reported that they enjoyed using the app and that 100% of the

pupils found using the ipads to research and present their work was useful.


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Google Drive remained a little of a challenge, but mainly due to pupils not remembering their passwords

and a couple of the ipads already being logged in to other pupils accounts. This caused confusion and

also highlighted an issue with pupil’s security awareness and I ensured that there was time at the end of

the lesson for pupils to log out of their account. This again is something that I spoke to Rick Cross about

that perhaps needs including in the KS3 SoL.

Lesson 2 – Applying understanding to the local context

During this lesson pupils worked in teams to decide on 3 sites with potentially favourable microclimate

for a new seating area. Pupils worked in teams of 3 to decide on their sites using a map of the school

(posted on Schoology) and their notes (from Explain Everything) on microclimates from last lesson.

Pupils were then allowed outside to photograph sites and once back in the classroom they located their

sites on a map in Explain Everything as a second slide. Some pupils were then able to start annotating

their photographs with their predictions of the microclimate.

Lesson reflections:

Having spent time using the apps and getting pupils familiar with the behaviour expectations, this lesson

went far more successfully than in the pilot. There were still pupils who needed support initially to use

the apps but peer support was again very useful here. Google Drive was the most challenging aspect of

the lesson as a few ipads were not logging on successfully and it took some time to get all pupils to the

stage where they could go off to photograph their sites. Pupils engaged really well with the task and

were using their new understanding of microclimates to inform their decision making. Pupils were also


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in control of their learning pace and could see their progression through the developing Explain

Everything presentation. More time will be needed to allow all pupils to annotate their photographs and

bed in their understanding of microclimates before collecting primary data. The use of Google Drive was

particularly useful for those pupils who had either incorrectly saved their work or who had missed a

lesson as another pupil could share the work with them to ensure that they could get fully involved in

the learning as soon as possible.

Examples of pupils work from slide 2 of the Explain Everything presentations showing progression in

pupils understanding of microclimates and applying the theory to ‘real world’ situations.


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Lesson 3 – data Collection

As I found out from talking to the field study centre app few primary data apps are accurate or effective

when compared to standard fieldwork equipment. As the ipads we have don’t have GPS we can also not

use compass apps very effectively. However lux meters for measuring light intensity are fragile and

expensive so the department only has one and I have found a free app Lux Camera that appears to work

very effectively when I trailed it around the site and it is intuitive to use.

The lesson started with an outline of the aims and pupils were given a demonstration of how to

correctly gather the data. Pupils were then given an anemometer (which also records temperature),

data record sheets and a compass and in their groups sent to go and collect data from their three sites

chosen last lesson.


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Data was recorded on paper as on trailing the use of numbers on the ipads was found to take too much

time.

Lesson reflections:

The pupils clearly enjoyed being outside and testing their hypothesis, despite the day being windy and

cold. They worked well in groups and were clearly thinking about the theory that they had learnt and

how it was affecting their sites. Asking them to reflect on the issues with data collection while collecting

the data proved very effective as they discussed issues such as why the temperature was reading 21◦C

when it clearly was colder and they worked as a team to find a solution (leaving the anemometer on the

floor to acclimatise before taking a reading).

Pupils working on their data collection:

Lesson 4 – Decision making & justification

This was the final lesson in the series and was a chance for pupils to reflect on the data that they had

collected and to work in their group to decide on their final site. Ipads were used to write up and

present their final decisions as a new slide in their Explain Everything project. I also used the end of the

lesson for a second survey

monkey to test pupils final

reflections on the series of

lessons.

Examples of pupils work

from the final justifictaion

lesson


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Lesson reflections:

There was a real buzz to the lesson as heated discussions broke out in the groups about which site was

best for the seating area. Data that was collected was used in the pupils justifications and it was great to

see them critiquing the quality of data and realising that they would need to collect more data and on

different days in order to draw more meaningful conclusions. Pupils again supported each other well

with the use of both Google Drive and Exlpain Everything. There was an issue with pupils trying to use

photos taken last lesson as they did not have the same ipads and the only work around was to screen

shot from previous slides which was arduous. Timing was also an issue as the pupils would have loved

more time to add greater detail to their presetations as discussions took longer than anticipated.

Reflections on pupil feedback:

It was very pleaseing to see that over 70% of pupils found the ipads useful in data collection. In the

future I hope to be able to install more apps (such as a compass and decibel meter) to use in

geographical primary data collection.


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Conclusions

Overall the lessons were enjoyable and it was pleasing to see such positive feedback from the pupils.

Learning appeared to be occurring in a more flexible and self‐paced manner and allowed for both

teacher and peer support. Extension tasks were easy to implement and most pupils seemed to enjoy

having control over their learning, although clearly the pace of lessons needs to be less pressured to

allow for more flexible learning. Explain Everything as an app worked well as the pupils could continue

lesson on lesson to build a picture of their learning and see how they had progressed through the series

of lessons. Again there are limitations to the app, but overall once the pupils had become more familiar

with how to use it feedback was positive. Pupils were able to have the freedom to be creative and think

critically about their investigation. Using ipads has been shown to enrich learning, however the task did

require the teaching of many basic IT skills which meant the series of lessons did take more time than if

purely done conventionally. However, looking at the positive feedback from pupils I will be investing

time in teaching the use of these apps. In time I hope to be embedding these skills in the new Schemes

of Learning to ensure that once pupils reach GCSE they are able to use the ipads more effectively in

fieldwork without the need to go back to basic IT skills.

Bibliography

Robert Barratt, Hazel Burgess and Darren Cass, An enquiry approach to geography fieldwork, Teaching

Geography, Vol. 22, No. 2 (APRIL 1997), pp. 77‐81, Published by: Geographical Association

DAVID R. GREEN and STEPHEN D. KING, Pencil Out, Stylus In: Geospatial Technologies Give Coastal

Fieldwork a New Dimension Source: Geography, Vol. 89, No. 1 (January 2004), pp. 58‐70, Published by:

Geographical Association, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40573912 Accessed: 12/11/2014 06:27

Richard Taylor, It's virtually fieldwork! Teaching Geography, Vol. 30, No. 3 (AUTUMN 2005), pp. 157‐160,

Published by: Geographical Association

Peter O’Connor, 2008 GIS for A‐level geography, published by: Geographical Association

Geographical Association, 2015 http://www.geography.org.uk/news/gcsereform/ date accessed:

10/02/16

GA (2015) http://www.geography.org.uk/resources/technologyandalevelgeography/ date accessed:

10/02/16

Investigations into the role of technology in Geography · 2016. 9. 1. · technology in...

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