Teaching, Learning & Technology in Higher Education : Going Mobile - Extending the Classroom

Tablet PCs Make Science Real at Bluegrass Community & Technical College

jgvanides — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Are your students tired of cookbook labs that bear little resemblance to real science? Brent Eldridge at Bluegrass Community & Technical College (Lexington, Kentucky) and his colleagues are using tablet pcs to revamp the lab experience to be field-based, dynamic, and highly collaborative...

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Enhancing "Live" Distance Learning with Classroom Presenter

jgvanides — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:03:00 GMT

Live classroom interaction is an instructional model that is often missing in synchronous online presentations. Richard Anderson, University of Washington, shows us how he brings graphical interaction into an online course that is broadcast synchronously to three sites - one of which is a world away... ...(read more)

Mobile Mapping Software – Vassar College Shares Their Approach to GPS & GIS

jgvanides — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:09:00 GMT

If you’re looking for software that supports student mapping and data collection, take a look at the blog from Professor Meg Stewart at Vassar College...

Meg is the PI for a 2004 HP Technology for Teaching grant received by Vassar. The project, Mobile Mapping Using Tablet PCs and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Field-based College Courses, is a great example of field data collection using GPS, GIS, and Tablet PCs. You can read more about their project(s) at http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=71791110627159.

Her blog posting about the software they’ve been using is located at http://gisatvassar.blogspot.com/2008/02/software-for-mobile-mapping-lab-tablets.html .

If you happen to be attending the Northeast Regional Computing Program Annual Conference next week, feel free to drop by her presentation: https://www.educause.edu/NC08/Program/13921?PRODUCT_CODE=NC08/SESS10

Thanks for sending me the weblinks, Meg!

Jim Vanides, B.S.M.E, M.Ed.
Program Manager - Worldwide Higher Education Philanthropy
Hewlett-Packard

For information about the HP Technology for Teaching philanthropy initiative in higher education, visit www.hp.com/go/hpteach-hied

Community Mapping in Nova Scotia – HP Technology for Teaching & Geomatics

jgvanides — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 19:35:00 GMT

I know many of you are involved/interested in using Tablet PCs and GPS sensors for mapping. If so, you might be interested in hearing about the project that is being launched at the Nova Scotia Community College…

The Applied Geomatics Research Group at Nova Scotia Community College in Canada is one of 81 new 2007 HP Technology for Teaching projects being launched around the world. Dr. Robert Maher, Senior Research Scientist in the Geomatics Research Group, along with Roger Mosher, Software Engineer, are launching a new Mobile Geomatics Lab that will allow the campus (faculty and students), communities, and school groups to use HP tablets, GIS mapping software, and GPS units to do data acquisition, validation, analysis and visualization of geographic data from their community.

Their project description explains that, “This initiative is complementary to an ongoing Rural Secretariat, rural knowledge cluster project where we are developing a wider awareness of the application of Geomatics for community mapping. Community mapping is the empowering of local groups to capture the geographic features in their landscape e.g. historic sites, scenic viewpoints, walking trails, invasive plant locations. Community groups will include 4H, First Nations and Black Nova Scotians; all minorities within the rural setting. The availability of a mobile lab, in association with existing GPS units and GIS software gives us the capacity for educational outreach into the community. On campus, it will result in program redesign for Geomatics Programming and also courses within the GIS, Remote Sensing and GIS for Business programs…”

For more information, or to follow the progress of this project, feel free to visit their new blog at http://community.livejournal.com/geomatics_lab/.

If you are involved in GIS/GPS related work, please post a comment and describe your work so we can all meet each other!

More Mobile Mapping – Vassar Paper in Journal of Geoscience Education

jgvanides — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 21:14:00 GMT

For those of you who enjoyed hearing how Mark Manone at Northern Arizona University is using Tablet PCs with mapping applications in the field, I think you’ll find what Meg Stewart and Kirsten Menking at Vassar are doing to be of interest.

Meg Stewart just sent me a link to a paper that she and Kirsten Menking have published in the Journal of Geoscience Education. The paper is entitled, “Using Mobile Mapping to Determine Rates of Meander Migration in an Undergraduate Geomorphology Course” (https://vspace.vassar.edu/mestewart/Menking_Stewart_March2007.pdf). Even if it’s been a while since you’ve meandered in a geomorphological kind of way, if you’re interested in using Tablets in the field I think you’ll find their experience to be valuable.

FYI, the Vassar team were 2004 HP Technology for Teaching grant recipients. Feel free to visit their project webpage for more information.

If you’ve had your own experience using Tablets in the field, or if you have any questions, feel free to post a comment!

Jim Vanides, BSME, M.Ed.
Program Manager - Worldwide Higher Education Philanthropy
Hewlett-Packard

For information about the HP Technology for Teaching philanthropy initiative in higher education, visit www.hp.com/go/hpteach-hied

When is a Tablet PC better than Paper?

jgvanides — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 20:45:00 GMT

Technology is enticing, especially to students who are have come to expect everything to be multimedia and immediate. If we really care about using technology to enhance teaching and learning, we must challenge one another by continually asking, “Is this better than paper and pencil?” Let’s admit it – the battery life of paper is hard to beat. That’s why I took careful notes when I listened to Professor Mark Manone at Northern Arizona University talk about how Tablet PCs are changing Geology instruction in significant ways.

In introductory geology classes, Professor Manone and colleagues provide a Tablet PC to each student (or group of students working as a team) to capture and annotate images ranging from aerial views of geologic formations to microscopic images captured from a digital microscope. Is this any better than paper? Yes – and here’s why I think it’s making a difference:

LEARNER-CENTRIC INQUIRY - With paper, students would have been given a static image selected by the professor for analysis; with the Tablet PCs running Google Earth, students can go “exploring” various geologic features of interest. This supports the pedagogy of “guided inquiry” while raising the contextual understanding of the material.
GRAPHICAL ANNOTATION SUPPORTS SCIENTIFIC THINKING – Having found images of interest, students can quickly bring the images into their electronic binders (MS OneNote – import from desktop) and annotate the image. Having an inkable laptop makes the process as easy as paper and pencil, but the image is from their own inquiry and there’s no shortage of colored pencils to clearly describe what is being learned. Inquiry, immediately followed by reflection and analysis.
ENHANCED SHARING AND COLLABORATION – Unlike paper, which in a large classroom can become a management nightmare, the digital notebook entries can be created collaboratively (shared MS OneNote pages) and immediately shared and discussed in class (using monitoring software like NetSupport School). Everyone is participating, everyone is thinking, everyone is engaged – and a richer classroom dialog is now possible.

Out in the field, the advantages of Tablet vs. Paper become even more obvious. I’m no geologist, so I asked Professor Manone what his students did in the past when they went out to the field. Basically, they used paper and pencil, bringing hardcopy topographic maps and satellite images, if available. Plotting identified features was something that happened AFTER.

Now, students with ruggedized tablets, equipped with GPS devices, can do the following, while in the field:

automatically plot their location in arcGIS software
record features as they find them
make measurements on the electronic map, and then immediately compare to measurements they are making in the field
With a wireless network set up in the field, students can communicate with each other by voice, and let the team leader know where they are automatically (a nice safety measure)

Not only is their work more efficient, but questions while in the field can be answered immediately, further supporting scientific inquiry. Professor Manone also reports that some students are specifically coming to Northern Arizona University because of their high-tech approach to field science.

I’ve yet to see a piece of paper have the same impact…

For more information, visit the NAU HP Technology for Teaching project page online at http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=16346468884821.

In addition, you may also be interested in the field science project at Vassar, also funded in part by the HP Technology for Teaching program. Visit http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=71791110627159 for more information.

If you know of other projects using Tablets in the field (science or other disciplines), please post a comment and let us know!

HP Online Speaker Series (28 March) - "Using Tablet PCs and Pen-based Technologies for Mapping & Teaching Earth Science"

jgvanides — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 22:35:00 GMT

HP Online Speaker Series
Higher Education Technology for Teaching

28 March 2007
10:00 – 11:00 am Pacific Time

“Using Tablet PCs and Pen-based Technologies for Mapping; Teaching Earth Science applications throughout an undergraduate curriculum”

I am pleased to announce our next online webinar!

Please join us on Wednesday, 28 March, 10:00am – 11:00am Pacific Daylight Savings Time for a live presentation and discussion featuring Mark Manone, HP Technology for Teaching grant recipient and Research Associate/Instructor at the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences Geospatial Research and Information Laboratory, Northern Arizona University.

Abstract: The Department of Geology at Northern Arizona University uses tablet computers and mobile wireless technology in introductory courses as well as throughout our core curriculum. We have developed modules using tablet PCs for 5 introductory classes and 6 core classes. Examples for implications in these introductory classes are: drape geologic maps over digital topographic images to explore relations in 3D; use satellite images of planets to map craters and lava flows on Mars and the moon; view geologic disasters such as volcanic eruptions and hurricanes with satellite images of the same area before and after the event. In all of these examples, the pen is significant in the mapping and delineation portion of the exercise, as using a pen to show the barrier between gravel and bedrock is more accurate and more closely mimics traditional analog mapping techniques. This presentation will show examples of tablet use in mapping at the introductory, core course and field based levels. Results of assessment of learning will also be presented.

To attend, please RSVP at http://www.hpwebgen.com/questions.cfm?id=8828&pass=99222 so we can send you login and phone details. All you need is a phone and an internet-connected web-browser. However, space is limited, so registration is available on a first-come, first-served basis. There is no charge for this event.

I hope you can join us!