iPads in New York: Trip Report

Nine students from the University of Chester used iPads during their recent fieldtrip to New York. The trip focused on social exclusion and urban regeneration in NYC and students were encouraged to use the iPads however they saw fit. Trials of Twitter and Fotobabble were encouraged and used to a good level of success.

                                    

The students found the technology really enhanced their experience during the trip. Early issues of lack of 3G access were overcome due to the sheer number of wi-fi hotspots available in NYC (namely Starbucks!).

Twitter was especially popular with the students who used it as a reflective tool and to post photos. The staff members on the trip found this particularly useful as they could also share their experiences through the hashtag #gdschester and see how students were enjoying and reflecting on their experiences over the course of the fieldwork.

"Top of empire state. Cracking views. iPads working well even at this height in the dark!" (@gdschester3)

"Ellis island more positive atmosphere than expected. More hope than disapointment " (@gdschester2)





Livescribe pens were also used and were popular with the students : "Livescribe pens more than useful" (@gdschester2)


                                             

The educational values of the iPad were so apparent that two of the staff members accompanying the students also purchased iPads plus a number of students were considering purchasing an iPad in the coming months.

Using Livescribe in fieldwork

Livescribe pen and paper (Source)

Livescribe is an interactive Smartpen which allows you to take notes and record audio at the same time.

For a full demonstration, see the video below.






The Livescribe 8Gb Pulse is the most recent release of this Smartpen and costs around £160.


The pen makes use of special paper which can be purchased in notebooks for approximately £20 for 4 notebooks, not too much more than a standard notebook.

The benefits of using Livescribe in fieldwork are particularly apparent when interviewing.  Data can be quickly analysed and audio can be rapidly replayed in the field, which allows students to synthesise the data and identify areas which may require more data collection.

Upon loading the text and audio into the desktop version of Livescribe, the handwritten text is searchable. 

We expect this to be a key tool for enhancing fieldwork accessibility for students with additional needs.

We will be trialling the pen with a group of students in the next week or two who are visiting New York as part of their human geography programme, so check back for a update later this month.

Geo-tagging for human geography

We recently trialled some geo-tagging software with a group of students on a fieldtrip to Devon. We suggested the idea, told them to download Flickr (free app) for their (personally-owned) iPhone and let them run with applying the idea to their project which was centred around the impact of second homes in the local area.

To promote inclusivity and roll this idea out further we have trialled some other software which reduces the dependence on smart phones.

We hope to publish our results and methodology for this resource in the near future.

Field Work: DerryGonnelly October 2010

Our first meeting took place in Derrygonnelly, Northern Ireland.  Julian Park, Derek France and Katharine Welsh joined Brian Whalley and the second year cohort of Geography students from Queen's University Belfast. 

We enjoyed a pleasant weekend at the Field Studies Council in Derrygonnely, a great location to host our first meeting.  Brian distributed a student-centred questionnaires amongst ~ 70 students about the software and hardware that they use at present for their learning in general (not specific to the fieldwork).

Field Centre accomodation in Derrygonnely.

We joined Brian's fieldtrip on the Saturday and enjoyed much of the local landscape whilst gaining an insight to how students interact on fieldwork.This part of the trip was a 'Cook's Tour' style activity to orientate students before moving on to the 'Problem Solving' later in the day.

Lough Erne, the small islands in the centre are thought to be drumlins.

Looking across Lough Erne towards the Atlantic Ocean which can be seen on the horizon on the left of the photograph

The group moved on to Mullaghmore in County Sligo (Republic of Ireland) to investigate the sand dunes and take some GPS measurements of beach profiles to contrast the work they had carried out in the morning along the river.

Looking over to Mullaghmore.

We then stopped at Bundoran, a popular surfing spot to look at the diamicts or "boulder clay" which mysteriously lacked boulders. A possible dissertation project?

 

A beautiful Autumn day, sunny and not too cold 
- a perfect example of typical Geography fieldtrip weather!

On Sunday, Julian Park and Katharine Welsh spoke to some of these students and demonstrated how we might use netbooks and GIS in the field.  The students were interested in the project and  extremely keen to use cutting edge technology (iPads and iPhones) in the field.