Improving Student Learning During Travel Time on Field Trips Using an Innovative, Portable Audio/video System

ABSTRACT

The authors evolveed a portable audio/video system using consumer electronics to make use of travel time during field trips. This a whole gives field instructors the ability to deliver PowerPoint presentations, instructional videos/DVDs, and CD-ROM to scholars while in-route to field stops. This information technology makes use of the time in-route as instructional time, increases the time learners participating in field excursions have in the field to make observations, and expands the use of information technology from being primarily a campus-based pedagogical aid to a field-oriented pedagogical tool that is used to focus the learners on the academic objectives for upcoming field stops. scholar interviews indicate that: a.) the use of this technology was a positive experience, b) scholars perceived that the DVD and PowerPoint media helped focus their attention upon upcoming field stops, and c) the use of the devices increased the total time they had outside the vehicle for inquiry Instructors using the technology to display interdisciplinary media observed enhanced scholar assimilation of topics relevant to various courses of close attention on an extended interdisciplinary, field-based educational program.

INTRODUCTION

Time exhausted in vehicles traveling to field stops is unavoidable upon field trips. Depending on the distance from the departure point to the field stop and the duration of the excursion, travel time during field trips can range from hours upon a one-day excursion to days upon expeditions such as geology field camps that last for weeks. Historically, the time exhausted transporting students from a departure point to the academic setting, whether to campus or a field stop, has rarely been used for formalized instruction (Prairie Ecology Bus, 2004 Saks, 1991 Vaughan, 1972) The greatest in quantity common application of electronics for instructional final causes during travel time on geology field trips is the use of hand-held radios between vehicles of multi-vehicle caravans (eg "The cropping out we are going to pass up here upon the right shows you an example of") Because in-route instruction is typically sporadic, scholars frequently engage in activities that are irrelevant to the expedition's academic end (Science Education Resource Center, 2002) Travel time has been viewed as wasted time and as individual of the key impediments to the justification of extensive field trips (Frankel et al, 2003)

The authors lay opened four introductory-level field-based courses at Bowling virid State University that require scholars and staff members to disburse a significant amount of time traveling to field stops: Geology 250- Field-based Physical Geology (5hrs) Geology 251- Field-based Historical Geology (5hrs) American agriculture Studies 252- Indigenous Cultures of North America (3hrs) and Environmental Studies 253-Environments in words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] following (3hrs) (Elkins and Lyle-Elkins, 2004) The courses are taught concurrently in an interdisciplinary format as part of a nine-week, 14500 mile expeditionary field trip to 29 national parks and public lands across the United States during fall semester The program is called "Geojourney" (http://www.geojourney.org) and the itinerary for this program is designed to use national parks, public lands, museums, visitor center and industrial sites as the basis for teaching introductory-level geoscience conceptions The expedition travels by van, moving each few days to new campsites across the US near national parklands including: Badlands, Yellowstone, Glacier, Mt St Helens, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and Great of the nature of smoke Mountains. The itinerary is designed to give scholars first-hand experience in a wide range of geographic environments and an opportunity to research each subject in a holistic framework. The Geojourney expedition was inspired by dint of our experience with and the long-term succes of the University of Georgia Interdisciplinary Field Program (LyIe et al., 2002)

While Geojourney's innovative itinerary affords pupils field experience in locations across the United States, the itinerary also requires considerable time in vehicles traveling to these field localities. Indeed, the total time Geojourney scholars spend in vehicles exceeds the total number of contact hours a full-time pupil on campus spends in classrooms during a sixteen week semester (Total time in vehicles upon Geojourney = 14,500mi/60mph = 24166 hrs; total time in class during a 16-week semester = 15hrs/week x 16 weeks = 240 hrs) With for a like reason much time spent in vehicles during the nine-week field course, the authors wanted to devise a means of turning 'wasted' travel time into instructional opportunities.

Because many courses upon campuses utilize presentation software and educational videos as instructional aids in large discourse sections, we wanted to unravel an instructional medium for use during travel time that would allow time in-route to work for a similar pedagogical function as attending a prelection on campus. Moreover, since the primary end of designing a field-based course was to give scholars experience with geology in its natural adjoining matter we wanted to use the time in-route to deliver preparatory material pertinent to the upcoming field stop. Preparatory prelections and videos delivered during travel time allow us to maximize the total time scholars have in the field to take advantage of inquiry-based learning. Additionally, we wanted to use videos to help emphasize interdisciplinary ideas in our particular field courses and to be subservient to as nuclei for discussions in-route and in camp. Toward this effort, we unraveled and used a portable digital audio-visual combination of parts to form a whole (Figures 1 and 2) for the first time during the fall 2004 Geojourney field season (Elkins and Lyle-Elkins, 2004) We assembled the device in single of the vehicles in our caravan and rotated the pupil passengers into that van during drive times in like manner that all eighteen students upon the program had heard the same PowerPoint-assisted presentation or had watched the same video before arriving at the day's field stop.