MApping: integrating mobile technology into geography fieldwork learning and teaching

MApping: integrating mobile technology into geography fieldwork learning and teaching Who is your project team? Naomi Holmes and Adel Gordon How much funding did you receive? £3,000 What is your project: Using mobile technologies in geography field work learning and teaching. The focus of the project was to use an iPad mini to collect data for a Habitat Survey assignment based at Delapre, Northampton. Do you have any outcomes you can report? There was successful use of the iPad mini in ENV2123 for the Habitat Survey assignment. Students used the apps Fieldtrip GB and Skitch to collect data in the field. Also used in other modules to facilitate learning including: Producing group presentations on ‘Citizen Science’ Making iMovie trailers on ‘Conservation Biogeography’ Working in small groups to research and present a research proposal Various apps were used by the students and Apple TV was used to allow the students to present their work immediately in class. Students engaged well with the technology. They enjoyed the sessions and welcomed the opportunity to use creative learning techniques.

Immersive technology devices and field work: Oculus Rift

Who is your project team? Scott Turner and Naomi Holmes, School of Science and Technology, Adel Gordon, Learning Technology- all University of Northampton

How much funding did you receive? £1,200 Poster available at: http://slidesha.re/1kvvUuX or http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1054675 What is your project? The aim was to investigate the potential use and the student experiences of using virtual reality (Oculus Rift) devices for field trips. Virtual reality field trips have been used by a number of HE institutions for a number of reasons: To give students the opportunity to prepare for a ‘real-life’ field trip (risk assessments, kit selection, project preparation etc) To allow students to reflect on a recent field trip To provide an additional field trip experience without incurring extra costs for the student or institution To improve accessibility to field work experiences To allow distance learning students to participate in field work Computer-based (virtual reality) field trips have in the past been perceived negatively by students, often due to a poor representation of reality. Currently these field trips take place in 3D environments on a 2D computer screen. There has been an emphasis on enhancing the realism of these virtual field trips. The recent release of Oculus Rift, a relatively low-cost virtual-reality headset which tracks the user’s head movements, allowing users to ‘walk through’ a virtual landscape immersively, offers an opportunity to further improve the virtual reality field trip experience. Thirteen Environmental and Geographical Sciences student volunteers tested the Oculus Rift. The students used the Oculus Tuscany Demo software to work around a landscape, spending between 10 and 30 minutes in the landscape. No students had used an Oculus Rift previously. After using the devices they fed back through a questionnaire their views on its use from a learner's perspective. Do you have any outcomes you can report? From the questionnaires: The students all saw the virtual reality as beneficial only if used alongside or in addition to actual field trip experiences Motion sickness was a common problem of using the devices and so limits the time it can be used Overall the response was positive for the testers Other applications such as studying plant structure, looking at past environments and cell structure were suggested by the students The work was been disseminated. The results were discussed and participants had a chance to try the Oculus Rifts in a workshop at the recent Northampton Learning and Teaching Conference - Northampton 2018: Planning, Designing and Delivering Student Success. For more details contact: scott.turner@northampton.ac.uk

Visualising the field - VR and mobile devices

A recent workshop presented by Scott Turner, Naomi Holmes, Adel Gordon and Janet Jackson at Northampton Learning and Teaching Conference 2014- Northampton 2018: Planning, Designing and Delivering Student Success gave participants an opportunity to 'play with' some of the computing technologies they have been investigating as tools for Environmental and Geography Students.

Visualising the field from Scott Turner

Learning Across Contexts

A recent paper presented by  Naomi Holmes and Adel Gordon at  Northampton Learning and Teaching Conference 2014- Northampton 2018: Planning, Designing and Delivering Student Success discussed some of the technologies they have been investigating as tools for Environmental and Geography Students.

Virtual Reality field trips

An ongoing project, which is a collaboration between the Dr Naomi Holmes (Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Northampton)  Dr Scott Turner (Department of Computing and Immersive Technologies, University of Northampton) and Adel Gordon (Learning Technology Team, University of Northampton)

Virtual field trips are not a new idea, but with the release of the developer version of the Oculus Rift providing a more affordable immersive/virtual reality equipment, could virtual field trips become immersive virtual field trips at reasonable cost? Is this a good idea?


The Oculus Rift (http://www.oculusvr.com/), a device whose popularity with gamers is increasing, is under investigation of tool for preparing for field trips. The demo of a house and gardens in Tuscany that comes with the Oculus Rift (available through the Oculus Rift developer centre https://developer.oculusvr.com/) is being used as the basis of the test. 

Students come in, put the headset on, after an initial orientation, walk around the house, and gardens, later fill in a questionnaire on the experience, as well as talking to the two investigators. Part of the procedure is the students are told they can stop at any time and restart if they want at any time during the session.

The research questions revolve around
- Do students like the tool?
- Do students think this tool could be used for:
   - preparation before a field trip to try out ideas.
   - a way of describing a trip when they come back.
   - a replacement for field trips.
- What are the limitations of the approach?
- Where else could it be used, if anywhere?
- Is there some procedures that need to be put in place to enable effective use of these?



Preliminary results will be released in the near future.

Funding for this work has come from the University of Northampton's Innovation Fund.




Related Links:

Update from the Innovation Fund Panel

Update from the Innovation Fund Panel

Taken from the Raising the Bar Newsletter

The Innovation Fund Panel, comprising Deborah Mattock as Chair, Angie Bartoli (Health), Katie Jones (Institute of Health and Wellbeing), Olinga Taeed (NBS) and Terry Tudor (Science and Technology) met for the first time last week and the funding of two projects was agreed.   These were: • MApping: integrating mobile technology into geography fieldwork learning and teaching (lead: Naomi Holmes); • To use immersive technology devices to prepare for field work (lead: Scott Turner). Congratulations to Naomi and Scott on being the first recipients of the Fund. The Panel received a wide range of project proposals some of which have been deferred for consideration at a later meeting.  In considering the bids, the Panel was particularly pleased to receive bids from individuals or groups who demonstrated collaborative working, either between Schools, between subject areas within Schools, or between Schools and Professional Services.  Projects which demonstrated innovation, either through the use of technology or a different way of working, were also particularly welcomed.  The next meeting of the Panel will be taking place on Thursday 14 November and staff are invited to submit their bids to innovationfund@northampton.ac.uk by Wednesday 6 November 2013.