Mobile Learning in field trips: a case study in Geology

Abstract

Field trips favor learning by improving student observation, discovery, and communication skills, increased understanding of content and expansion of learning possibilities through real experiences. However, during field trips, students and teachers face obstacles that may compromise the results of these educational practices, such as insufficient content or student dispersal. In this sense, mobile technologies have been used to overcome existing difficulties and extend the benefits of field trips by providing tools that expand the resources for student learning. This paper describes a case study conducted in a field class of an undergraduate geology course in which students used mobile technologies to aid in learning about geological mapping. After use in real situations, the seventeen students answered a structured evaluation instrument. The students' responses to the questionnaire were favorable and show the approval of the mobile technologies in field. The SUS score (usability) of 83.4 was obtained for the mobile application tested and 88% of the students stated that a solution made it possible to perform field learning tasks more efficiently. In addition, the positive evaluation of the teacher participating in the study and the finding of effective use of the mobile application by all students indicate that mobile technologies have the potential to become important tools in support of field trips of geology.

Keywords

• Mobile learning, aulas de campo, contexto de aprendizagem e geologia