Learning and Teaching Development Fund Projects: 2010
- Ethnic identities and positioning 'in the field': identifying key issues for the GEES subjects.
- Teaching geographic visualisation- evaluating student understandings of visualising geographic knowledge.
- Blended teaching in a 3D world.
- Interdisciplinary learning in ESD at taught postgraduate level: research-informed capacity building for curriculum development.
- Virtual Globe Tours for Earth Science and Geography education.
- Mobile decision-making in the Cloud (MobiDiC).
Ethnic identities and positioning 'in the field': identifying key issues for the GEES subjects.
Annie Hughes, School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, Kingston University
Fieldwork has long been a central pillar of geographical learning and teaching. Recent work has begun to problematise the uncritical relationship between experience and learning in the field, arguing that experience of the 'real world' is never unmediated, straightforward and transparent (Cook, 2000, May, 1999, Nairn, 2005). This study will explore the ways in which ethnic identities shape and mediate the positioning of undergraduate students with regard to fieldwork. This is significant given that 17% of all undergraduates studying at UK Higher Education Institutions (2007/08) are from ethnic minority backgrounds (HESA, 2010). This project will focus on the attitudes to and experiences of level one students attending two UK based field trips run by the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment at Kingston University. The first of these trips is to the Isle of Wight and the second to South Wales. Significantly both of these trips are to rural destinations in the UK. Much has been written about the links between ethnicity and rurality in Britain and beyond (Agyeman and Spooner, 1997; Neal, 2002, Neal and Agyeman, 2006). This work has explored the relationship between the so-called racialisation of the countryside and the absence of ethnic minorities in rural areas. It has also been central in opening up debates about racism in the countryside (Askins, 2009). This project will examine how students from different ethnic backgrounds understand and experience rural field destinations and the implications of this for their learning experience. This research has implications for all GEES departments in terms of their decisions about fieldwork and field destinations with regard to the increasing ethnic diversity of our students.
Teaching geographic visualisation- evaluating student understandings of visualising geographic knowledge.
Michael Jeffries, School of Applied Science, Northumbria University
In light of recent debates about the visual nature of geography, visualities have become increasingly important for interpreting how people understand the world. The development of visual methodologies has extended the range of approaches available to geographers. Paralleling these developments, advancements in information technology, particularly web 2.0 tools, have enabled neo- and 'professional' geographers alike to explore a range of geographies in visual ways that extend the reach of the discipline into areas of art and graphic design, as well as influencing established sub-disciplines such as cartography and GIS. This work raises important questions not just about how we 'do' geography and how we engage audiences, but also how we teach and assess these new approaches on undergraduate degree programmes.
While work has examined visual methodologies as an interpretative approach, this research seeks to better understand how students can use different techniques to visualise geographic knowledges themselves. This project, therefore, seeks to evaluate students' understanding of visualisation techniques and the usefulness of different teaching approaches to help students understandthe complex issues involved in visual representation. This will be done by evaluating the delivery of a visualisation assignment on a second year undergraduate module about globalisation. The research will use participatory techniques (workshops, focus groups, semi-structured interviews) to examine student engagement with the process of visualising geographical knowledge. The outcomes of the project will inform the increasing use of visualisation throughout the discipline.
Blended teaching in a 3D world.
Douglas Paton, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds
Visualising and understanding concepts in 3D/4D is an essential skill in the Earth and Environmental sciences that students often find difficult to grasp using traditional techniques. We will develop blended learning material that uses modern technology to address this and evaluate whether these techniques really do enhance student learning.
We plan to develop, assess and disseminate resources to support student learning of 3D concepts via visualisation technology. To achieve this we will; evaluate the specific needs and capabilities of students; develop resources that meet these needs and enhance and improve student understanding in 3D; unlock the full potential of 3D visualisation to L & T across different settings; and disseminate our findings and outputs via open access web and in hosting the 2011 GEES conference.
The installation of the 3D visualisation facility in the new School of Earth and Environment (SEE) building at the University of Leeds provides a unique opportunity to expand the learning and teaching experience of our students. The full potential of this facility can only be realised by an integrated approach where material developed for the 3D seminar room is included within a wider blended learning environment. A pilot project, funded by the faculty, is underway to deliver a suite of 3D visualisation material. However, there is no scope within it for the funding of research into the potential uses of the 3D visualisation suite and 3D material in general in education, nor of the assessment of whether it really does enhance the student learning experience.
Interdisciplinary learning in ESD at taught postgraduate level: research-informed capacity building for curriculum development
Lindsey McEwen, Department of Natural and Social Sciences, University of Gloucestershire
This project researches student and staff experiences of interdisciplinary learning in ESD at taught postgraduate level to develop a strong evidence base that can inform and build interdisciplinary postgraduate curriculum development. It builds on initial scoping in McEwen et al. (2009), an HE Academy funded report on Masters’ student experiences of interdisciplinary learning. The proposed project explores what students bring from their disciplinary homes to ID co-learning environments and how these students perceive and approach different IDL environments and activities including assessment. It investigates what students and staff perceive as the kinds of learning that occur in IDL environments for ESD and the settings where IDL can be third order or transformative. It reflects on stakeholder perceptions of different learning outcomes/ graduate attributes that can be achieved through successful IDL in ESD. A key outcome is the development of a pair of integrated short guides for students and staff in the development of, and participation in, effective ID co-L environments for ESD. The research will inform curriculum development initiatives with the partnership institutions and across the GEES disciplines. It will also provide a platform for interdisciplinary engagement in ESD developments at taught postgraduate level across a wide range of discipline boundaries, with GEES disciplines acting as a key hub for discussion around good and innovative practice.
Virtual Globe Tours for Earth Science and Geography education.
Richard Treves, School of Geography, University of Southampton
Our collective experience of teaching undergraduate students in the GEES topic areas is that students often have difficulty understanding the scale and location of different maps they are studying. This is a particular problem when they are required to cognitively link a series of local and regional scale maps. A new virtual globe feature: Google Earth tours (hereafter GETs) offers a potential solution to this problem. Within a GET a number of maps can be presented and virtual flight segments used to animate the changes in viewpoint from map to map. Because changes in scale and location are seen rather than inferred by the student these changes are communicated more effectively. Educators can easily take advantage of this functionality because GETs are relatively easy to develop and Google Earth is available for free. We propose to conduct user tests to discover the best way to design the Virtual Flight Segments (hereafter VFSs). For example, we believe speed is a key characteristic because a VFS that is too fast will disorient the user, whereas one that is too slow will lose their attention. The findings of the user tests will apply not just to Google Earth but all Virtual Globes with Tour functionality and will be incorporated as best practice in a video tutorial. The tutorial will be used in an undergraduate course in the school of Geography and released to on the web for other GEES institutes to use. The test results will also be published as a peer reviewed paper and presented at a Google Earth education conference.
Mobile Decision-making in the Cloud (MobiDiC).
Kenneth Field, School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, Kingston University
Developments in mobile and broadband wireless technologies, Web 2.0, and the decreasing cost of access to those technologies, are opening up opportunities to enhance fieldwork in the GEES disciplines. The MobiDiC project will build upon current research in the Centre for GIS at Kingston University to explore ways of using rich Web 2.0 applications as a mechanism to support a range of learning experiences. Specifically the project will integrate and develop outcomes from previous projects to focus upon issues of interaction, reflection and feedback for students undertaking fieldwork.
MobiDiC will explore ways of using students' personal technologies and social networking as a fieldwork tool to enhance the learning experience. Content and context rich map-mashups will be built that will take live feeds of information from social network clients (such as Twitter) to create an online community focussed on specific tasks. Students working in remote and dispersed group situations will be able to collaborate in real-time using the mashup, via the social networking client, to develop and explore common frameworks of understanding. Through uploading pictures, video and audio and sharing experiences, questions and observations, students will create a cloud-based community to support the fieldwork-based task. The map will provide not only a framework for online collaboration and discussion but a tool to locate and follow student work in the outdoors. This will bring benefits to ensure student fieldwork is enhanced not only thematically, but through an explicit association with the spatial dimensions central to the task.