Can classroom response systems (CRS) be deployed outside to aid the teaching of fieldwork?
Rod Cullen, Mark Langan, Robin Sen
Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
In bioscience and earth science subjects fieldwork can provide an interactive, rich and challenging learning environment in which students gain experience of many practical skills that will be vital to them as graduates. However, they can be logistically difficult to manage and tutors can find themselves too busy organising the fieldwork activities to engage deeply with students, test their understanding and provide meaningful feedback.The use of classroom response systems (CRS) is increasing in UK Higher Education. With recent developments in CRS it is now possible to text complete sentences and numerical responses in addition to the more usual selection of options from multiple choice questions. Installing CRS software on a laptop means that it is possible to use it outside of the traditional classroom setting. In this workshop we will explore the potential of CRS deployment (outside of the classroom) to see if the strengths that are often attributed to their use (e.g. increased interaction with learning tasks, ability to illicit responses from a whole class and consequently to provide rapid feedback) might allow us to enhance learning and the student experience on fieldtrips and/or in practical classes. As far as we are aware a CRS has not been deployed in this way before.Workshop formatClassroom (15 minutes)Short presentation introducing the session and the technology‘Mini field trip’ (45 minutes)Participants will be taken outdoors on a mini-field trip (simulated indoors if poor weather) and participate in a set of field based activities that demonstrate how a CRS might be deployed in the field to: gain useful and immediate feedback about students’ basic knowledge of a subject; demonstrate some of the main problems of field data collection techniques; encourage students to reflect on their understanding of the limitations of the field techniques and data collection methods/methodologies; and, link field activities to student’s prior learning.Classroom (30 minutes)We will then move indoors and use the mini-field trip activities and the data collected with the CRS to facilitate discussion activities to further explore the potential of this technology for field work, practical classes and in teaching in general.no references included