Video annotation software application for thorough collaborative assessment of and feedback on microteaching lessons in geography education

This article discusses the process and findings of a study in which video annotation (VideoANT) and a learning management system (LMS) were implemented together in the microteaching lessons of fourth-year geography student teachers. The aim was to ensure adequate assessment of and feedback for each student, since these aspects are, in general, a shortcoming of micro-lesson facilitation. VideoANT is an online environment synchronizing web-based video application with timeline-based text annotations, and it was imported into and managed in the university's LMS called eFundi. The web videos of the geography students' micro-lessons on VideoANT were made accessible by the lecturer according to a rotational time schedule managed in eFundi. This enabled students to assess fellow students' micro-lessons in a collaborative blended learning environment and to receive feedback on their own lessons. Qualitative as well as quantitative data were collected, and the results indicate that geography student teachers held positive views of these technology applications for geography microteaching in particular and for their teaching training in general.     

Experiential learning through integrated project work: an example from soil science

Abstract

The planning, implementation and evaluation of an integrated soil science project are examined. The project aimed to develop a wide range of student‐centred approaches to learning, whilst promoting the development of a variety of transferable skills and personal qualities. The four project components (fieldwork, laboratory analysis, data interpretation and preparation of a written report) ran in sequence. Only the written report was formally assessed although potential developments of this system were considered. The project was implemented in the light of Kolb's cyclical model of experiential learning, and student evaluation was achieved through questionnaire analysis and group discussion.     

Learning Styles in Relation to Academic Performance in Middle School Mathematics

Research was conducted with middle‐school Kuwaiti children to assess the effectiveness of student learning styles in predicting students' academic performance in Mathematics. A group of middle school students who had received first quarter grades and enrolled in an after‐school tutoring program were studied, with half of the students in a traditional tutoring program and the other half in a Markova learning style‐tutoring program. Results show that the students in the experimental group (mean = 45.91), whose learning styles were accommodated for, performed better than the students in the control group who studied using the traditional method (mean = 43.80) of teaching. Gender, type of school attended, and area in which the students lived were all analyzed within the experimental group. The experimental group results show that the highest‐grade improvement in Mathematics was found to be predominately male students attending private institutions, and living in the urban areas of Kuwait. Students learn in a variety of ways, and their ability to attain this information also varies. A student's capacity to learn is impacted by the teacher's style of conveying information. Unfortunately, little attention has been given to how children think (Markova, 1992). Often, it is assumed that students' minds operate in the same way as the teacher's does. So much of student failure in school comes directly out of the larger failure to stimulate all those areas in the children's brains, stimulation which could open up their minds in so many ways (Markova, 1992). Student's academic performance is a matter of concern to educators, parents, and students themselves. The ways in which an individual characteristically acquires, retains, and retrieves information are collectively referred to as his or her learning style (Felder and Henriques, 1995). Unfortunately, the manner in which children acquire the information to perform well academically is too often ignored. Considerable research has examined the relationship between students' learning styles and their academic performance (Witkin, 1973; Gregorc, 1979; Claxton and Murrell, 1987; Brunner and Majewski, 1990; Schroeder, 1993; Klavas, 1993). These studies have consistently found that when learning styles were considered in the teaching process, academic performance increased. Schroeder states that accommodating the variations in learning styles could improve curricula and the teaching process (1993). The results of a study by Dunn et al. (1995) suggested that students whose learning styles are accommodated would be expected to achieve 75% of a standard deviation higher than students for whose learning style had not been accommodated. Many researchers have reported that students often classified as poor achievers, learning disabled, at‐risk youth, or dropouts were able to improve their academic performance when instruction was redesigned to respond to their particular learning style preferences (Stone, 1992; Perrin, 1990; Elliot, 1991; Andrews, 1990). Children suffer deeply when their natural way of thinking, of absorbing and processing information, of creating and expressing is criticized, mocked, or ignored (Markova, 1992). However, learning efficiently empowers children to gain confidence since many believe they have learned a skill only after they can perform it easily. Markova acknowledges that many approaches to understanding individual differences include something about the fact that most of us have one sense we are most comfortable using in the learning process. Understanding these patterns of processing information is crucial to finding the most effective ways to educate our children. Markova has identified six patterns of personal thinking, which are different combinations of the perceptual kinesthetic (K), auditory (A), and visual (V) channels. He posits that information is first received by the conscious mind, sorted by the unconscious mind and finally integrated by the subconscious mind (Markova, 1992). The six different combinations (KAV, KVA, AVK, AKV, VKA, and VAK) are referred to as personal thinking patterns and determine the most comfortable and effective way for each learner to learn.     

Physical Geography and the Geographic Thought Course

The positioning of residential fieldwork early in students' higher education is an established way of attempting to build and engage them in a community of learning. In the study reported here, the benefits of such early residential fieldwork were investigated using Krausse and Coates's seven scales of engagement. These scales consider a number of key indicators – specifically transition, academic, beyond-class, peer, staff–student, online and intellectual engagement. Data on these scales were collected via questionnaires completed by groups of students who did and did not attend such a residential fieldwork event, both before and after the event. A Wilcoxon test of these data showed significant increases in peer and student–staff engagement in the post-fieldwork group only. A Kruskal–Wallis analysis provides evidence that students who had been on residential fieldwork became more involved in a community of learning with both their peers and virtual communities than those who had not. These results support the hypothesis that early residential fieldwork is an effective way of engaging students new to higher education in a community of learning.     

Cui bono? On the relative merits of technology-enhanced learning and teaching in higher education

This article provides evidence from a 4-year longitudinal study on the comparative use of illustrative video podcasts during Economic Geography lectures vis-à-vis traditional educational methods in order to guide pedagogic practice and future research on the relative merits of technology-enhanced learning in higher education. Key benefits derived from the introduction of video podcasts identified in this study included positive affective and cognitive attitudes of students towards educational technologies, increased teacher satisfaction and improved teaching evaluations. Key challenges included negative impact of video podcasts on student behaviour (attendance and broader engagement), and uncertain impact on learning performance (exam scores). The study highlights the benefit of sequencing the improvements to the learning/teaching process, starting with a module review and revised content, before proceeding towards the integration of learning technologies into the content delivery. More broadly, the paper calls for pedagogy to remain vigilant, critically reflecting on the intricate relationship between educational technologies, teaching content, and the wider socio-political context.     

Does digital video enhance student learning in field-based experiments and develop graduate attributes beyond the classroom?

The connection between fieldwork and development of graduate attributes is explored in this paper. Digital technologies present opportunities to potentially enhance the learning experience of students undertaking fieldwork, and develop core digital attributes and competencies required by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and employers. This paper reports the success of adopting digital video capture in technology-rich field experiments that form part of final year undergraduate courses in Physical Geography at an HEI in New Zealand. Student perceptions were obtained via a range of approaches. Results suggest that deployment of digital video reinforces student learning and connects with core graduate attributes.     

Video Documentaries in the Assessment of Human Geography Field Courses

This paper critically reviews the use of video documentaries in the assessment of human geography field courses. It aims to contribute to recent debates about the role of visual methods for developing active and deep learning in student-centred teaching. Based on four days of group work in Crete, 30 third-year students produced individual 10-minute video documentaries on ‘Mediterranean Rural Spaces’. Analysing students' experiences of video production highlights the need for innovative teaching and assessment methods and the importance of creating independent and creative students equipped with a broad set of skills for an increasingly flexible job market.     

Student Perceptions of Geography and Environmental Science Fieldwork in the Light of Restricted Access to the Field,Caused by Foot and Mouth Disease in the UK in 2001

Internationally, fieldwork is generally seen as intrinsic to the very nature of geographical education. However, objective experimentation comparing student learning experiences with and without fieldwork is rare. During 2001 in the UK, fieldwork was withdrawn from many university degree programmes as Foot and Mouth Disease led to restrictions on access to the countryside. This restriction provided an unexpected opportunity to assess student perceptions of fieldwork in the light of its absence and to review those alternative learning strategies which were put in its place (where appropriate). To this end, nominal group technique (NGT) was applied to five groups of students from five separate UK universities to obtain information on the groups' perceptions of the value of fieldwork. NGT elicited almost 300 responses from 33 final-year students representing a high level of group consensus on the issues involved. Rationalisation of responses identified 12 categories, which reflect and amplify key educational objectives addressed by fieldwork in geography and environmental sciences from existing theoretical literature. Results demonstrate that student perception of fieldwork (based on previous university-level field experiences) is overwhelmingly positive. The groups identified the experience of geographical reality, developing subject knowledge, acquiring technical, transferable and holistic skills, and working with peers and lecturers as being the most important perceived benefits of fieldwork. Negative impacts of fieldwork included high levels of time consumption. Using a systematic and objective methodology, these results confirm, in a novel rigorous multi-institutional approach, the conception of geography and environmental science fieldwork as being of significant value for the overall student learning experience.     

Please mind the gap: students' perspectives of the transition in academic skills between A-level and degree-level geography

This paper explores first-year undergraduates' perceptions of the transition from studying geography at pre-university level to studying for a degree. This move is the largest step students make in their education, and the debate about it in the UK has been reignited due to the government's planned changes to A-level geography. However, missing from most of this debate is an appreciation of the way in which geography students themselves perceive their transition to university. This paper begins to rectify this absence. Using student insights, we show that their main concern is acquiring the higher level skills required for university learning.     

Group Project Work and Student-centred Active Learning: two different experiences

This article compares two experiences of group-based student projects in a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) degree and in Geography degree modules. The two authors adopted group projects from similar motivations, and used available materials to guide them through this process. Subsequently, they have come to reflect on the experience and to examine the theoretical dimensions of such an approach in more detail. There seems to be a discrepancy between the literature, which emphasises a growing interest in the socio-educational value of group-based and active learning, and the concerns voiced by both students and academics regarding the practical implications of such approaches. Analysis of grades and questionnaires tends to support the literature and belie the criticisms, which the authors see as 'myths', possibly motivated by a defensive attitude to the whole learning process. The conclusions are that, if care is not taken in the design and execution of such projects, then the problems that may ensue can reinforce the 'myths'. However, if carefully and appropriately designed and managed, team-based learning is a valuable experience.     

The Epistemological Challenge of Higher Education Student Volunteering: “Reproductive” or “Deconstructive” Volunteering?

Abstract: This paper addresses student volunteering as an important socio‐cultural trend which is generally taken for granted and un‐interrogated. We explore tensions inherent in the practice and articulation of higher education student volunteering, via biographical narratives of contrasting student volunteers and employ Rose's (1993, Feminism and Geography: The Limits of Geographical Knowledge, University of Minnesota Press) theory of “paradoxical space” to unpick and understand these narratives, as this has proven a generative approach to re‐conceptualising students’ engagement with universities and communities. Building on this theoretical approach, we propose a new conceptual framework to analyse students’ learning and understanding of social justice through volunteering. This framework contrasts reproductive altruism, or volunteering which reproduces social inequalities, with a deconstructive form that provides students with resources to recognise and challenge power relations and inequality in society.     

Augmenting the landscape scene: students as participatory evaluators of mobile geospatial technologies

This paper provides a two-phase study to compare alternative techniques for augmenting landscape scenes on geography fieldtrips. The techniques were: a pre-prepared acetate overlay; a custom-designed mobile field guide; a locative media app on a smartphone; a virtual globe on a tablet PC; a head-mounted virtual reality display, and a geo-wand style mobile app. In one field exercise the first five techniques were compared through analysis of interviews and student video diaries, combined with direct observation. This identified a particular challenge of how to direct user attention correctly to relevant information in the field of view. To explore this issue in more detail, a second field exercise deployed “Zapp”, a bespoke geo-wand-style app capable of retrieving information about distant landscape features. This was evaluated using first-person video and spatial logging of in-field interactions. This paper reflects upon the relative merits of these approaches and highlights particular challenges of using technology to mimic a human field guide in pointing out specific aspects of the landscape scene. We also explore the role of students acting as design informants and research co-participants, which can be mutually beneficial in promoting a critical appreciation of the role of technology to support learning about the landscape.     

Last out — First in

I first met Sir Granville Beynon as a first year undergraduate student at the University College of Swansea in 1953. I later joined his research group and was his postgraduate student from 1956–1959. This was a particularly exciting time in Sir Granville's career; he was heavily involved in the International Geophysical Year, 1957–1958, was appointed to the Chair of Physics in Aberystwyth (1958) and awarded the CBE (1959). I was the last student to complete a Ph.D. in Ionospheric Physics at Swansea and the first postdoctoral research assistant to be appointed in the new group formed at Aberystwyth. I have very fond memories of this period during which I received an excellent training in ionospheric physics and radio propagation.     

Assessing the Use of Real-time DataStreme Weather Data in an Introductory Physical Geography Course

The online data from the American Meteorological Society's DataStreme course have been used successfully in a traditional undergraduate college weather and climate class. DataStreme was designed to train K-12 teachers to transform weather data into exciting learning experiences. Adaptation of these materials so that some of this excitement could be infused in a traditional college setting was the goal of this pedagogical experiment. These data and associated learning materials have been adapted specifically for use in undergraduate weather and climate courses and are now being made available by AMS as Online Weather Studies. This paper describes and assesses the use of online data. The assessment involved a comparison of student self-reports of factual knowledge mastery, skills acquisition and satisfaction with the methods used in two sections of the same course, one offered with the real-time weather data and one without.     

Classroom Active Learning Complemented by an Online Discussion Forum to Teach Sustainability

This paper identifies some of the pedagogical benefits of an active learning course delivery complemented by an online discussion forum to teach sustainability by evaluating the case of a geography master's course. The potential benefits and some challenges of an active learning course delivery to teach sustainability in geography and related disciplines are considered. This case study further supports past research that suggests e-learning as a complement to the classroom (1) increases the opportunities for student participation; and (2) enhances the participation of students who may feel more inhibited to engage in discussions in a traditional classroom setting.     

Building a GIScience Community in Cyberspace: reflections on GIScOnline

In this paper, distance learning is defined not as the physical separation of students from a tutor but by the need to facilitate group learning, interaction and a sense of community amongst course participants. A critical review of an established distance-learning course is made reflecting on the team's experiences of building a learning community in cyberspace. The successes and failures are recorded, as are the barriers to engendering a sense of kinship on the course. A survey of students' own experiences with and feeling towards various communication technologies is also presented.     

Doing Independent Overseas Fieldwork 1: Practicalities and pitfalls

This article explores issues of scalability and sustainability in distance learning. The authors kept detailed records of time they spent teaching a course in geographic information science via the World Wide Web over a six-month period, during which class sizes averaged 49 students. The authors also surveyed students' satisfaction with the distance learning course through ratings and open-ended questions. Findings are compared with similar data collected a year earlier, when class sizes associated with the same distance learning course averaged 18 students. In response to the increase in average class size by a factor of 2.7, the authors' course-related workloads increased by a factor of about 2.5 (from 47.5 hours to 116.7 hours total). Analyses of student feedback suggest that student satisfaction with the course was high overall and suffered no significant decline as a result of increased instructional efficiency.     

Productive tensions—engaging geography students in participatory action research with communities

This study discusses the benefits and challenges of an undergraduate module on participatory geographies, involving students in co-producing research with community partners. The module challenges the knowledge production model predominant in Geography curricula. We argue that it develops students' skills and understanding through engaging them intellectually, socially and emotionally outside the university. As a student, two community partners and a professor, we offer our perspectives on the opportunities and conflicts that arose. We do not gloss over tensions in achieving the module's diverse aims, but suggest that these are productive for teaching, learning, research and the needs of community organizations.     

Integrating Podcast Technology Effectively into Student Learning: A Reflexive Examination

This paper examines undergraduate student perceptions of the learning utility of video podcasts. The perceived and actual effectiveness of the technology was assessed by written questionnaire, focus groups and assessment results. The podcasts were perceived as effective in supporting learning, largely by offering a flexible and visual learning experience. They were also viewed as a useful resource for revision and assessment, stimulating factual recall. There were no significant differences, however, between examination grades from cohorts prior to and post-adoption of podcasts. There is a need to unite the technology with reflective discussion and critical application in a social constructivist framework.     

Negotiating time and space on a study abroad program in South India

This paper investigates the context of student learning in study abroad programs, drawing on ethnographic research on a semester long study abroad program in South India. We show how students use multiple constructions of time and space as a framework for understanding cultural differences and for understanding what it means for them to “experience” India. We argue that students' conceptualization of space and time in the study abroad location also impacts what kinds of activities they consider to count as valuable forms of learning. Students' ideas about India shape their expectations of what the pace, workload, and activities of the study abroad program in India should entail. Their concepts of Indian time and space lead them to privilege “experience”-based learning over classroom-based or scholarship-based learning. In conclusion, we show how these insights have implications for study abroad pedagogy. Here, we suggest that student learning that is entirely based on “experience” outside the classroom is inherently limited and that students need to contextualize their field-based learning experiences with insights from critical, historical and social science research.