Improving Student Learning During Travel Time on Field Trips Using an Innovative, Portable Audio/video System

Journal of Geoscience Education, Mar 2006 by Elkins, Joe T, Elkins, Nichole M L

Overall, the device seemed to facilitate a higher incidence of instructor/student interaction while traveling through terrains during daylight hours. Through the use of videos and PowerPoint presentations, students seemed more interested in field stops, were alert and prepared when asked questions at field stops, and were quicker getting in and out the vans at field stops.

Student answers on exam questions relating to material covered that also had an instructional component through the portable audio/visual system were more articulate and robust regarding the use of examples and student-generated illustration to explain geologic concepts. Presumably, this outcome was as a result of seeing high production value videos, graphics and animations of geologic processes. Casual conversations regarding the academic agenda in camp (in non-academic settings between instructors and students such as the dinner line, around the bathhouses, and entering and existing museums) also seemed to more frequently pertain to the subject of study presented in the vans during days when the device was used more often.

As instructors who had experience setting up the device and using it as the platform to deliver introductory course materials, we offer the following comments to field instructors who would potentially develop their own similar systems:

A. Because the system was developed with existing off-the-shelf consumer electronic components that were not individually designed for this application, the operator has to contend with several connecting cables, power cords, and the devices themselves which rest either in the operator's lap or in a pile on the floorboard between the front seats.

B. Set-up and disassembly times need to be planned. Connecting the various devices to one-another as well as to their power sources, and checking the system to insure that the desired images are appearing on the LCD screen takes approximately ten minutes and should be a considered when planning the day's itinerary.

C. Many universities and schools are reducing the maximum number of passengers in institution-owned 15-passenger vans to 10 occupants due to the liability associated with these vehicles. Class size for many field camps ranges from 18-26 students (Syracuse University Library, 2004). Due to institutional limitations on vehicle occupancy, class size often requires the use of multiple vehicles. Because only one of our vans had the system assembled in it, students had to move from one vehicle to another in order for all the students to hear the presentations or watch the videos.

The need to rotate the students into the vehicle with the audio/video system poses the following considerations:

A. It causes the caravan to stop more often, which reduces field time for that day's itinerary.

B. There must be at least the same number of hours between the departure point and the destination as there are vehicles in the caravan in order for each van-load of students to receive the introduction to the field stop (each lesson or video is on average one hour long). This limits the use of the system to days on the itinerary when there are long drives.