GEOGRAPHY FIELDWORK USING MOBILE PHONES IN SECONDARY EDUCATION

• Authors: HORKÝ Štěpán
• Year of publication: 2022
• Type: Appeared in Conference without Proceedings
• Description: Enhancing support for fieldwork is m-learning, a teaching method that uses mobile devices and gives students opportunities like learning anytime and anywhere, using applications, and many others (France et al., 2015). Students can use their phones during fieldwork to collect data using applications such as sound-level meters, cameras, GPS, or geotagging apps (Lee, 2020). The importance of using technologies in education is still growing, especially due to the Czech educational system, that points to digitalisation and using technologies (Horký, 2021). I conducted research in order to create a fieldwork using mobile phones and to assess usability of smartphone in geography fieldwork. To fulfill the aim, I created a fieldwork lesson for 18 secondary school pupils. The results indicate that the usability of smartphones in geography fieldwork is highly accepted and that smartphones have huge potential in geography education. Pupils were able to work with their devices successfully. Analysis of their outcomes shows that mobile phones helped them fulfill their tasks at a high level. During interviews, pupils were asked about m-learning and fieldwork. They highlighted working with GPS, maps, and the internet.