Effectiveness of mobile apps in teaching field-based identification skills

Abstract

It has been suggested that few students graduate with the skills required for many ecological careers, as field-based learning is said to be in decline in academic institutions. Here, we asked if mobile technology could improve field-based learning, using ability to identify birds as the study metric. We divided a class of ninety-one undergraduate students into two groups for field-based sessions where they were taught bird identification skills. The first group has access to a traditional identification book and the second group were provided with an identification app. We found no difference between the groups in the ability of students to identify birds after three field sessions. Furthermore, we found that students using the traditional book were significantly more likely to identify novel species. Therefore, we find no evidence that mobile technology improved students' ability to retain what they experienced in the field; indeed, there is evidence that traditional field guides were more useful to students as they attempted to identify new species. Nevertheless, students felt positively about using their own smartphone devices for learning, highlighting that while apps did not lead to an improvement in bird identification ability, they gave greater accessibility to relevant information outside allocated teaching times.

Profile of Animal Ecology Field trip: Description of Students’ Identification Skills and Classification Skills

“…Smartphone applications are very rarely used in supporting learning, more widely used as a means of communication, games, music and entertainment (Thomas, et al, 2017;Beri, et al, 2016;Bouten, et al, 2013). Increasingly sophisticated applications on smartphones can be developed by collaborating with other technology tools such as GPS, geolocator, accelerometer, microarray gene chips, biologists and even now many outstanding eBird applications specifically for research on birds that can be easily downloaded using smartphone apps.…”

“…Field activity is a learning activity that is directly related to nature. With direct field activities students can observe the actual objects in the field, thus providing a good learning experience for students (Thomas, et al, 2017;Surasinghe, et al, 2012;Nelson, et al, 2016). However, field lectures still use many conventional methods without including technological advances.…”

“…For example, is the eBird application that can be used to study different types of birds by using a smartphone application. Studying the behavior of birds through some of the applications are available online at the moment is easy to obtain (Thomas, et al, 2017(Thomas, et al, , 2016Horton, et al,. 2014;Freeman, et al, 2016;Resheff, et al, 2014;Bom, et al, 2014;Boss, et al, 2016;Rubio, et al, 2016;Winger, et al, 2014;Harms, et al, 2014) studying the migration patterns of birds (Horton, et al,.…”

“…So far, the method or approach on the field study activities are still using traditional methods. Field trip can be developed to improve identification skills of students (Thomas, et al, 2017;Gill, et al, 2015;Penuela, et al, 2016;Friggers, et al, 2015;Robinson, et al, 2016), and classification skills of students (Resheff, et al, 2014;Bom, et al, 2014;Schuld, et al, 2015).…”

How can Smartphone-Based Internet Data Support Animal Ecology Fieldtrip?

“…Fieldtrip provide positive benefits for students because students can directly observe the actual objects they can find in the field [1,2]. Field trip activities should be developed with new methods or approaches in line with the development of science and technology.…”