Abstract
Abstract. Education in hydrology is changing rapidly due to diversification of students, emergent major scientific and practical challenges that our discipline must engage with, shifting pedagogic ideas and higher education environments, the need for students to develop new discipline specific and transferrable skills, and the advent of innovative technologies for learning and teaching. This paper focuses on new technologies in the context of learning and teaching in Physical Geography and reflects on the implications of our experiences for education in hydrology. We evaluate the experience of designing and trialling novel mobile technology-based field exercises and a virtual field tour for a Year 1 undergraduate Physical Geography module at a UK university. The new exercises are based on using and obtaining spatial data, operation of meteorological equipment (explained using an interactive DVD), and include introductions to global positioning systems (GPS) and geographical information systems (GIS). The technology and exercises were well received in a pilot study and subsequent rolling-out to the full student cohort (∼150 students). A statistically significant improvement in marks was observed following the redesign. Although the students enjoyed using mobile technology, the increased interactivity and opportunity for peer learning were considered to be the primary benefits by students. This is reinforced further by student preference for the new interactive virtual field tour over the previous "show-and-tell" field exercise. Despite the new exercises having many advantages, exercise development was not trivial due to the high start-up costs, the need for provision of sufficient technical support and the relative difficulty of making year-to-year changes (to the virtual field tour in particular). Our experiences are highly relevant to the implementation of novel learning and teaching technologies in hydrology education.
Highlights
Education in hydrology is changing rapidly as a result of a number of factors
This paper focuses on new technologies in the context of learning and teaching across the discipline of Physical Geography and reflects on the implications of our experiences for the future of education in hydrology
The Physical Environment of Birmingham is a compulsory Year 1 module for BSc and BA Geography students at the University of Birmingham, UK. This module is a cornerstone of the first year Geography programme, and comprises an introduction to basic geographical skills in local field environments using the city of Birmingham as an urban, open-air laboratory
Summary
Education in hydrology is changing rapidly as a result of a number of factors. These include, but are not limited to, a diversifying student population, new and emerging major scientific and practical challenges that our discipline must engage with (e.g. climate change, prediction in ungauged basins, water security, hydrohazards), shifting pedagogic ideas and higher education environments, the need for students to develop new discipline specific and transferrable skill sets, and the advent of innovative technologies for learning and teaching (Nash et al, 1990; Wagener et al, 2007). The possibility for situated and context-aware learning, such as through the use of GPS, has the potential to provide a key learning tool This is because of the importance of field-based. This revamp was facilitated by the introduction of mobile technology and a virtual field tour as teaching aides, a combination we understand to be novel. The mobile technology-based field exercises, virtual field tour, associated pilot-tests and focus group response presented provide an important opportunity to investigate and evaluate the effectiveness of these two learning tools across the spectrum of undergraduate Physical Geography subjects (including hydrology). In the context of this special issue, we reflect on the implications of our experiences for education in hydrology
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