TWENTY YEARS OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION IN AN INTERNATIONAL CAPSTONE FIELD COURSE

A 6-week capstone geology field course in western Ireland was established in 1997 as an international experience to replace the previous Boston University field camp in Maine. The course was transferred to James Madison University in 2005. Early curricula were typical for the time, incorporating a series of bedrock and glacial landscape mapping exercises of increasing complexity, all of which used paper topographic base maps and pace-and-compass or triangulation strategies for positioning in the field. Google did not yet exist and digital communications were limited to 9600 baud dial-up connections. However, technology quickly became a hallmark of the course, initiating in the early 2000s with widespread use of handheld GPS units for field positioning. Early innovation and experimentation with mobile mapping devices featured Palm and HP pocket PCs with external GPS receivers, followed by Trimble devices with integrated GPS. State of the art software during this period included ArcPad for mobile mapping and ArcMap on desktop PCs for final map preparation. Collaboration with geology faculty at Galway University enabled access to their state-of-the-art GIS facilities.

Now, 10-15 years later, smart phones, smart glasses, and iPads have transformed field communication, student-professor interaction, and mapping, and have opened opportunities for non-traditional students. Furthermore, data from each field season is added to a growing database, resulting in a crowd-sourcing approach to regional mapping.

Digital field mapping is no longer an experimental technology, but rather the accepted method of fieldwork for the modern geoscientist. Over the past twenty years, traditional analog approaches to field mapping have become obsolete, and our field curricula have necessarily evolved. What hasn’t kept pace with the technological revolution is assessment of new approaches to teaching field mapping with mobile devices. We need to engage in discipline-based educational research to determine how to modify field instruction to maximize student learning outcomes using modern tools.