文章基本信息

标题：Evaluation of low-cost Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) for field data collection and fieldwork leadership by students and staff
其他标题：Evaluation of low-cost Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) for field data collection and fieldwork leadership by students and staff
本地全文：下载
作者：Tim Stott
期刊名称：Higher Education Pedagogies
电子版ISSN：2375-2696
出版年度：2007
卷号：18
期号：1
页码：12-17
DOI：10.11120/plan.2007.00180012
出版社：Taylor and Francis Ltd
摘要：This project evaluated low-cost (< £200, 2006 UK prices) PDAs for use by students in field data recording, and two advanced model PDAs for use by staff in fieldwork leadership. The low-cost PDAs will also, undoubtedly, come down in price over the next year or two, offering the possibility of providing all students with such a device to assist in field data collection and other aspects of their University studies. Improvements in memory capacity will also offer greater functionality for storing notes, handouts, lecture presentations, video and audio files. However, the low-cost PDA models are not waterproof, which is a major drawback for field use. Field use of PDAs offered clear benefits to teaching and learning, particularly as students were able to record their data onto PDAs in Excel, and copy files to a central PDA (managed by a staff member) via Bluetooth. The staff member could then download files to a lap top or desktop docking station and email them to the rest of the students. Data files can also be transferred to students’ mobile phones, iPODs etc if they have Bluetooth. Use of a lap top in the field ensured that students could obtain copies of data files using data pens (which most of the students had) or directly via SD cards (available in many digital cameras owned by students). This makes the sharing and backup of data in the field readily possible and overcomes the problem of hand written field notes getting wet, muddy or lost. It enhances students’ ability to organise and share their group data, share field notes and observations, and to improve their subsequent preparation of assessed field reports.