Abstract:

Having knowledge of how to apply technology in learning effectively plays important role in teacher professional development and this kind of knowledge related to the three teaching-specific knowledge domains, that is the integration among content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and technological knowledge, as it is called Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) (Kajonmanee et al, 2020). This report is part of research to explore methods for incorporating mobile technology into field trips to support note-taking activities.

It presents the result of a qualitative study to determine the methods and tools biology students use to take and share notes on field trips and to develop useful guidelines for the development of mobile technologies to support note-taking and sharing activities. A field note is a combination of raw data and ideas that represents the process of transforming an observed interaction into a written one.

The study design consisted of two research phases and two case studies from two Universities in Germany:
Phase 1: Observation of 14 undergraduate Biology students attending the Marin ecology field study trip at the Technical university of Kaiserslautern, and 14 undergraduate biology students also how took part in the Botany Biodiversity field trip at the Saarland university.
Phase 2: Interview with 13 undergraduate students who took part in the Marin ecology field trip and 14 undergraduate students who took part in the Botany biodiversity field trip.

The results of this research provided an understanding of generic by identification of the undergraduate biology students' needs and requirements during field trip learning activities, i.e., it was observed that all groups of students take a number of devices with them, these include a mixture of traditional and modern tools such as note and sketchbooks for note taking. Also, it was identified what makes mobile technology good to use in the field, i.e. the system must provide a GPS link function to link the taken notes with location automatically.

In general, Mobile technology have a great impact on the students in collecting data and capturing their learning experiences during the field trip.

In summary, this study developed an overall understanding of the undergraduate students’ needs and requirements in their field work experience, leading to establishment of design guideline for adaptation of mobile technology to assist students in capturing and sharing their experiences in the field trip. Consequently, two major contributions will make in this study, related to the mobile technology design, and educational contributions. Suggestions will be proposed at the end of this research, to help the students to embed the use of mobile devices during the biology field trip into learning activities, therefore provide recommendations for the teacher training policy in Europa.

Keywords:

Mobile technology, field trip, note taking, capturing and sharing.