Abstract:

The University, as a higher education institution, has long been committed to improving students’ technological skills. As lecturers, we consider that the smartphone is a powerful tool for both, enhancing the learning process and developing technological abilities. Therefore, the main goal of this innovative education project is to embrace the use of smartphones while promoting a responsible use of these devices by the academic community.

This study aims to test, apply and evaluate the use of new smartphone imaging technology during laboratory and practical sessions as an innovative tool for teaching Environmental Sciences. These macro-lens are attachable to the smartphones (add-on sensor) providing high-quality magnified images that can be captured through the smartphone camera, representing a portable alternative to the heavy binocular microscopes.

We used this technology in two different undergraduate courses at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, within the degrees of Forest Engineering and Natural Environment Engineering. Macro lens were distributed to the students during laboratory and field sessions where different activities were proposed to promote their use. For example, students used the macro-lens to identify characteristics, small attributes or pathologies of different plant species. Thus, the specific purpose of this study was to evaluate the benefits of this tool to enhance student plant and pathogens identification skills. After the whole period of practical sessions, student answered a questionnaire survey using Kahoot smartphone app. Descriptive statistics were used to establish a link between the academic results of the students in the practical sessions and the usage of the macro lens.

Preliminary results showed that the vast majority of students found the macro lens useful or very useful and thus, they had a positive perception towards the academic use of the tool. In addition, we found differences between the academic results of the students that reported a frequent use of this tool during the sessions and those that either did not use it or did it just once. Therefore, the overall experience in implementing this technology has been very positive from both, students and teachers perspective.

Keywords:

Information and communication technology, active learning, smartphone, kahoot, practical lab classes, imaging technology.