Kong, S.C., Ogata, H., Arnseth, H.C., Chan, C.K.K., Hirashima, T., Klett, F., Lee, J.H.M., Liu, C.C., Looi, C.K., Milrad, M., Mitrovic, A., Nakabayashi, K., Wong, S.L., Yang, S.J.H. (eds.) (2009). Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computers in Education [CDROM] . Hong Kong: Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.
Using PDA to Enhance Social Science Learning with Inquiry-based Strategies Chien-Wen CHUANG, Ju-ling SHIH, Gwo-Jen HWANG Dept. of Information and Learning Technology, National University of Tainan, Taiwan
[email protected] Abstract: This study presents a mobile exploration activity that guides elementary students to learn in social science activity with digital supports from mobile devices and wireless communications. The students are situated in both the real world and the virtual world to extend their learning experiences. The learning activities between the field and the digital system not only demonstrate the practices of mobile learning which emphasizes learning to happen close to real life but also provide learning content to facilitate students’ field studies. Moreover, a comprehensive evaluation method has been used to analyze the learning effectiveness. Based on inquiry-based learning principles, students use the handheld device, PDA, to do the investigations. By constructing their own knowledge, students’ learning performances are hoped to be enhanced. This research took Peace Temple in Tainan as an example and invited 33 fifth graders to participate. Through preand post-class questionnaires as well as observations and focus group interviews, descriptive quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed. The results show significant positive results to students’ learning. Keywords: mobile learning, inquiry-based learning, historic monument investigations, learning performance
1. Introduction
Mobile learning entails the kind of learning in which learners use mobile devices with digital content inside, to learn in anytime anywhere situations. Such devices include PDA, laptop computers, cellular phones with WIFI or other Internet connection capability, customized hardware. To avoid students aimlessly wandering around, instructors need to carefully arrange the learning environment and design an interactive learning model, along with prepare meaningful learning content. This research is a mobile exploration activity to guide elementary students in Taiwan through the learning of local temples for their social science courses. This research first situates students in both the real world and the virtual world to extend students＇ learning experiences; second, it designs educational activities between the field and the digital system to demonstrate the practices of mobile learning which emphasizes learning to happen close to real life; third, it develops digital system with learning content to facilitate students＇ field studies; and forth, use a comprehensive evaluation methods to analyze the learning effectiveness. As students are placed in the authentic learning context, students are dispersed around the environment. In situation as such, teachers have difficulties to attend to individual students. Using digital tools such as PDAs, students can explore the environment with individual attentions. In other words, PDA substitutes teacher＇s role 543
Kong, S.C., Ogata, H., Arnseth, H.C., Chan, C.K.K., Hirashima, T., Klett, F., Lee, J.H.M., Liu, C.C., Looi, C.K., Milrad, M., Mitrovic, A., Nakabayashi, K., Wong, S.L., Yang, S.J.H. (eds.) (2009). Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computers in Education [CDROM] . Hong Kong: Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.
and the pre-designed digital resources in the system works as learning scaffolds to guide students. 2. Literature Review
Inquiry-based learning is a concept which encourages teachers to allow learners to get in touch with authentic situations, explore and solve problems that are analogs to real life. By means of exploration, investigation, and observation, students become involved in more rigorous social interactions as well as higher level thinking. Lim stated that online inquiry learning ensures students’ positive participation, on-task behavior, and rich collaboration, as well as empowers students’ ownership and self-directed learning by increasing student involvement and responsibility for their own learning [12]. Colburn defined inquiry-based instruction as the creation of a classroom where students are engaged in essentially open-ended, student-centered, hands-on activities [4]. He thought inquiry-based instruction embraces several different approaches including structured inquiry, guided inquiry, open inquiry, and learning cycle. Students are to discover relationships between variables or otherwise generalize from data collected. After the teacher provides the concept, the students take ownership of the concept by applying it in a different context. Mobile technologies fulfill educational dreams by providing the possibility of creating innovative learning experiences that can take place in a variety of outdoor settings (for example, parks, city centers, woodlands) and in indoor settings (for example, museums, learning centers, labs, home) [17]. Examples such as bird-watching [2] or museum learning [1] are informal learning situations which are sustained by the combination of powerful functions and high portability. Formal learning situations, on the other hand, are widely used in different fields around the world including natural science [10], social science [9], math [18] and languages [6], just to list a few, and have gained positive results. Among these, the Ambient Wood project led by Yvonne Rogers in England [16] and Butterfly learning with expert system on PDA led by Gwo-Jen Hwang in Taiwan [3] are eminent natural science mobile learning projects. The National Science Education Standards noted that scientific inquiry refers to the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and propose explanations based on the evidence derived from their work. Therefore, Edelson, Gordin, & Pea stated that inquiry experiences can provide valuable opportunities for students to improve their understanding of both science content and scientific practices [7]. In this research, we aimed to extend the experience to social science learning which also requires systematic investigation to the real world. According to Collingwood, history is a kind of science which involves inquiry into the past [5]. Inquiry-based learning opens a new way for social science learning. Educators believe that students should "systematically employ processes of critical historical inquiry to reconstruct and reinterpret the past, such as using a variety of sources and checking their credibility, validating and weighing evidence for claims, and searching for causality" [15]. However, unguided online historical inquiry does not guarantee meaningful learning [14]. In the research of Manlove, Lazonder, & de Jong, they found that cognitive regulation involves the recursive processes of planning, monitoring, and evaluation during learning, and is generally thought to enhance learning gains for students [13]. A support tool incorporated goal-lists, hints, prompts, cues, and templates to support the cognitive regulation skills of students during a fluid dynamics task. Students were asked to produce two learning outcomes of their investigations: system dynamics models and lab reports. They found that task complexity, time, and student prior experience can also impact 544
Kong, S.C., Ogata, H., Arnseth, H.C., Chan, C.K.K., Hirashima, T., Klett, F., Lee, J.H.M., Liu, C.C., Looi, C.K., Milrad, M., Mitrovic, A., Nakabayashi, K., Wong, S.L., Yang, S.J.H. (eds.) (2009). Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computers in Education [CDROM] . Hong Kong: Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.
findings. A similar research model is adopted in our research in consideration of appropriate tasks, sequence of hints and clues, as well as interactive dynamics during the inquiry activities. It is to ensure learning to happen accordingly. 3. Research Method
This research is designed as figure one. There were thirty-two fifth grade elementary school students participated in this research. In the beginning of the learning process, the teacher gave the orientation to the use of PDA. Then, after students filled out the pre-class questionnaire which is for researchers to understand their initial understanding to the course materials, they started to conduct field inquiry in Peace Temple.
Figure 1 Research Process Diagram
Figure 2 Concept map of instructional design
In the research, two learning tasks are designed to see if inquiry-based mobile learning can expand the width and depth of knowledge. One task is to ask students to tell an imagined story. It requires students to creatively use their observations and interviews to the neighborhood to conjure up a story. The purpose is to ask students to listen carefully during the investigation process and use their creativity to tell what they learning about the history of Peace Temple. The second task is a hands-on art work, in which we ask students to draw, cut, and paste to design a temple. They have to describe the special features of the temples they make to their peers. The purpose is to encourage students to observe the temple architecture, decoration, and displays. After completing the learning tasks, students returned to the classroom and filled out the learning sheets with regards to their thoughts about the learning process and outcomes. At the same time, a post-class questionnaire is distributed. After researchers have obtained the preliminary results of the questionnaires, a follow up focus group interview was conducted with students to get them to explain further on some parts of the thinking that were unclear in the questionnaire responses. 4. Instructional Design
We incorporate activities in historic monument investigations using handheld device, PDA. The objective of teaching is to support students＇ cognitive and affective learning, and increase independent learning motivation. Two things are done in this research. The 545
Kong, S.C., Ogata, H., Arnseth, H.C., Chan, C.K.K., Hirashima, T., Klett, F., Lee, J.H.M., Liu, C.C., Looi, C.K., Milrad, M., Mitrovic, A., Nakabayashi, K., Wong, S.L., Yang, S.J.H. (eds.) (2009). Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computers in Education [CDROM] . Hong Kong: Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.
first is to design learning content and activities according to the appearance of historic monuments. The second is to design the application model of mobile device according to the learning themes, and create a supportive learning system for students＇ field investigation. Four steps of learning activities are designed. The concept map of the instructional design is as figure 2. Before the course, the teacher has to design the themes and hints for the learning activity, and the technical designers help to implement them into the system. To start the course, the teacher gives the course orientation to the students. After creating situations to stimulate students＇ learning motivations, the teacher introduces the historic background of the temple, local cultures and religions, and other related information so that the students can have some basic concepts about the trip. For the fieldtrip, students are divided into groups and groups were randomly assigned to different themes by the digital system, such as Gods, religious world, or cultures. Students then go on their fieldtrips with mobile devices in hand to explore the temple in person. They followed the digital guidance to conduct the field inquiries. Students visit spots of interests guided by the pre-designed hints in each theme in the PDA. At the same time, they gather more information with the PDA by finding out answers of the hints in each theme and taking notes when there is open-ended question. The hints require them to conduct detailed observations on the architecture and placement of gods, and interview temple keepers and people living in the neighborhood regarding their thoughts and impressions about the temple. With wireless connection, students can even link up to the Internet and search for more information about what is not taught in class. After they come back from the fieldtrip, students synthesize and categorize their collections, and constructed reports to share with their classmates. The discussions and feedback stimulate higher levels of thinking. Assessments of learning are conducted from various perspectives, including the teacher, their peers, and themselves. Hence multiple assessments are performed. Learning effectiveness was assessed based on perceptions and reviews of students＇ group discussions, collaboration and communication behaviors. Learning achievements were evaluated based on their oral and artifacts reports and the feedback they give to others.
Figure 3 Peace Temple
Figure 4 Floor map of Peace Temple
5. System Design
The design concept is based on inquiry-based investigations. Students are given two tasks, themes, hints, and selected choices for hints. Students can use those hints to collect the necessary information in order to complete the tasks. The hints are organized under 546
Kong, S.C., Ogata, H., Arnseth, H.C., Chan, C.K.K., Hirashima, T., Klett, F., Lee, J.H.M., Liu, C.C., Looi, C.K., Milrad, M., Mitrovic, A., Nakabayashi, K., Wong, S.L., Yang, S.J.H. (eds.) (2009). Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computers in Education [CDROM] . Hong Kong: Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.
themes, and are prompted consecutively and progressively. With each hint, students can look up more information from either database or the Internet. The complete learning content structure in the system is as figure 5. On the PDA, little graphics are used for the interface in order to keep the information simple and easy to read on a small screen. On top of the screen, there is the dynamic menu of the themes. Then one hint is displayed at a time with the necessary selected related choices.
Figure 5 Learning content structure in the system
Figure 6 PDA interface for Inquiry
In the field, students can also conduct digital inquiry online. Whenever they felt the need to, they can click on the “online search” button to enter Google search engine (Figure 7). We choose Google because it already a mobile version that could easily be adapted to the small screen of a hand-held device. The display of the search results is similar to the PC version (Figure 7). When the students return to the classroom, they can retrieve their observation notes on the PDA (Figure 8) with their own account number and password. Notes are documented according to hint orders. Students can then prepare for the task on reporting by comparing their notes with those of their peers’.
Figure 7 PDA interface for digital inquiry with Google
Figure 8 PDA interface for observation notes
6. Research Result
6.1 Learning Achievement Table 1 Paired-t test for pre-test and post test learning achievement. Mean t Mean N SD difference Learning achievement pre-test 85.5625 32 8.83883 -9.43750 -6.499 Learning achievement post-test 95.0000 32 3.81000 *** p
