Effects of Using Digital contents designed for PDA as a teaching aid in an

observational learning of planktons for fieldworks on a ship

Hitoshi MIYATA Mitsuo Ishigami

Faculty of Education, Shiga University, Japan

ICCE 2006

1. Introduction

• Mobile phone and Pocket PC have become very popular in the last few years due to the increase of availability of different wireless services.

• The Mobile and Pocket PC Web-access to the e-Book has standard functionality like searching and viewing information about Planktons etc., viewing images, audio, video files and electronic materials.

• Students can access from any place and any time if they have GPRS service on their mobile phones and wireless access in the environment where are they located for the Pocket PCs even on the deck of the boat on the wide lake.

1. Introduction

• Numerous investigations (Yamamoto et al. 2003) have pursued the potential way in which classroom instructions can be enhanced through the use of multimedia teaching aids and digital contents, including video clips that have been designed for learning purposes.

• We decided to work with the Education Committee of Shiga Prefecture (滋賀縣 ) to develop digital content to assist in the observational learning of planktons that is conducted aboard a ship in Lake Biwa(琵琶湖 ).

• 註：琵琶湖的生態體系相當的豐富化，有超過 1000種動植物生長其中。魚類約有 46種，貝類約 40種，水草約 70種，因而被稱日本淡水魚的寶庫。琵琶湖的淡水珍珠養殖也相當有名。

2. Objective of Research

• This research has two objectives:(1) “The World of Planktons in Lake Biwa”, which is digital

content for use as a teaching aid in the observational learning of planktons in Lake Biwa.

(2) To validate the effectiveness of the developed content by applying it to an actual plankton observation class conducted aboard a ship.

• More specifically, the effectiveness of the content was considered from the following four perspectives:

(1) Whether the students were able to develop a more intimate relationship with nature and further enhance their positive attitudes toward the use of IT in observational science lessons (“interest, motivation, and attitude”).

2. Objective of Research

(2) Whether there was a broadening of learning activities through the search for information not only in library books but also in multimedia encyclopedias or the Internet after the actual observation of planktons (“thinking and judging”).

(3) Whether the students have learnt to become more creative in their use of tools and machines after the experience of using a microscope and PDA in the observational learning (“technique and expression”).

(4) Whether it was possible to help students identify planktons and enable them to understand phenomena that are difficult to observe directly by making them view video clips demonstrating the hatching of eggs and cell division of planktons as part of the science lessons (“knowledge and understanding”).

3. Research Method

• 3.1 Investigation of requirements prior to content development3.1 Investigation of requirements prior to content development• We boarded the learning ship in Feb. 2004 and surveyed the

current curriculum for the observational learning of planktons and investigated the requirements for improving the course instruction by interviewing six primary school teachers and two field advisors.

• 3.2 Methodology for validating the effectiveness of the content3.2 Methodology for validating the effectiveness of the content• We conducted a questionnaire survey on the students based

on four perspectives: (1) interest, motivation, and attitude (2) thinking and judging (3) expression and technique. We also set an objective paper-based test to measure (4) the students’ knowledge and understanding.

4. Content and functionalities of the digital content titled “The World of Planktons in Lake Biwa”

• The following items and functionalities were included in the content:

(1) color photographs of more than 200 types of planktons living in Lake Biwa, as well as a search function allowing the students to search for the names of the planktons.

(2) interest-provoking video clips of phenomena that are difficult to observe, such as the division of plankton cells and hatching of plankton larvae.

(3) a portfolio functionality in which students can store hand-drawn observational sketches and notes recorded on their PDAs on a network server.

5. Architecture and Implementation of the system

• The server includes the database, PHP module and web-server.

• The web-server communicates with the database in both directions over the PHP module.

• The client sends a request to the server, so server accepts that request and sends back the requested data to the client.

• The client-server communication for Pocket PC can be via Wireless LAN, based on the 802.11b standard.

• The mobile client communicates with server via GPRS Internet.

5.1 Implementation of the system• The server side contains database with some stored procedur

es and functions developed in Oracle 9.2i, and a web server Apache which is an integral part of Oracle 9.2i.

• One of the Clients on Figure 3 is Pocket PC which works on Windows CE platform and uses Internet Explorer.

• The Second Client in this case is Mobile phone which works on Symbian OS platform and uses Opera Web browser.

Figure 3. Deployment diagram for Mobile and Pocket PC device

6. Use of the digital contents in actual lessons for fieldworks

• A preliminary investigation was conducted with 80 students on May 24, 2004 in order to obtain feedback on the usability and level of difficulty of the content.

• The actual “production” lessons were conducted on July 8 and 15 with fifth-grade students.

• Students divided into Group A and Group B participated in the lessons. Each group spent 2 days aboard the learning ship “Uminoko”, which was provided by the Education Committee of Shiga Prefecture.

• A total of 320 students from primary schools in Shiga Prefecture participated: 157 students in Group A and 163 in Group B.

6. Use of the digital contents in actual lessons for fieldworks

• Students learned in pairs, and each pair shared one microscope and one PDA. In terms of the duration of the learning activities, 90 minutes were allocated for collecting and observing samples of planktons.

• The observation of planktons using a microscope was performed in pairs, with the students taking turns at using the microscope and attempting to identify the names of the planktons.

Group A (sailing on July 8) Group B (sailing on July 15)

Day 1 (observational learning of planktons for 90 minutes)

Location: Northern Lake Location: Southern Lake

1. Explanation of the observational learning of planktons

2. Sampling of planktons on Lake Biwa

3. Observing planktons using a microscope

4. Digital content not used (planktons were identified using a plankton sample sheet printed on paper)

4. Digital contents used (a PDA was used to identify and make sketches of planktons)

5. Completion of the feedback survey, an evaluation sheet, and a short test

Day 2 (observational learning of planktons for 90 minutes)

Location: Southern Lake Location: Northern Lake

1. Explanation of the observational learning of planktons

2. Sampling of planktons on Lake Biwa

3. Observing planktons using a microscope

4. Digital contents used (a PDA was used to identify and make sketches of planktons)

4. Digital content not used (planktons were identified using a plankton sample sheet printed on paper)

5. Completion of the feedback survey, an evaluation sheet, and a short test

Figure 4. Outline of fieldworks and lesson activities

7. Results and Discussions

• 7.1 Students’ evaluation of the digital contents• Most of the students replied positively to the questions

pertaining to the usability of the content and the clarity of the pictures and video clips.

• Most students responded that it was easy to use the shape-based search functionality to identify plankton names.

Good Bad No answer

Overall usability 316 2 2

Clarity of photographs and 315 3 2

Appropriate display size 316 2 2

Identification using shapes 317 1 2

Ease of operations for sketching 305 13 2

Ease of operations for posting comments 300 18 2

Table 1. Students’ evaluation of the contents(number of respondents) (N=320)

Figure 5. A scene from the plankton observational learning

7.2.1 Concerning knowledge and understanding• The test problems consisted of

(1) identifying the name of the planktons by looking at their photographs (8 questions)

(2) selecting the diagrams depicting the hatching of plankton eggs (4 questions)

(3) selecting either “True” or “False” for diagrams depicting plankton cell divisions and other plankton behavior accompanied by an explanation (4 questions)

7.2.1 Concerning knowledge and understanding• We performed a 2 X 2 analysis of variance (ANOVA) with two

intra-group and two inter-group relations.

• A significant difference in the test scores for Group A was observed between Day 1, when printed sample sheets were used, and Day 2, when the digital content was viewed on a PDA.

• In addition, there was a significant difference in the scores after Day 1 between Groups A and B, which used the printed sample sheets and the digital content viewed on a PDA, respectively.

Group A Group B Inter A-B

Day 1 46.1 (paper) 69.9 (PDA) * P<.05

Day 2 75.8 (PDA) 60.2 (paper) Ns

Intra-group ** P<.01 Ns

Table 2. Results from objective tests for measuring knowledge and understanding (number of points)

Figure 6. Analysis of test questions

7.2.2 Thinking and judging by questionnaire

• It was clarified that in Group A, the evaluation of the learning activities when the content was viewed on the PDA was significantly higher compared to that when printed sample sheets were used for the “thinking and judging” questions.

Figure 7. Group A’s profile of Interest, technique, and thinking

7.2.3 Interest and motivation, and technique and expression by questionnaire

• There were no significant differences in the measure of interest and motivation and technique and expression: both these measures were high.

• This result can be attributed to the fact that the microscope was used in both activities and the incorporation of a hands-on observational learning style helped to promote the students’ interest and motivate them.

Figure 8. Group B’s profile of Interest, technique, and thinking

8. Conclusion

• Based on the above results and discussions, we were able to validate the effectiveness of the digital content that we developed in the areas of knowledge and understanding, thinking and judging, and interest and motivation.

• We plan to extend the scope of this research by conducting a detailed investigation through which we will be able to distinguish between the operation of the microscope and the hand-written sketching feature on the PDA with respect to technique and expression, thereby improving the content.