Last weekend I attended a field based meeting on Innovation in Fieldwork Teaching in geographical, Earth and environmental sciences down in deepest Devon. I can’t say that there was a huge amount of true innovation on display but then it’s not really easy to do truly innovative things that have not been tried many times before in a subject area like fieldwork. I’ve used many of the techniques suggested for several years (e.g. sketching as a means to enhance observation, re-orienting field exercises to make them more ‘real-world’ relevant).
What I did find very interesting was being put in the role of a student in the field again, probably something I’ve not experienced for a couple of decades. It is fine to come up with great new wheezes in field teaching but quite another being put in the place of a student having to undertake them. It did give me a very useful perspective on things and something I will try to bare in mind when I update my field classes in the future.
Looking back on things, perhaps trying to engender a sense of fun getting serious points across is a really useful trick if you can pull it off.
One innovation that did seem to work well in teaching the use of field equipment, was getting the students to make short videos demonstrating how to the use the kit. The example used was levelling, but the videoing technique should work well with all moderately complicated methods. As a student, you obviously have to dissect the method before it can be explained to camera.
Students are also allowed to make spoof videos as well, which adds to the sense of fun but also increases the understanding of what to do (and particularly what not to do) with a given piece of equipment. With cheap video capable cameras (including mobile phones) this idea will become increasingly achievable for even large numbers of groups.
