Background and description of project
Yale Academic Technologists Alina Nevins and Matt Regan partnered with biology professor Marta Wells over three years to develop a mobile pedagogical framework to engage students with authentic, collaborative, and creative active learning. Together they developed and implemented student-centered assignments and project tasks.
Initial concept
The professor wanted the student projects to promote digital literacy, interdisciplinary thinking, and biophilia.
Students were tasked with a project using mobile devices, mapping and web technology, research, and creative assignments.
They added their trees to a collaborative map and the course site, all on location using iPads. The webpages for the trees contained scientific research and photographs taken by the students. Student presentations combined fact and feeling: dance, scents, songs, food, stories, painting, and more.
Examples of student projects:
Students take ownership over creative part of their project.
Goals of the Project
Merge biophilia and mobilephilia: How can we make students more aware of the environment? How do we incorporate students’ love of mobile devices? Students are already on their devices 24/7, Let’s integrate something they are already ‘experts’ at.
Meet learning goals: effective research, teach material to classmates, retain information
Make learning more authentic: Challenges we all face in making learning more authentic. Authentic learning allows students to explore, discuss, and meaningfully construct concepts and relationships in contexts that involve real-world problems and projects that are relevant to the learner. Make the project engaging & entertaining, make the students take ownership.
Make science more accessible: Communicate scientific knowledge in an easy-to-understand way
Integrate diverse tools into a unified, motivating experience.
As simple and easy as possible, “it just works”
Engage students: And make them excited about learning- Integrate & apply information gained into a creative form.
Future of project
Gaming element
Developing a path
Connections with other universities
Outreach into the Yale & wider community