EcoMobile: Blended Learning Across Virtual and Natural Ecosystems

The EcoMOBILE project is testing the hypothesis that student engagement, self-efficacy, and understanding of life science standards will be enhanced if students participating in field trips employ mobile devices to collect and share data, visit geo-referenced locations, and access on-site information.

Target audiences are middle school students and teachers, curriculum developers, and education researchers.

The project is using quasi-experimental methods to collect data on the usability of mobile-device enabled technologies on field trips and the effect of these tools on student learning gains. EcoMOBILE will compare the test curriculum with a similar, but more traditional field trip curriculum. Using a variety of assessment instruments and methods, researchers are measuring changes in students' knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy.

The EcoMOBILE project is hosted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education with support from Qualcomm, Inc. and the National Science Foundation to Principal Investigator Chris Dede. The University of Wisconsin – Madison and Kurt Squire have a subcontract to collaborate on the Qualcomm project. Amy Kamarainen at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research is project director for Qualcomm’s EcoMOBILE project. More information about EcoMOBILE