Applications on Interactive Geographic Information Platform in Elementary School Field Trips

This study constructs a teaching-applied website, Field Trip Information Service. It is based on a student-centered approach and the application and integration of Interactive Geographic Information Platform. The aim is for the teacher to utilize electronic maps on field trips, emphasizing the student-centered approach. Unlike traditional 2D maps, the Google maps as the platform makes students spontaneously learn how to operate and design the planning of field trips, and provide them with the ability of independent thinking and problem solving, and the perception of interaction between people and space.
Through the statistic analysis of professional questionnaires, the website listed some recommended field trip locations for all grades of elementary schools, and provided teachers and students references of field trip planning. The teaching process was based on an action-research pattern. By the integration of GIS technology platform, the teacher gets to instruct and discuss the plausibility of students participating in the planning of field trips, to inspire students’ motivations of spontaneous learning, to understand students’ feedback on learning and achievements, and to estimate the possible difficulties. By observing the interactions between the teacher and students, one can break the old traditional teaching patterns, in which the filed trips were dominated mainly by the teacher.