38 Council on Undergraduate Research WINTER฀2013฀•฀ Volume 34, Number 2 From the International Desk Using Mobile Devices to Enhance Undergraduate Field Research Mobile devices can enhance undergraduate research projects and students’ research capabilities. The use of mobile devic- es such as tablet computers will not automatically make undergraduates better researchers, but their use should make investigations, writing, and publishing more effective—and may even save students time. We have explored some of the possibilities of using “tablets” and “smartphones” to aid the research and inquiry process in geography and bioscience fieldwork. We provide two case studies as illustration of how students working in small research groups use mobile devic- es to gather and analyze primary data in field-based inquiry. Since April 2010, Apple’s iPad has changed the way people behave in the digital world and how they access their music, watch videos, or read their email—much as the entrepre- neurs Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive intended. Now with “apps” and “the cloud” and the ubiquitous references to them appearing in the press and on TV, academics’ use of tablets is also having an impact on education and research. In our discussion we will refer to use of smartphones such as the iPhone, iPod, and Android devices under the term “tab- let”. Android and Microsoft devices may not offer the same facilities as the iPad/iphone, but many app producers now provide versions for several operating systems. Smartphones are becoming more affordable and ubiquitous (Melhuish and Falloon 2010), but a recent study of under- graduate students (Woodcock et al. 2012, 1) found that many students who own smartphones are “largely unaware of their potential to support learning”. Importantly, how- ever, students were found to be “interested in and open to the potential as they become familiar with the possibilities” (Woodcock et al. 2012). Smartphones and iPads could be better utilized than laptops when conducting research in the field because of their portability (Welsh and France 2012). It is imperative for faculty to provide their students with opportunities to discover and employ the potential uses of mobile devices in their learning. However, it is not only the convenience of the iPad or tablet devices or smartphones we wish to promote, but also a way of thinking and behav- ing digitally. We essentially suggest that making a tablet the center of research increases the connections between related research activities (see Figure 1). Personal Learning Environments (PLE) Educause (2009) describes the term personal learning envi- ronments “as the tools, communities, and services that constitute the individual educational platforms learners use to direct their own learning and pursue educational goals.” This term applies to undergraduate learners but is, of course, applicable to anyone. Indeed, “learning space” is also used by some academics in a conceptual and philosophical way, as well as referring to a physical space. With increasing con- nectedness, investigators or learners can move around the “knowledge space” wherever they happen to be, whether or not they are in a convenient location. Pencil and paper have traditionally aided the recording of ideas as well as data and, after sorting and analyzing ideas and/or data, the writ- ten work produced can be published and communicated to others. These days we are happy to communicate digitally, although it is only in the last 15 years that academic papers have been circulated electronically to journal editors and reviewers, revised, and ultimately published, either elec- tronically or in print form. Whether paper-based or digitally enabled, personal learning environments are likely to be complicated. Figure 1 repre- sents the possibilities, and readers can track their own infor- mation flows between and among these educational spaces. Derek France, University of Chester W. Brian Whalley, University of Sheffield Alice L. Mauchline, University of Reading Figure 1. The Complexity of Information Transfer within Educational Spaces.