Before Christmas, we ran a small project in a school outside of Växjö. The project was not as technically advanced as some of the other things we are working on but as we all know, the amount of advanced technology used in a learning project have little (or in the worst case scenario, a negative) impact on how well an activity is perceived and performed.
What we mainly wanted to try with this activity was the notion of spatial orientation. What we wanted to try is how well student could orient themselves in relation to two points on a field. So an application was constructed to allow this. Using Android phones with a GPS module, the student where challenged to find an array of different points on the field.
One of the main lessons learned is that if you are planning to run an activity in a field with deep snow, make sure you have clothes for it. Even thought the activity had no technical failures, despite the freezing cold and not optimal weather conditions, still some problems where encountered. These where mainly due to the problem of students not dressing for the occasion. This lead to students having shoes full of snow after 10 minutes which made students loose both concentration and interest. Luckily, some replacement clothing could be found and the activity completed but the importance of making sure students are dressed for the activity is a very important point that simply can not be stressed enough.