Engaging Students in Community-Based, Collaborative Research Using Geotagging and Free Cloud-Based Tools

GPS-enabled devices such as iPads and smartphones have opened up opportunities for sending students out in the community to easily and accurately capture visual data. Free cloud-based tools facilitate collaborative mapping to share data while allowing students the autonomy to explore their own research questions. Introducing research through this community-based, experiential lens encourages students to view the familiar more critically and introduces the complex nature of decision making in research. Geotagging and collaborative mapping techniques can be adapted to a variety of disciplines. This presentation will highlight a geotagging project designed for students to explore the ethics of outdoor advertising.

Learning Objectives:
* Gain a clear understanding of the logistics of geotagging and overlaying multiple data sets in Google Earth
* Become familiar with several software as service sites: Panoramio and its use of Latitudes, Google Fusion Tables for mapping images to locations, and how to prepare KLM files for display in Google Earth
* Be able to adapt this experiential research model used in this pilot project to a course