An Intelligent Support System to Help Teachers Plan Field Trips

Field trips enrich learning programs with out-of-school activities that can bring gains in students’ academic content knowledge and personal growth. However, they are a source of anxiety for teachers because of the bureaucracy, pedagogy, etc., risks they imply. To address this issue, we propose Fiel...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of artificial intelligence in education 2024-09, Vol.34 (3), p.793-824
Main Authors: Mauro, Noemi, Ardissono, Liliana, Cena, Federica, Scarpinati, Livio, Torta, Gianluca
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Annotations
Anxiety
Artificial Intelligence
Automation
Classrooms
Computer Science
Computers and Education
Creative Thinking
Creativity
Critical Thinking
Design optimization
Educational Facilities Improvement
Educational Technology
Empowerment
Ethics
Field trips
Influence of Technology
Learning
Learning Management Systems
Learning programs
Planning
Preferences
Scheduling
School Activities
Science Instruction
Science teachers
Students
Support systems
Task scheduling
Teacher Empowerment
Teachers
Time
User experience
User Interfaces and Human Computer Interaction
Visual fields
Visual tasks
Young Children
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Summary:Field trips enrich learning programs with out-of-school activities that can bring gains in students’ academic content knowledge and personal growth. However, they are a source of anxiety for teachers because of the bureaucracy, pedagogy, etc., risks they imply. To address this issue, we propose FieldTripOrganizer, a field trip planner based on the mixed-initiative approach aimed at increasing teachers’ autonomy and motivation in designing educational tours. The key aspects of our application are (i) the simultaneous provision of information filtering and automated scheduling support while the user designs the field trip, and (ii) the visual annotation of places and activities to show whether they can be included in the itinerary without violating its time constraints. Different from current tour planners, these functions enable the user to be in full control of the design process, delegating the system to manage difficult and burdensome tasks such as consistency checks and itinerary optimization. We evaluated FieldTripOrganizer in the use case of organizing a science field trip. In a preliminary user study involving 18 science teachers, our application turned up to be superior to a baseline tour planner in both usability and user experience. Moreover, the teachers declared that it was helpful, motivated them, and reduced their anxiety during the design of the field trips.
ISSN:1560-4292
1560-4306
DOI:10.1007/s40593-023-00366-x