Catalonian students use mobile technology in Humanities classes to geolocate heritage elements

October 16, 2014

mSchools kicks off its second year in Catalonian classrooms with the launching of its Mobile History Map (MHM), a pioneering project by means of which primary school (5th and 6th grade), secondary school, and vocational training students create and geolocate content related to points of interest close to their schools. The work completed by the students is public and can be viewed online on the project’s webpage and through a mobile application (available for iOS and Android).

MHM is an educational initiative that makes possible the application of mobile solutions to non-technical subjects and the sphere of the Humanities, thereby becoming a cross-disciplinary tool. Through MHM students, teachers and institutions jointly document and create content on their surroundings by means of mobile technology. These contents, available in Catalan, Spanish, Aranese, and English, are incorporated onto the map of the Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya (ICC).

The content creation and validation process is simple. The teachers and schools participating in MHM give their students a password. After collecting text, image, and video data, the students perform the work. Once approved by the teacher and the school, the contribution is uploaded to the platform, but it only becomes public after final confirmation by the Pedagogical Resources Center for the school’s area.

The high standards applied to the content creation, validation, and publication processes, and access via website and mobile, make MHM a useful, trustworthy, and open tool for information on Catalonia’s cultural heritage.

MHM forms part of mSchools, a program backed by Mobile World Capital Barcelona in collaboration with the Regional Government of Catalonia, the City of Barcelona, and GSMA to promote learning through mobile technology.

Launch during the 2014-2015 academic year

The introduction of MHM into Catalonian classrooms during the 2014-2015 school year comes in the wake of the successful pilot project conducted in May and June of 2014 at 29 secondary schools across Catalonia, which featured participation by 100 students and 81 teachers. During this test phase, the contents for the first geolocated locations on the map were developed. Els Castellers (cultural heritage), Montserrat (monumental heritage), and the Ebro Delta (natural heritage) are some of the sites that can already be viewed on the project’s website and app.

From today until the end of 2014, MHM’s implantation phase, some 1,600 students and 80 teachers from Catalonia will develop and geolocate content on 400 points containing Catalonian heritage elements. During this period any school can register with MHM and ask for the specific training for teachers offered by the program. This instruction focuses on the creation of content and the use of the platform and will allow MHM to be fully operational by 2015.

The successful implantation and results of “App Education”

mSchools closed out the first year of “App Education,” its course on the development and creation of apps, with participation by more than 6,000 students from 200 secondary schools. During this 2014-2015 academic year more than 11,100 students at 300 secondary schools will take the course. And Vocational Training will be added, with 6 teachers and 400 students. Another new development in “App Education” is the availability of all its content in English.