26Using mobile phones or tablet computers in the field? This page brings together apps that you may find useful in fieldwork learning and teaching.

What is an app? An app is a computer programme that usually runs on a mobile phone or tablet. A wide range of apps are available that could support learning and teaching in the field, from geological maps, species identification and data capture to first aid. Some are freely available, some for a charge.

Interested in ideas on how to use apps, mobile phones and tablets in the field? Visit the case studies page.

The Enhancing Fieldwork group on pinterest brings together a variety of mobile apps and articles useful for geography, biology and earth sciences fieldwork and education.

The following list of apps is taken from: Using Mobile Devices to Enhance Undergraduate Field Research (2013), Derek France, W. Brian Whalley and Alice L. Mauchline. CUR Quarterly, 34 (2). These apps could be used on mobile phones and tablets in the field for a diverse range of activities from sharing photos and papers to storing data.

  • Delicious: Allows students to share interesting web links or bookmarks and save them on the cloud
  • Dropbox: Cloud-based data storage and file synchronisation, offering users an initial 5GB of storage
  • Facebook: Best-known social network that connects people and friends over the Internet
  • Flickr: Photo management and sharing application, allows users to upload photos and videos securely
  • Fotobabble: Allows users to record and embed an audio file with a photograph
  • Geospike/ GPS Log: Geographical information system that allows the user to record and plot geo-referenced information, e.g., photographs on a map
  • Google Drive: Cloud-based data storage and file synchronization that offers all users an initial 15 GB of online space
  • Goodreader: Enables PDF documents and most common documents to be read on mobile devices and retrieved from cloud-based data storage such as Dropbox
  • Google +: A social-networking service that integrates several services, e.g., hangouts
  • iMovie: Video-editing app for mobile devices
  • Keynote: Alternative presentation software to PowerPoint
  • Linkedln: A professional social network
  • Mendeley: Academic software that indexes and organises PDF documents and allows them to be shared
  • Numbers: Spreadsheet app that allows the user to manipulate data
  • PaperShip: Allows the user enhanced functionality of Mendeley through management of folders and annotation and sharing of documents
  • Splice: Allows users to capture, edit, and share video over the web
  • Storify: Allows creation of digital stories using social media
  • Twitter: Social networking in 140 characters or less
  • Yammer: A leading enterprise social network similar to Twitter and preferred by companies worldwide due to options for private group discussions
  • Youtube: Video-sharing website

Do you use apps in fieldwork? Have any apps you would recommend? Contact us…