Earth and Environmental Sciences: field classes with GIS/GPS and tablet PC

In the last few years, the field classes for Earth and Environmental Sciences degree courses at Urbino University are carried out using Tablet PC and ad-hoc developed mobile-GIS software: MapIT. Even though students have been dealing also with GPS and other digital devices, they can work with the same classical field mapping technique using paper-map and pencil substitute by the screen of a rugged tablet PC and its stylus. The power of a PC can be used to store a large amount of data, run specialized software, interact with a larger screen that allows student to sketch and write his/her interpretations and sharing them with the other people (students and teachers). The "interpretation path" can be more easily reconstructed and the uncertainties of the final synthetic map can be better estimated. The last generations of students demonstrate a more natural approach to those techniques then "old- rugged" geologists and field surveyors. This point allows an easy prediction that in a few years time, the "digital" will become "traditional".