This paper assesses the experience of undergraduate students using mobile devices and a commercial application, iSurvey, to conduct a neighborhood survey. Mobile devices offer benefits for enhancing student learning and engagement. This field exercise created the opportunity for classroom discussions on the practicalities of urban research, the survey data was available for immediate analysis, and students felt they were conducting meaningful research. The module experience supports recent research finding that mobile devices offer significant benefits for instructors, but using mobile devices also creates potential risks (to the students, equipment, and data) that must be considered while planning modules and during instruction.