How do we train educators to successfully interface technologies with the outdoor experiences that they provide their students?
by R. Justin Hougham, Marc Nutter, Megan Gilbertson, Quinn Bukouricz - University of Wisconsin - Extension
T
echnology in education (ed tech) is constantly changing and growing in impact in classrooms across the globe. While ed tech holds great promise for closing achieve- ment gaps in sectors of the education community, it
remains yet to be seen how this will truly live up to its potential (“Brain Gains”, 2017, July 22). Ed tech is anticipated to grow to a $120 billion market by 2019, which will largely be spent in soft- ware and web services. How might we hope to see this show up in out-of-classroom field experiences? Unaddressed in these articles and what we explore here
are the specific impacts that the conversation of technology in environmental education brings as well as a case study that shares strategies we have found to be effective when an education considers the merging of hardware (inquiry tools), technology application in professional development, and web-based collabo- ration tools. Important questions for environmental education to ask include:
• How does this scale for education for the environment? • What considerations need to be taken to ensure that investment works?
• How would we know if it does? • How do we train educators to successfully interface technologies with the outdoor experiences that they provide their students?
In an article published in CLEARING in 2012, we explored the instructional framework for merging field based science education with mobile pedagogies in the framework entitled Adventure Learning @ (Hougham, Eitel, and Miller, 2012). In the years since, this model has informed a collection of hardware kits that support the concepts in AL@ as well as an examination of the questions outlined above. These hardware kits are called Digital Observation Technology Skills (DOTS) kits.
spot at the right time, you can find inquisitive young people and bright yellow cases filled with gadgets taking data points and crafting Scientific Stories about the watersheds in their state. Re- gardless of whether it is a wild river or a small tributary outside a schoolyard- scientific stories wait to be told in these places and technology that is appropriately considered helps unlock and share these experiences. In a world where technology is almighty, wielding digital literacy is practically a requirement in our understanding of just about everything. The students of today are able to navigate through web pages and apps with ease, information at their fingertips like never before. Here, we can find ourselves removed from that information, disconnected from those data sources and collections, stifling our desire to wonder and inquire more. By investing in digital tools that can enhance inquiry of the natural world, educators can bridge this divide of both information and the ability to be a primary data collector. In equipping students with touchscreens and interfaces familiar to youth of today, they are able to partake in not only real world application of scientific observation, but also experimental design and efforts moving toward the future. Young people in Wisconsin have been contributing to the development of this idea of digital data collection and inquiry, through DOTS. The DOTS program has been developing in Wis- consin since 2014, engaging both youth and adult demographics in digital literacies, and connecting the dots from data collection to inquiry and analysis. By involving youth in the visualization and comparison of their data collections, they are able to begin to accomplish higher order learning such as developing their own hypotheses and synthesize the meaning of their findings. DOTS has been developed for students in 4th through 8th grades but has been modified for audiences in 2nd through high school, including adult learn- ers, continuing education, and professional development. Case
A naturalist assists youth with a water quality test while on a canoe trip. Photo credit: DOTS participant.
In the middle fork of the Salmon River in Idaho you’ll see
steelhead, rushing rapids and hot springs that all tell the story of the landscape. Similarly, along the Wisconsin River, you will see towns, forests and fields that have a link to the industries that have shaped the state over the last 150 years. If you’re in the right
CLEARING Fall 2017
studies of this application vary widely in scale,
location and content. Currently DOTS kits are used in Idaho and in Wisconsin by youth to examine water quality. A full-scale implementation is underway currently in Wisconsin to connect youth from many different watersheds. Held this past August,
www.clearingmagazine.org
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