ISTE 2013 Session True Environmental Education with Mobile Devices

1. What’s Your ECOpedagogy?
Environmental Education with Mobile Devices-Paul Kelba
Calgary Board of Education ISTE 2013

2. “Uneasy Bedfellows”–James Neill
Intimate
Tension
Technology
Technology
Environmental & Outdoor
Education

3. Inevitable Mobile Learning

4. A problem with outdoor experience &
technology is students are used as ‘dumb’
data recorders. There is a lack of
emotional connection
• Most effective when learning takes place
on-site in the school yard, and in the local
community and environment.
• Learning focuses on local themes, systems,
and content.
• Learning is personally relevant to the
learner.
• Learning experiences contribute to the
community’s vitality and environmental
quality and support the community’s role
in fostering global environmental quality

5. Mobile device is the ‘all in one’
• With simple software
(Geoforms for google
drive) data can be plotted,
analysed and presented in
a different way. Using off &
online freeware and
shareware.
• Students can produce a
variety of exciting and
innovative diagrams from
their raw data.
• ANALYZE PATTERNS IN
DATA SYMBOLS

6. Urban Adventures
• Document at least 3
‘interconnections’ among some
of the places/systems (natural
or human made) in your
community
• Document some of your
favourite places on your walk,
and describe why you like these
particular places.
• Document some of the places
on your walk that you did not
like, describe why you did not
like these particular places.
GEOFORMS FOR GOOGLE DRIVE

7. Sustainable Living
• Do you think that someone who
is very concerned about the
plants and animals in your area
would agree with your opinion?
• Do you think that someone who
is very concerned about the
economy would agree with your
choices of likes and dislikes?
• Do you think that someone who
is very concerned with the
health of the humans in your
community would agree with
your likes and dislikes?
• In general, do you care about
the place that you walked?

8. Sustainable Living
• Where does your
drinking water come
from?
• Where does the water
from the storm drain
nearest your house go
first?
• What is the name of the
closest creek, river, lake,
etc. to your house?
• What is the source of the
water?
• Where does the water
drain into?
• Where does the water
from your toilet go?

9. Evernote is essentially a
note-taking tool which
is available as a desktop
and mobile version. The
data gathered in either
version can be
synchronised across the
two platforms and the
functionality of Evernote
can be fully exploited
when both versions
work in tandem

10. Fieldwork Adventures
Tumblr:
• enables students to comment
on blog posts and interact
with each other’s audio, video,
text and images. It negates the
need for a dictaphone, video
camera, digital camera and
notebook due to.

11. "Understanding basic ecological concepts (and their meaning in our daily
lives) is too important to leave to a chance meeting or a talk.“
-Steve Van Matre
Capture – Create -Synthesize
Effective Environmental Education with
Mobile Devices includes the local school yard
& community environment at the forefront

12. Student Tasks on tablets/modiles
Micro-field guide:
• Groups of 3 or 4 students worked together to
investigate their own 3 by 3 foot (approximately
one square meter) research plot, over multiple
visits, and then created a imovie field guide to
their plot.
Local Field Guide
• contains two main features. First, students
included geological information about local sites
– describing the geological features. Secondly,
students explained the underlying geologic
concepts that contributed to local occurrences.

13. Energy audits:
student findings from energy audits at schools city and
recommend a variety of initiatives that the school should take
in order to lower its carbon footprint and reduce energy
costs.

14. Fieldwork Adventures
Polldaddy:
• questionnaire out into the field
and survey people without the
need to connect to the internet.
This is particularly useful where
3G coverage may be poor and
Wi-Fi is unavailable. The user
can conduct the survey ‘offline’,
then when they return to a 3G
area or Wi-Fi enabled zone, the
data will automatically
synchronise to the online
version.

15. Outside
•Technology is not the
antithesis of the natural
world
Inside
•The indoor environment
is the antithesis of the
natural world

16. Effective Environmental Education
with Mobile Devices includes:
Emotional
Connection
App’s Fieldwork

17. Are We Enhancing or Transforming?
The SAMR model, developed by Dr Ruben Puentedura, aims to support teachers as they
design, develop and integrate learning technologies to support high levels of learning
achievement and student engagement. C/O @jackiegerstien

18. Outdoor Learning Programs with
Mobile Devices?
• Sequential
Activities
• Common
occurrence
• ‘Sense of Place’
• Joy in the natural
world
A sensory walk, commonly 10 minutes
w/o tech ends up taking over an hour
due to the rich documentation with
devices

19. Field tasks are essential for all good data collection;
but, by employing exciting and innovative
methodologies it can enhance learning, increase
interest and understanding of the study topic, and
ultimately lead to greater participation in the subject.

20. Make them feel alive
"You can get lost in studies of what makes
healthy students-its about feeling fully alive"
-Richard Louv-

21. Slideshare and resources
available on
@FreshClassroom
Join the weekly
international gathering of
Environmental Educators on
Twitter
Wednesday 9pm EST
#enviroed