The forest is full. Every inch of it is alive. A single handful of sub-humus soil is so fecund, that it takes several specialists’ careers to study and understand the structures, cycles, and species found therein.
With so much going on in those woods already, could a piece of technology possibly add to the nature experience? It is an oft touted virtue of the forest, in fact, that all its diversity and scope can help to cure the ails of a culture too often plugged into our devices. So, why bring a screen into the forest? Just because they make “an app for that,” should we use it? I think, sometimes, we ought to.
In the classroom, tech can make all the difference in differentiation (adapting your classroom and curriculum to best serve all students). In the forest, technology can serve the same purpose, pulling in students who would otherwise be, “left in the woods.”
Here at the Outdoor Education Center, we have a quiver full of targeted technologies available to our students, to augment their learning.
ipads are loaded with applications linking students to scientists around the world (inaturalist, Texas Nature, etc.). Our tablets allow young learners to share their close observations of our local nature with other interested peoples in eco-regions around the world. These apps help to paint a rich picture of global bio-diversity, or a lack thereof, co-constructed by experts and lay-naturalists alike. Other apps host volumes of information in formats like ibird pro, and skywalk that would take several backpacks worth of field guides to bring along on a hike. These apps are developed for learners of all strengths, mixing, very intentionally, attractive visual platforms with text, and sound (offering students avenues of participation that allow for abilities of all types.)
We have enrichment technologies that augment the experience of all comers: a “pro-scope,” linked in to ipads, that allows students to view magnified images of objects in real time; a “snake-light-camera,” that allows teachers to show students the hidden nooks and crannies of boroughs and hollows; and a bevy of “point-and-shoot” digital cameras, for capturing the action of our classes as they unfold.
These technologies allow our students to step into the role of expert, observer, and research scientist.
As an avid naturalist, and nature nerd, I am often an advocate for the eschewing of tech in the field. Unplug those ear buds, dude; leave the phone in the car, and keep your laptop stowed tight as you venture onto the land.
This week, however, I was reminded, again, of the power of technology’s role in brining every student to the table. One of my students learned birdcalls and patterns as his peers wrote in their notebooks. His dysgraphia made it difficult for him to put his best self forward via journaling, but he augmented our group’s global birding prowess, via ipad, as an avenue for self-expression.
“I’m going to be a scientist someday.” He said.
His teachers told me this was the first time they’d heard this. They avowed a dedication to secure an adaptive technology grant as soon as they returned to their campus in Houston.
The woods are full. They need nothing more, and can cure on their own, but with a wealth of tremendous technologies available to us, as naturalists, scientists, students and educators, we can leverage a wide range of apps and digital platforms to access the expertise of all of our collective perspectives. Our screens can make bridges into the screen-less for students steeped in the techno-drenched realities of today’s world, and provide opportunities for every learner to best represent their knowledge. Students with limited physical abilities can access the collective observations of their able-bodied peers, while adding their own acumen to our understandings.
Our technological platforms allow us to flatten the natural world: to provide access for all who chose to approach it. Nature can cure screen-overexposure, and can be reveled through an ipad’s apps. At the OEC, we hope to balance our technological offerings, with our opportunities to experience nature in the raw.
The forest is full, and with the right app, we can each record and engage in that fullness in new and meaningful ways.