Reflection post 6
This week in EDCI 336 our conversations focused of the elementary school of the future. The topic of how schools are going to look in 10 years is a concern of many, but what would it look like in 30 years? We were put into groups to discuss a theme of schools and how it might look in 30 years. In my group we chose to discuss how outdoor education will look.
One of our main points was that global warming will play a large role in how much time students are able to spend outside. As temperature rises and pollution continues the air quality will start to get worse. Even now in other places in the world, India for example, has air quality at hazardous levels that can cause harmful health side effects, for more information look into this website; India Air Quality Alert. So with this information it’s clear that there could be a future where students cannot spend time outside because it will not be safe. This raises concerns because outdoor education is a way to take students out of the regular learning environment, away from screens and to foster connections with peers and the land. Taking steps out of the classroom into nature can improve mental health for all ages. If that’s taken away then what will this mean for our students physical and mental well being.
Some other concerns we discussed were that as population increases more students are entering schools and class sizes are growing. This can make it more difficult for teachers to bring their classes on field trips since it will take more resources; transportation, funds, chaperones, in order to leave the school. It’s already difficult for teachers to do field trips now a days due to funding. If you read my reflection last week I covered a similar topic where I discussed schools having small forest/nature areas on their school grounds which offers good opportunity for outdoor education, but in 30 years maybe those areas will be cleared of trees.
We also discussed how tech can be used in tandem with outdoor education. Firstly if they are able to go out into nature thy could bring a device with a app that can show them educational information about what they are seeing around them. This can be saved and used later in the classroom when doing science, social studies etc. Another point was if nature is scarce in the future, the use of virtual reality to immerse students into nature may be an option. This was a really interesting conversation to have and brainstorm different ideas. All we can do now if wait and see what elementary school learning will look like in 30 years.