This semester we have really gotten a good look at outdoor education and nature literacy in one of our other classes, so I was really interested in seeing how technology could be used to enhance students’ experience outside. You don’t often think that technology can be helpful for connecting students to a natural setting, often we think of tech as a barrier to connection, but of course how it is used is what really matters.

Kirsten Pierce came to visit and brought many amazing resources and ideas for connecting the outdoors to the classroom. What I loved most was how familiar many of her resources were. I have used apps like Google Earth, INaturalist, and SkyView, but I have never considered their application in the classroom. It’s funny, I actually only know INaturalist because of a project I did in university, we had to catalogue 250 native species on Vancouver Island. I learned more about the biodiversity of the island using that app for four months than I did in the four years of living here, so why had I never considered using it in my own classrooms?? No clue but I absolutely will try and use these apps.

This class I was also part of the fortunate few who made the trek down to Finnerty Gardens to check out the scavenger hunt. I had been there before, it was one of my favourite places to visit during breaks while in my undergrad, so I knew what to expect when we arrived. It was great to be outside, I immediately felt my mood lift the moment we entered the gardens. And what a good time of year to explore! There were flowers and all sorts of plants in bloom. I pulled out INat and started trying to identify plants. What I noticed is that INat, while amazing, is something you need a phone to use, which may make it hard in a classroom. Maybe though, you could have groups with tablets using it…. You would have to do that for the scavenger hunt as well I guess. Speaking of the scavenger hunt, it was such a cool way to integrate learning with being outside while using technology. Instead of watching those videos or resources in class where we are separated from the outside world, we were able to stand in the environments and with the species being discussed. So cool. I would love to organize something like this in my own classroom.