Abstract:

The goal of this study is to create the Outdoor Classroom Program to complement classroom instruction. Researches proved the fundamental impact of field trips and outdoor learning as a key to successful improvement of student knowledge, skills, achievement, and positive attitudes (Orion and Hofstein, 1991, and Guller and Afacan, 2013). The environmental, multidisciplinary diverse aspects for this program contribute for the integration of its subjects in experiential learning empowered by mobile technologies to collect and annotate data allowing students to construct meaningful hands-on learning in real-contexts (Kravcik, Specht, and Terrenghi, 2014). Participants of this study agreed that fieldtrips experiences were unforgettable. Therefore, fieldtrips empowered by technology is to create the 21st century model for the Outdoor Classroom Program. Kounin’s environmental approach to instruction (1970) includes ancient instructional methods that relates to Native Americans and the early explorers who were the precursors of the outdoor education perpetuated by a series of programs such as the boy’s and girl’s scouts. Life-long skills and language acquisition has proved to be the most efficient method for learning when one is engaged in the exchange of ideas relating to real time nature exploration (Skinner, 1974). Field trips are at imminent risk of disappear from American public schools. According to Whitesell (2015), ironically, this last two decades saw a huge increase in educational programs in museums and institutions (Falk and Dierking, 1997), well aligned with mandated curriculum and standards. However, according to the American Association of Museums (Education World, 2012), school field trips tremendously decreased for reasons such as schools’ strict budgets, liability, teachers’ lack of time due to testing, and bureaucracy involved in each field trip (Behrendt and Franklin, 2014, and Falk and Dierking, 1997). These additional burdens such as the transport, the chaperones, the fees and fundraising, and the materials, discouraged many teachers. The increasing majority of student population does not get the advantage field trips and outdoors rich environments provide by humanizing students through collective experiences (Whitesell, 2015). Thus, taking the students to on site short field trips in designated areas using mobile technologies, or mounting a self-guided field trip (Moore, Kerr, and Hadgraft, 2008) helps teach tomorrow’s citizens and will provide students with an alternative to the huge bureaucracy in traditional school field trips. In the classroom, students focus on a specific concept to explore outdoors. Outdoors, students might explore the school grounds where they might create virtual museum exhibits with QR codes, or a local museum might share traveling exhibits with the school (Behrendt and Franklin, 2014). It offers virtual valuable exposure to natural habitats/museums and provides an infinite resource for the teacher and students for enhancing learning and creativity through mobile technology (Kelton, 2015). The recreation of concrete into abstract is a learning process that needs to be reviewed from time to time. It is my goal to facilitate teachers to implement outdoor learning environments. Outdoor classroom experiments provide a genuine context for lifelong learning and peer dialogue and interaction.

Keywords:

Fieldtrips, outdoor classroom, mobile devices, technology, lifelong learning, collective experience, experiential learning.