VIRTUAL VS. VISCERAL FIELD EXPERIENCES: TWO PATHS DIVERGE...TAKE BOTH

In his book “Experience and Education” (1938), John Dewey declares that high-quality classroom learning can best be delivered when “…the educator views teaching and learning as a continuous process of reconstruction of experience.” Such reconstruction, best approached when students are exposed to the actual experiences available at a learning site or place (e.g. a “field trip”), has grown increasingly prohibitive. Cost, bureaucracy, scheduling logistics, common assessments, and inflexible curricular scope and sequence are hurdles in teachers’ efforts to create robust experiential learning opportunities. Unable to extricate themselves from these obstacles, many teachers have submissively succumbed to more didactic instructional methods.

Several recent developments in both education and technology have provided enhanced opportunities for teachers to develop place-based learning opportunities for their students. Innovative solutions include local field experiences, conducted within a short walking distance from the school, provide students with data acquisition techniques and an understanding of how scientists ask questions, conduct investigations, and apply emergent understandings to local situations or problems. Electronic methods for data acquisition, manipulation, and communication (digital probes, Smartphones, iPod Touch devices, etc.) can provide accessible techniques for educators to utilize in “school yard” experiential learning. Finally, initiatives such as the Virtual Fieldwork Experiences (VFEs) can be integrated into the school curriculum. These experiences utilize pre-existing data and images collected by educators.