Educational Origami

The pre confernce workshop I booked into was Urban Outdoor education. The two presnters were a principal instructor/teacher from a state funded outdoor education facility and the DP at a local state school.

The session started by mirroring an activity they do with students. It involved:

• briefing the students (us)
• journeying to the location
• doing the task
• reviewing/debriefing

To start they discussed the language they were using – essientally this was defining the goals and objectives of their session, course or programme. They had a theme of resilience which had 5 different elements:

1. Problem solving – being prepared to think rather than giving up when it starts getting tough.
2. Autonomy – importance of being a self directed person
3. Social competence – adjusting behaviour to suit new circumstances
4. Coping skills – Keeping emotionally stable under times of stress
5. Optimism – looking for and building upon the best in your self and others

Our journey was a short one but during it we had to introduce ourselves to all the members of the group and find out about each other – a nice touch

Then in the Gallery of modern art (GOMA) we had to search and find a piece of art (while working in pairs) that represented one of the 5 facets and preapre a report back on this.

Again this experience reinforced the key facets of their programme  – resiliance.

They discussed with us how they apply this to teaching and learning in their school. The students are given a task of journeying to a destination. They plan and research this and then present the plan to their tutor teachers (most select public transport). This plan is then approved or modified

The students udenrtake their journey, they all carry cell phones and their are teachers shadowing the journey in cars to pick up the ones that get off at the wrong stop etc.

Once at the location they do tasks like the one described above as well as adventure based learning activities. Each with a focus on the key themes of resiliance.

All in all a good session. Fun, engaging and with Merit.

One of the other aspects they discussed was the three components that they though were essential for a successful outdoor education experience independent of whether it is urban, rural or wilderness. The three components were:

1. Language – This is essentially being able to clearly communicate the goals and objective of the program to all involved. The goals must be clear and inclusive, real and applicable, and be percieved as having value before the activity, during and after
2. Resource – this is the space (and materials) that provides the opportunity for the learning
3. Partnership – This is someone who has the skills that you don’t. for me this could be someone within the group (using the experts within to achieve the task) or an instructor.

Again this is a good model, simple and straight forward and one that is applicable to outdoor education.

One thing I did like wwas their ongoing emphasis on the experience often revisiting it with their students. They facilitated this by giving tehir students camera and making from their photo record a music video. This was used as a preface to activities to re-establish the communication – revisiting the video takes them back to the experience.

One comment I think has value was that – when you hit the wall is when you need to start problem solving.