Technology in Environmental Education

by Clancy J. Wolf

In a world where we are frequently exposed to controversial high-tech

headlines about self replicating miniature robots, attempts to download
human brains into computers, and cars with night vision and heads up
displays, (note) I am often asked what does technology have to offer
environmental educators and their students? When it comes to technology, we
are of two minds. We hate TV, but we have a favorite show. We hate
deforestation, but we love beautiful wood-grain furniture. We hate electronic
eavesdropping. But we love it when it's used to capture a fiendish criminal.
Technology. We love to hate it. We hate to love it. (note.) In the next few
pages, I will explore the philosophy and examples of how we try to embrace (if
not love) Technology in our programs at IslandWood.

In a recent survey of environmental centers, Bethany Lesure found the most

common reasons for integrating technology into educational programs are
"audience demand", "State Ed. Requirement", a way to "Reach Out", and that
"Kids Relate" to technology (Lesure, 2002). While these are very pragmatic
reasons, I would argue that we need to be more deliberate in our choices �
after all, isn't much of Environmental Education about considering the
consequences of one's actions? (note.)

Integrating technology into our educational programs provides students with

additional tools to enhance their learning. So you might wonder, "What are
the benefits of taking this approach to help students explore and understand
the world around them?"

Technology supports our efforts to appeal to different learning styles. With a

variety of learning tools, students can understand their experiences through
verbal, written, spatial, quantitative, and/or graphical means. As a result,
many more students become engaged in the learning process.

Technology supports our multidisciplinary approach to learning. Integrating

different disciplines helps students combine their mathematical, logical,
scientific, linguistic, artistic, and social knowledge to make their lives and
interactions with the world clearer.
Technology is integral to modern science. Modeling the research techniques of
biologists, engineers, and other professionals, helps students use technology
to measure, document, interpret, obtain, and manage data.

Technology aids our efforts in supporting teachers. Regardless of their

disciplines, few teachers currently receive training in the use of technology.
Technology allows us not only to demonstrate teaching strategies, but also to
deliver training, which provides teachers with the skills and confidence to
become leaders in their classrooms and schools.

Technology gives us a way to connect with each other and extend the learning
experience. Interactive web elements and participation in video conferencing
provide students with experiences before their visits to IslandWood, and allows them
to continue projects after their stay at our campus.

There are many definitions used to define "technology," particularly when looking at
how it is used in education. One of the simplest definitions, and one I like, is that
technology is how humans change/control their environment. (note) A metaphor I like
to consider when explaining the role of technology in education is that technology is an
"amplifier." By that, I mean that technology helps us extend our senses. Since we
interact with the environment through our senses, using technology seems a logical
element of instruction about the environment.

Here are a few of the specific ways we have infused technology into programs at
IslandWood. I have tried to include enough information to enable readers to modify the
uses for their own locations.

The plethora of digital cameras on the market allows us to capture all sorts of images
that previously have been fleeting. Simple adapters are available, and even specialized
instruments that make it easy to capture and save digital images from microscopes,
binoculars and telescopes � essentially any optical instrument. In each of our lab
classrooms, we have microscopes hooked up to video screens so children can see what it
should look like before they look into their own microscope � a valuable "clue" to
provide feedback if you've never used a microscope before. Similarly, a video screen on a
spotting scope in the bird blind helps new users understand how to use their own scopes
and binoculars.

A great digital camera activity involves kids taking pictures of each other to learn
constellations. Each child researches and chooses his or her own constellation. They
then pose in a manner similar to the figures associated with constellation and have a
buddy take their picture. Once the picture is transferred to the computer, kids remove
the background, add the stars in the correct places, and possibly include some text and
drawings. We've had kids print their constellations on transfer paper and iron them
onto T-shirts. It's hard to forget what Cassiopeia looks like once you've sat in her chair!
(note)
We can use technology to speed up or slow down time. High speed movies allow us to
"slow down" time and see how milk splashes, or how cats lick. Time-lapse photography
allows us to see how slow process work. My daughter made a time-lapse movie of a
caterpillar metamorphosizing into a butterfly using the software that came with a $99
web camera. What took three weeks to film could be played back in 30 seconds. The
neatest thing was watching the chrysalis - that had looked pretty much the same to us all
the time � wiggle and change in shape. (note)

Handheld devices, Palms and PocketPCs, are a great way to get technology into
children's hands at a fairly affordable price. The advantage of these devices is that they
run lots of software, so they are multifunctional. We use handheld computers to collect
data, help analyze data, and as a multimedia reference. Imagiworks produces
ImagiProbe - a sensor-based data acquisition system that enables students to conduct
authentic scientific investigations much as research scientists do. Dozens of probes are
available to measure just about any parameter you want. We use probes to measure
temperature and pH of various bodies of water on our campus as the children study
stream health.CyberTracker is another great tool for the Palm devices. It helps children
step through the process of identifying what species they've "seen." We've also created a
collection of simple web pages for animals specific to our location to act as a multimedia
reference. With this guide installed on a PocketPC, our instructors, and the children,
have a field guide that not only shows pictures and words, but can play the vocalizations
of birds. By working through the sounds on the PocketPC or tracks or scat in
CyberTracker, children learn that sight is not the only way to make a PID (Positive
Identification.)

Computers, themselves, have a role in what many people think of when discussing
"Technology" in education. They are great ways to find information and learn facts,
manipulate that information, and communicate what has been learned.

Two of my favorite "species references" help children learn about species in the context
of their environments in a highly interactive setting.Photo Hunt in Yellowstone helps
kids learn about what animals they'll find in Yellowstone Park, as well as learn to decide
where to find them. Similarly, students can take a virtual dive through Monterey Bay's
kelp forest and see 17 of Monterey Bay's native species at in context. These are both
wonderful examples of presenting reference information in fun, effective ways.

Spreadsheets are great applications for helping kids display data graphically - if there's
only one thing you are allowed to do on a computer with data, have kids learn to create
graphs (and gain control of their information!)

Showing how things work through simulations is also useful. A favorite tool of mine
is Model-It - a visual modeling and simulation tool for use on desktop computers.
Students can easily build, test, and evaluate qualitative models without needing to know
the underlying calculus driving these models. They can create models that represent
their theories about the scientific phenomena studied in class, and they can run
simulations in order to test their models. Again, they are in control and use this as a tool
to describe what they think is happening.
Finally, remember, "There's No Such Thing As the Technology Itself." You'll need some
training on how to use it, and some strategy for supporting, fixing and replacing what
you have. One challenge we face at IslandWood is that children visit our facility for three
to four days. We want to minimize the time they spend learning how to use the
technology, and maximize the time they spend learning. This often means more
sophisticated systems (to make them fool-proof) or more time training our staff how to
use the systems. No matter how you address it, remember the goal of the learning
is not how to use the technology, but what is was used for!

I hope this gives you some ideas about the appropriate uses of technology in
Environmental Education. Think about the needs of the learners, and the educational
values the applications provide. Consider technology as a way to amplify and extend the
essential skills and knowledge you want your students to acquire. If it's also fun, great!

Technology And MI
by Thomas R. Hoerr, Ph.D.
How will technology affect the implementation of Multiple Intelligences
(MI)? How might technology affect the implementation of MI? Whether or not we like
thinking about these possibilities, whether or not we rely on a Palm Pilot (tm) or have
trouble programming our VCR, the continual advances in technology are a day-to-day
reality. At least in most sectors of society.

More than one wag has pointed out that someone awakening from a 50 year nap in a
school would think she had been asleep for a few years at most, long enough to see
fashions change, but that's about it. Otherwise, schools would be pretty much the same
as when she fell asleep a half-century ago. Indeed, in many schools the model is the
same as it always was: the teacher is in front of the class, the students sitting in rows of
desks, information being disseminated. Walking outside of school, however, Ramona
Van Winkle would be astounded at the changes. She would see people talking on the
phone in cars, using cellular phones or PDAs (personal digital assistants) while walking
down the street, and see what looks like tiny television screens on which people were
typing and reading something called "e-mail messages." That doesn't even begin to deal
with microwaves, satellite television systems, tiny computer chips being embedded in
virtually every household appliance, and a host of other changes too numerous and
subtle to be recounted here.

But schools, by and large, would seem pretty much the same, Ramona would
note. Virtually no where else in our society is this true. From hospitals to prisons,
department stores to restaurants, auto repair shops to law offices, technology has
changed both appearance and function. The one exception in schools, a way in which
they have changed, would be that in many classrooms, computers sit in a prominent
position � even if they don't play a prominent role in instruction.

In all fairness, when it is correctly said that technology hasn't made much of a difference
in schools, I'm reminded of the comment that lowering pupil-teacher ratios doesn't
make much of a difference in student achievement. That's true: a reduction from 32 to
28 pupils doesn't yield much. But what would happen if the number of pupils dropped
to 16 per teacher? Is there any doubt that student achievement, however measured,
would shoot up? Similarly, technology hasn't made much of a dent yet but that's
because we really haven't immersed ourselves in the possibilities. In general, schools
have not kept pace with technological advances. This is not the fault of
educators. Schools are rarely adequately funded and buying technology often only
happens at the expense of purchasing other materials or increasing salaries.

But this will change. The price of technology continues to drop and the capacity to store
and transmit data will explode even more than it has in the past. As a result, classrooms
of tomorrow will use various forms of technology on a routine basis. The kinds and
quantity of information at a student's fingertips (literally and figuratively) will ratchet
up expectations for how problems are solved and research is done at every level, from
grade 3 through graduate school.
This increased use of technology will not diminish the role of the teacher. Indeed, as
Edward Hallowell points out, "the human moment" (January-February 1999 Harvard
Business Review), a face-to-face interaction, becomes even more important when so
much of our time is spent communicating with and through an electronic device (true
with adults, even more true with children). Good teachers will remain the key to a
student learning, but they will routinely rely on a host of technological
tools. Technology will continue to be cheaper, more powerful, and more pervasive.

Indeed, "more pervasive" may be an understatement. In Japan, for example, recent

advances in technology allow cell-phones to be used to send and receive e-mail. But
since the Japanese alphabet contains thousands of characters, not 26, the phones have
symbol-keys which enable one touch to send a visual image that means a word, such as
"eating" or "time," or a phrase, such as "I am feeling..." "How are you?" or "Do you want
to...?" The recipient receives a rebus-like electronic message on her cell-phone
consisting of words and visual images. (The same cell- phones perform the function of
charge cards and can be pointed at vending machines of various kinds, assessing the
owner for the charge of a theater ticket, soft drink, or rapid transit ride.) The screen on
these phones is far more advanced of those presently used in the states, capable of
highly sophisticated digital imagery, and can be used to watch a movie or, in the not-
too-distant future, see a clear picture of the person with whom one is speaking.

Small handheld, virtually impervious, laptop computers are beginning to take hold
within our country. Although their memory is small and their screens are tiny (at least
as of this month!), they allow each child to have a portable word-processor. How long
will it be before students routinely paste in computer graphics to amplify a point or use
them rebus-like, as they do in Japan, when writing a book report or note to a
friend? Already students create their own personal web-pages and use websites to share
their research with, potentially, millions of unknown others around the world. Today
most schools have at least one internet connection. Shortly technology will make hard
wires obsolete and every student will be able to be on-line simultaneously, perusing
websites (or sending furtive messages to a buddy in another class, school, or
state). Imagine a class in which each child has total access to the internet, as much as
the teacher will allow.

In The Age of the Spiritual Machines (Viking Press, 1999), Ray Kurzweil talks about the
inevitable fusing of flesh, spirit, and computer. He tracks how the demarcation between
what we consider unique to humans and what computers can do becomes less clear each
year. Like Isaac Asimov before him, by 2020 Kurzweil predicts that technological
advances will give computers the capacity to express emotion. "Human rights for
computers" -- when is it fair to pull the plug on an ailing computer? (pun intended!) --
will become a topic of much disagreement. Small telephone language interpreters,
embedded in every handset, will be commonplace, instantaneously translating whatever
language is spoken to that which the listener desires. And virtual reality will be far more
sophisticated than today's flight-simulators or mortal combat computer
games. Kurzweil predicts that technology will allow us to have face-to-face interactions
in real-time with people who live on other continents; the technology, he assures us, will
be so powerful that we will not know whether we are speaking to them in person or to a
computer-generated life form. (Would Hallowell call this a "human moment," I
wonder?) As an example of the blurring of what is defined as human and what is
defined as computer, he points out that we have already started down the road to using
computers in our bodies, artificial kidneys or hearts being fully accepted. Yet none of us
think that the people who have these artificial organs in their bodies are any less human.

So how does this relate to using MI? How will all of this change both what and how we
teach? The only thing I know is that I don't know!What I do know, though, is that
technology is beating at the door and is here to stay. Technological advances will not
only make our lives easier, they will change the way we live and think. And while it will
be later rather than sooner, this will happen in our classrooms too. Realistically, our
most outlandish predictions will probably be considered conservative in 20 years. All
we can do is stay abreast of technology and think of how it can offer us creative new
ways to use MI to help our students grow and learn. In no way suggesting that we are in
the forefront of technology (we consciously decided that this is not a route we want to
take), what follows are some suggestions based on our experiences at New City School.

Record students' findings and research in creating your own living data. For
years, as a study of biographies, our fourth grade students have created a "Living
Museum." Rather than simply read and write about heroes and heroines, our students
become these people. They dress up as the individual they studied, give a 3-5 minute
presentation of their lives, and answer questions posed by other students and adult
visitors. This year we took the next step and recorded each presentation on videotape,
not just for the child's portfolio (as we have always done), but as an entry for the tape of
the particular historical figure. In ten years, then, for example, we will have 6-8
different renditions of students portraying Winston Churchill speaking about his life on
one videotape. Future years' students � whether they happen to be in this same class
and preparing to present their biography or are a student from another grade who is
studying Churchill or World War II -- will be able to view the New City Churchill
videotape. Scores of other historic figures will be featured on their videotapes, e.g. Rosa
Parks, George Washington, and will be available to be used in research. This same
technique, recording students' findings and presentations for future use, could be done
with all research reports, projects, and presentations.

Use videotapes as a tool for student reflection and developing the

intrapersonal intelligence. We believe that the personal intelligences are the most
important ones, and videotapes can be a powerful tool to give students feedback about
themselves. We use videotapes at every grade level to tape students as they present their
research projects and reports. We also have created forms which the students complete
while watching themselves on tape, in order to reflect on their performance. Watching
oneself presenting on videotape and responding to questions such as What did you do
well? With what were you not pleased? What should you do differently next time? is a
real learning experience. Students not only learn how to share information and present
their findings and opinions, they are developing their intrapersonal intelligence.

Use CD-ROMS to create digital portfolios. We are beginning to talk about this as
an alternative to our traditional portfolios. Filled with papers and photos, along with an
audio and videotape, our present student portfolios address every intelligence each year
and are over-brimming by the time a student completes the sixth grade (despite the fact
that we cull them each year). A digital portfolio would not only save space, it would
facilitate sharing student progress with families at home and around the dinner table
(although we would never want to forsake our spring Portfolio Night). Of course, a
digital portfolio would not only be able to contain far more information, technology
would capture a far more richer picture of a child's progress, showing him/her "in
action" while making presentations.

Use digital camera technology as part of report cards. Last year it dawned on
me that is was fairly ludicrous that we at New City, an MI school, relied almost
exclusively on the linguistic intelligence to share student progress on our report cards.
Our twice-annual report cards � 5 to 9 pages in length and beginning with a page
devoted to the personal intelligences � consisted of skill-based grids, rubrics, and
personalized narratives. Last year, instead of simply writing about a student's progress
in art class, we also used a digital camera to include a photo of a piece of the student's
art work in the report card. This year, rather than simply describing a student's efforts
in creating a Native American diorama, we also added a picture of the student holding
his/her diorama. As with the photo of the child's art work, discussion questions are
printed at the bottom of each page to facilitate a dialogue among parents and
students. Next year we plan to expand this strategy to more grades, with digital photos
ultimately being an integral part of every report card.

A non-New City idea is to look for software that supports the intelligences
not most readily available in your classroom. None of us is strong in every
intelligence and it's only natural that we tend to teach in those areas in which we are the
strongest. Learning-centers can be used to help address our weaker intelligences, and
software can supplement them. Learning arcades designed around each intelligence,
moving from room to room, have been effective at the Truman School in Davenport, IA.

These strategies are just a few ways to grab on to today's technology and use it to value
all of a child's intelligences. Surely, by the time you read this article, tomorrow's
technology and tomorrow's ideas will have already made some of these suggestions
routine. I'd welcome any ideas you may have!

Life to me

Life is every where

 It is in you now and forever it shall stay
Life is the wind blowing sideways
Life is the winter and the summer
I am Life You are Life We are Life
I love Life and Life loves me
Life and I play beneath the midnight sun
Life and I play beneath the morning moon
Life brings me soup when I am ill
Life kisses me good night and greets me with a smile
Life is sad and it is lonely
Life is evil and Life is blunt
Life is a true friend and never lies
I am Life You are Life We are Life

Life is challence accep it

Life is a word of wonders
Life is lonely
Life is joyful
What is life when all you,
do is breath
Life's a gift now you're wiht me

Life is full of frustation

Life can grab you anytime
Life remains always silence
Life is challenge, accep it
Life is not a bed of roses

What is life?
Life is a puzzle, solve it
A sweet memory of,
Childhood is life
Purpose of life is to grow

Challenge of life is to,

overcome
Life Goes on.

LOVE POEM OF THE WEEK See All

I just want one more day with you by Cyndi

I'm so sad and depressed
Is all I want to do is rest
I go to sleep at night
But my dreams I just can't fight

I think of you lying in that bed

And wonder if there is anything I could have said
I wish you were still here
But I know that you are still near

I love you more than you know

I just wish you didn't have to go
I just want one more day with you
And I know thats what you would have wanted too

I miss you more and more each day

There is so much more we had to say
I know I will see you again
But my life is just started to begin.

POPULAR LOVE QUOTES See All

Every moment spent with you is like a

beautiful dream come true...

My favorite place to be is inside of your

hugs where it's warm and loving. I Love
You!

Kiss me and you shall see stars, love me

and I'll give them to you.

I love you with everything I am, and more

than anyone ever thought possible...

You may not be here with me... But

thoughts of you are always in my heart...
I Miss You!