Ok I’ll be honest, I struggle with online learning.
However, this may be due to my experience working online during the pandemic. I had a job as an outdoor educator prior to Covid-19…. a not very online centered profession. During the pandemic we were forced to go online and provide our participants with online outdoor content instead of in person.
This was really hard.
The connection that we had forged with the participants seemed to have diminished by 50% in the span of a a couple weeks. The students were also doing online learning through their school, so they were spending upwards of 8 hours online a day… the last thing they wanted to do is their outdoor education program online.
We pivoted, we tried so many things, we played among us, we made an online escape room, we tried power points and playing games… unfortunately it just didn’t have the same impact.
But to me this makes sense… the whole point of outdoor learning is to be OUTSIDE, together, in community, learning from each other. They did not sign up for an online program, they signed up to be outside in person.
However, this doesn’t mean that all online learning is a bust. I can see that online learning can help student access education and include those who may not have been able to participate. It allows for greater flexibility. It can make learning meaningful to a variety of learners. I think its just important to question why you’re going online and they way in which you are going to support your learners online.
Learners are people, and people are all different. Online learning may work very well for some and not for others… as educators it is our job to make learning accessible and if online learning helps, we should embrace it.
