Using Social Media to Reinforce Environmental Learning and Action Taking for School Students

Abstract

Environmental experiences often engage learners and create an intention to act, which is then not followed through once the learner is removed from the environment. This study utilized an exploratory, interpretive framework with younger primary school classes to investigate if transfer of learning from field trip experiences in and about the environment into action for the environment could be reinforced by social media interaction between the environmental educator and the class through a blog. Field observations, teacher interviews, student focus groups and analyses of students' work indicated that the blogs were well-received by teachers and students and did foster continued student engagement. The social media interaction only facilitated student action-taking if there was a shared philosophy between the environmental educator and the teacher with respect to the aims of the experiences and the value of action-taking. The importance of teacher attitudes in determining the value of social media is discussed as well as the benefit of dialogue among environmental educators and classroom teachers with respect to the philosophy of environmental learning experiences.

Promoting community socio-ecological sustainability through technology: A case study from Chile

“…For example, the follow-up online survey we conducted four months after participants' initial visit to the website showed that, while knowledge may have been retained and even built on for those community members who had voluntarily revisited the website, the lack of post-learning experience reinforcement had led to less reported action on the issue than we had hoped for. This signals the need for more intense reinforcement (Ballantyne & Packer, 2011) after such learning experiences; we posit that social media, had they been better developed at the time of the study, would have potentially enabled that reinforcement (Wals, 2015;Warner et al, 2014). In future interventions, this may more readily bring about the sort of transformative change within communities which is required for longterm effectiveness (Fien & Tilbury, 2002;Räthzel & Uzzell, 2009;Sterling, 2001).…”

Mother Earth, Mother Africa & African Indigenous Religions

“…Social media has become an important tool for providing a space and means for the public to participate in influencing or disallowing environmental decisions made by governments and corporations that affect all. This has developed a mode for people to be connected with local environmental challenges and interpretations to larger-scale stories that will affect the global community (Warner, Eames & Irving, 2014) Undermining of community participation by politicians…”

A Framework for Mixed Reality Free-Choice, Self-Determined Learning

“…This education outside the classroom (EOTC) can then be aligned with formal curriculum guidelines. For example, in the case of this study, it can meet the objectives of The New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education 2007) around science and sustainability within the local environment, which can lead to the development of student ecoliteracy (Ministry of Education 2016; Warner, Eames, and Irving 2014).…”