Concept of our Outdoor-Education-Datenbank

Statement of the problem

The number of concepts which inform the study of educational field trips is vast. Though documented and published in multitude, finding these resources efficiently remains problematic. What has been lacking until now is a platform that covers the wide range of ideas for outdoor education. Moreover, building outdoor education around digital contents, and integrating compelling assignments in a variety of media, has rarely been documented in literature.

Objective

Against this backdrop, an internet-based database will be set up to offer a comprehensive variety of instructions and teaching materials for both inside and outside the classroom. Resting on a system-oriented and holistic approach, which concurrently assigns and joins the different subareas, this database successfully integrates supra-regional topics and (excursion) locations. A systemic approach facilitates immersion in the subject. The subsequent division into ‘regional geography’ and ‘general geography’ encourages users to address local issues with the help of advanced theory.

Moreover, a participatory approach gets a lot of attention pursues the following sub-goals:

1. Collection and documentation of field methods on the level of school knowledge and popular science
2. Collection and documentation of outdoor learning locations that can be compiled and used for field trip itineraries
   
3. Opportunity to integrate self-made field methods and trip itineraries into the database

Thematic and systemic conception of the database

The database is grounded in a systemic conception that provides subject-related, site-specific (regional), methodological and medial accounts. Using the participatory approach, user-based methods, locations and field trip routes can be easily integrated into the database.

The Earth is characterized by spaces at different scales as physical and human geographical systems. Teaching Geography at school is particularly concerned with the systemic approach through which the subject analyses various systems and subsystems of the geosphere cross-sectorally. Geography establishes complex connections between human and physical geography as well as between regional geography and the overall human-Earth system at all scales, contributing to the students’ ability and willingness to become appropriately active in accordance with natural and social conditions (DGfG 2014). Both exploration and acquiring knowledge methodologically are crucial for a contemporary understanding of geographic education. More importantly, it is only with the aid of related sciences and humanities, that the proposed systemic approach is expedient in terms of interdisciplinarity; therefore, these considerations are reasonable to implement into the database

Figure 1

The database rests fundamentally on an understanding of the Earth as a system, and is designed to introduce into both general geography and regional geography. On the one hand, the platform presents universally useful outdoor education programmes that are applicable to different places, and on the other, it integrates various regional locations, which are distinguished by individual characteristics. It is also possible to compile field trip itineraries out of single locations. Users can also put together single sites to routes, including either ready-made proposals for the field trip or individual routes.

Thematic and media-related differentiation

Firstly, by providing access to the database on a general geographic basis, all elements within the dynamics and relationships of the landscape can be described. These geographical features can refer to both human and physical geography, as geographical factors are a combination of both. While physical factors reflect geographical indication of natural provenance, human factors subsume all developments that have been initiated by mankind. Taken as a whole, geographical features allow an insight into the interrelations between humans and environments, weaving together their interactions and influences, and thus enabling multifactorial geographical analyses of ecosystems.

Analyzing all individual geographical features with terrain methods implies that, as far as possible, the methods are ascribed to geographical features. All methods are readily available as method sheets (pdf file), teacher handouts (pdf file), videos, and photo documentation, and the database is supplemented by a library/-literature section. Prospectively, the field work’s measured values are able to be entered into the database, using an online form which affords additional measurements available over a longer timeframe.

Secondly, individual locations – complemented by subject-specific and locally relevant data – are created in the realm of the regional geographic approach. Each location is visually represented on a map, and can then be added to individual field trip itineraries, along with location appropriate suggestions for terrain methods of general geography. Through a careful arrangement of local sites, topic based, educationally rich routes can be built, which in turn refer to physical and human geographical factors.

Participatory approach

Apart from addressing methodological and local teaching and learning, the project aims to actively involve users in the design and enhancement of the database. The collection of pre-screened, thematically based and guided explorations can be easily customized by building personal itineraries from the numerous locations in the database. In addition to having a description of the method and printing off the accompanying material, this supporting information can be recorded and retrieved on mobile devices, promoting interactivity with modern electronic media. Interactive forms also enable the entry of measured values and results for long-term observations. By envisaging new locations, itineraries and methods as pdf files or videos integrated in the new website, users can further create their own material and terrain methods.

This approach efficiently achieves useful extensions beyond the regional borders of the initiators of the project, and beyond a geographical and biological perspective, thus significantly contributing to the establishment and expansion of outdoor education programs within an educational context as authentic place-based teaching and learning. In this way, particular attention is given to the integration of mobile devices, if added value can be demonstrated.

Field of applications

The new database for outdoor education covers various scientifically and didactically relevant areas of content in both a school and university context. Each field trip serves to develop competencies and qualifications, particularly within the scope of spatial orientation and methodological knowledge acquisition.

The current collection of teaching and learning material was predominantly developed by students working towards their teacher’s degree in the seminar “Fachdidaktik IV – Outdoor Education” at the Martin Luther University Halle/Wittenberg for class level 9. With this in mind, the data pool is largely confined to natural areas within the Halle (Saale) area. As all methods of the database are directed at general geography, they can be straightforwardly integrated into the existing portfolio of academic teaching that is concerned with field practice. Additionally, using the database for the application of terrain methods provides a significant opportunity within the area of teacher training. Methods, locations and itineraries also encourage users to develop new ideas for excursions, and hosting them within the database. 

The database can be used for schools when planning, carrying out and evaluating field training and outdoor activities.

In future, further methods, locations and itineraries will be added to the database, drawn up by students attending the compulsory course ‘Outdoor Education’. In order not only to address geographic and scientific methods, further interdisciplinary techniques are intended to be added in the further course of the creation of the database. Through integrating methods beyond the geographical or biological approach, the range of subjects can be expanded, and thus noticeably increasing interdisciplinarity.

In the course of evaluation, the effectiveness of the outdoor education database will be assessed at school and university level. The database is currently translated into English, introducing the educational program to a broader user community.