COMMENT

The first question this week pertains to how computer-mediated learning environments can promote active learning. When I think of active online learning experiences, the very first thing that comes to mind is the Environmental Footprint Reduction Project I have implemented in a General Education environmental science course that I lead and instruct. Environmental footprints are tools for measuring our impacts on Earth's resources in our daily lives; they are a powerful means of bringing indivdiual environmental impacts home to students in a university classroom (Vanderbuilt University, 2020). When I inherited the class, it included an assignment in which students would calculate their ecological footprint at https://www.footprintcalculator.org/ and then also measure their carbon footprint at https://www3.epa.gov/carbon-footprint-calculator/ Students would report their results on a worksheet, answer a couple of questions, submit the assignment, and move on.

I have radically re-visioned the assignment to be active and engaging. And because it takes place online, everything is right there in one place to make it happen and enable students to document and discuss the process. It begins with a first week discussion board in which students calculate the two footprints above plus a water footprint at https://www.watercalculator.org/ An online discussion board enables them to share with other students not only their footprint numbers, but also some strategies for lowering them. Discussion focuses on helping other students figure out strategies for footprint reduction. 

Throughout the following four weeks, in an online journal, students commit to five specific actions to take, and report weekly on their progress. This tool enables the instructor to provide support and encouragement while holding students accountable for taking action. 

Finally, in Week Five, students re-calculate their three footprints and compare results before and after. For many students, there is the triumph of having mad a difference, if only in a small way. It plants the seeds for making greater changes down the road.

Yes, this project could work in a bricks and mortar classroom. But because it is in a computer-mediated learning environment, students are more accountable for the process, and, I am convinced, take it all the more seriously as a result. It is integrated into their academic experience of the class; indeed, it is consistently the facet of the course that students talk the most about in their final journal entries.

For those considering adding environmental footprint calculation activities into their own classes, here is a brief video explaining Ecological Footprints:

UPDATE

For the second question this week, I have been asked to describe and analyze an example of social learning supported by ubiquitous learning devices. The app iNaturalist immediately comes to mind. It is an amazing tool for getting students out into nature, beginning in their own backyards. Here is an explanation of how this app can be used for observing plants and animals all around you:

This app can be used for collecting citizen science data on local biodiversity. Students could use this app in a local natural area to record the organisms present, and then (with the help of the app itself and the many experts that cross-check observations submitted to it) obtain fairly reliable identifications for those organisms. This lends itself to dozens of possibilities for environmental classes, either on-ground or online. In an online environment, students could gather local data, then put together class presentations in PowerPoint or another medium to share what the found, and perhaps discuss how the organisms they observed are adapted to the particular environments where the students live. Meanwhile, data collected in the app becomes a trove of helpful information for scientists and policymakers in the local community, region, or even state. The app iNaturalist functions as camera, field notebook, and field guide all in one. It it a fabulous instance of a technology that fosters deeper engagement with local environments, rather than encouraging yet more hours of screen time at a keyboard. It might even lead students to decide to major in the biological sciences (Unger et al., 2020). 

Sources Cited

Unger, S., Rollins, M., Tietz, A., & Dumais, H. (2020). iNaturalist as an engaging tool for identifying organisms in outdoor activities. Journal of Biological Education, 1-11.

Vanderbuilt University (2020). Teaching sustainability. Retrieved from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/teaching-sustainability/#foot