Education outside of the classroom

This week I had the honour to guest moderate a Twitter education chat for the first time, with the #INZPirED community. What made this doubly special was that #INZPirED was the first ever Twitter Edu chat I participated in, back in May!

The topic I chose for the chat was 'How can getting out of the classroom benefit learners?' For the purposes of the chat, and to allow for Twitter's 140 character limit, we used the abbreviation EOTC (Education Outside The Classroom) during the chat. 

There were many great thoughts and opinions around just how useful getting out of the classroom can be for learners, for example by creating active learning opportunities and reinforcing classroom learning.

#INZpirED. Hi Leonie, Hastings NZ. I use EOTC to reinforce learning or create it. Eg Inquiry on Surviving set up course for Ss to experience

— Leonie Bennett (@leonie_hastings) October 24, 2015

@wbutler_wayne @rsehji create opportunities, even mini trips within school grounds create an active learning environment #INZPirED

— Diana Engwa (@DJCE57) October 24, 2015

Getting out of the classroom also gives those students who are sometimes a bit quiet in class the opportunity to become more engaged and gain more of a voice. I have observed this on field trips in the past, where a student who may have never asked a question in class will come up to me with a seemingly endless series of questions!

@Ajarn_Adam allows us to see Ss in a different light! Almost like draws some out of their shell #INZPirED

— Ritu Sehji (@rsehji) October 24, 2015

An important feature of education outside of the classroom is to provide students with ways to engage with authentic and real-life situations, helping to break down barriers between their classroom learning and the real world. 

Hello #inzpired Laurie joining from Maple Ridge BC EOTC allows Ss to engage in authentic activities in real life situations.

— Laurie Meston (@lauriemeston) October 24, 2015

A couple of very real concerns around the practicalities of getting out of the classroom were raised, such as issues around behaviour, transport, and disruption for other teachers. These are fair points, but ones which can be addressed. Behaviour requires the appropriate number of adult supervisors necessary for the grade level and specific needs of the learners involved - obviously resources may play a role in this. Transport, again, is a resources issue. Disruption for other teachers may occur, but as I mentioned during the chat, this is something that as teachers we have to expect. I may take my students out of other classes for a biology field trip to the zoo, while a few weeks later they may be off to the museum for a social studies trip. This is fine - the learning opportunities afforded by well-designed field trips can outweigh the slight loss of curriculum time. 

@lauriemeston @rsehji #INZpirED.Thats why I do it but can be hard in a low decile sch wth behav probs & no support with transport

— Leonie Bennett (@leonie_hastings) October 24, 2015

@Ajarn_Adam @lauriemeston @leonie_hastings do u find that Ts in other subj often find it a disruption when Ss r out & miss lesson #INZPirED

— Ritu Sehji (@rsehji) October 24, 2015

Technology can play a very useful role when it comes to learning outside of the classroom, and this was highlighted during the chat. For example, learners can use their phones for taking photos or videos, recording information, collaborating, and communicating. 

Tech has played a massive part in rise of EOTC. Connectivity, communication and information at our fingertips 24/7. #INZPirED

— Adam Somes (@adamsomes) October 24, 2015

I also pointed out that technology can be useful when field trips may not be practical due to issues of cost, safety, or geography, for example the use of virtual field trips. 

.@DJCE57 Getting out of class may involve issues of cost, safety, geography - tech can help here #INZpirED

— Adam Bodley (@Ajarn_Adam) October 24, 2015

The entire Storify of the chat can be found embedded at the bottom of this page. 

The #INZPirED chat takes place on Twitter every Saturday at 9:30AM Bangkok time (GMT+07:00) - please feel free to join in!

Thanks to Diana Engwa for inviting me to guest moderate and for putting the promo image together, to Ritu Sehji for compiling the Storify, to Sunny Thakral for making me have to think of another topic ;) and to the #INZPirED community.