Outdoor learning with apps in Danish open education

Abstract

Worldwide, the use of digital technologies for learning, seeking information, social contact and entertainment is on the rise. In Denmark, 70% of children aged seven to twelve are active YouTube consumers (Mehlsen 2016). They also communicate heavily by exchanging text, pictures and links through social media, such as Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram. However, this extensive use of technology coincides with a decline in outdoor experiences (Fraser et al. 2010), which has been popularised as 'nature deficit disorder', where technology-based communication and indoor activities replace learning and playing outside (Louv 2008). Informal learning about how the world is connected from direct experience of nature is replaced with another type of informal learning that focuses mainly on communicative skills and digital literacy. However, the divide between nature and technology is not set in stone. Technology and the use of social media could recruit children into more informal learning experiences of the natural world (e.g. Schilhab et al. 2018b; Schilhab, 2021). Based on the research project 'Natural Technology', we document and analyse the kind of app technologies children and young people implement in their outdoor activities. Our aim is to systematise the current kinds of technologies children and young people use in what could be considered open education situations. We then consider the question of the extent to which informal learning using digital technology contributes to direct experiences with an improved understanding of nature.