Postdigital Outdoor and Environmental Education

Abstract

Alongside this acknowledgement, the field of OEE must also consider how it is inescapably positioned within the networked spaces (e.g. social media and the technical architectures that sustain them) that very often characterise contemporary societies. Montgomery (2015) extends this, demonstrating how networked spaces have unpicked what were formerly stable social boundaries in the lives of young people. As 18-year-old Skyler told her Mum in research conducted by boyd (2014: 119), if you cannot engage with such spaces 'you don't exist'. Davidson and Goldberg (2010) build on this, positing that technology has inevitably altered how young people participate in civic society, whilst changing how people play, learn and socialise.In contemporary life, young people seamlessly inhabit and grow up in a world where distinguishing between so-called digital and non-digital spaces becomes increasingly difficult and probably impossible (Allaby and Shannon 2020; Kaplan-Berkley 2021). Positioning contemporary childhoods within this collapsed digital-non-digital binary may be positioned as a characteristic of the postdigital condition (Ryberg et al. 2021). As Jandrić et al. (2018 put forward, 'we are increasingly no longer in a world where digital technology and media is separate, virtual, "other" to a "natural" human and social life'. This adds yet more layers to the OEE endeavour and presents a messy and chaotic space from which young people may begin to make sense of their outdoor learning experiences. This raises the question: In a time of climate and ecological crisis, what impact might a postdigital reality have on the purposes and outcomes of OEE?Within this postdigital context, OEE must also account for the ongoing oppression and stigmatisation experienced by groups of diverse populations in outdoor learning. Whether it be issues of hegemonic masculinity (Kennedy and Russell 2020), racial equity and inclusion (Romero et al. 2022) or the marginalisation of gender variant students (Bren and Prince 2022), we must consider how the postdigital interacts with the foundational inequalities present in OEE. Making sense of the relationships between OEE, inequality, emancipation and the postdigital interacts with Jandrić and Ford's (2022) edited book Postdigital Ecopedagogies: Genealogies, Contradictions, and Possible Futures. Especially poignant is the chapter from Misiaszek et al. (2022), who present a case study on an ecopedagogical course which utilised TikTok to explore narratives of neocolonialism, ecoracism and anthropocentrism in Western constructions of nature and earth. They conclude that learners need 'to be also outside of digital spaces (e.g., offline, off-the-grid)' in order to understand and address issues of socio-environmental injustices and the climate and ecological crisis (Misiaszek et al. 2022: 140).What the above does is outline some of the complexities that are present when considering the role of the postdigital in OEE contexts. As I have discussed previously, 'in a postdigital world marked by the climate an...

The Impact of Technology on Presence in Outdoor Education

“…Some authors have argued the futility of trying to create learning opportunities entirely free from the influence of digital technologies. We recognise the view expressed by Reed (2022) that networked spaces are an inescapable part of both the experience and consolidation of learning outdoors. Furthermore, we acknowledge that networked spaces may offer young people a living archive, or memory bank, for their outdoor education experiences.…”

Presence and (dis)connectedness – the influence of smartphones usage on human–nature and human–human interactions in outdoor studies

“…In particular, outdoor educators are concerned with a perceived disconnection between humans and nature (Beery, 2014;Beames, 2017). While acknowledging the undeniable presence and embeddedness of mobile technologies (Jandrić et al, 2018;Knox, 2019) and the always available communications environment (Boyd, 2014;Reed, 2022), we argue that it is important for the field of outdoor education to gain a deeper understanding of how interactions in the outdoor classroom are affected by and mediated through smartphones.…”

“…Rather than functioning as separate domains, smartphones and their access to connective spaces have become a kind of 'overlay' to the physical world. The postdigital era is hallmarked in part by living in a constantly connected, always available communication environment (Boyd, 2014;Jandrić et al, 2018;Reed, 2022), where 'social practices and economic and political systems' (Knox, 2019, p. 358) are entangled with digital and mobile technologies. Indeed, smartphones have arguably turned into 'all-in-one' devices, which function, for example, as personal computer, watch, compass, map, television, telephone, camera, and GPS (Misra et al, 2016).…”

Instructor Perspectives on Mobile Technologies and Social Media in Practice: Findings From the United Kingdom's Outward Bound Trust

“…From narratives of technology disconnecting learners from nature (e.g., Isgren Karlsson et al, 2022) to technology enhancing reflection and memory (e.g., Loeffler, 2004), the position of technology in outdoor education remains a contested topic. However, recent work on the role of the postdigital in outdoor education extends and, perhaps, collapses this dichotomy (Reed, 2022). Given the prevalence of mobile technology and social media in society, and its salience in the lives of young people (Ofcom, 2022), narratives of choice to embrace or not to embrace technology may become an oversimplification of reality.…”

“…The notion of technology as infrastructure is important here given Plantin and Punathambekar (2019) acknowledge how culture, politics, and economy are now situated and sustained within some of the largest digital platforms. In recent times, even the word “digital” has come under scrutiny through the lens of the postdigital (Jandrić et al, 2018; Reed, 2022). The postdigital takes as a given that “(t)he digital is integrated and imbricated with our everyday actions and interactions” to an extent that distinguishing between so-called digital and non-digital spaces becomes impossible (Feenberg, 2019, p. 8).…”