Using a Virtual National Park to Teach Workplace Skills in Conservation Management

Abstract

Teaching conservation management means more than just learning about solving complex and difficult environmental issues. Such learning must also consider the likely administrative context that students will end up working in. This article outlines the development of a role-play that uses online technology to teach several administrative processes associated with conservation management. As such, this paper shows how a role-play within a digital environment can be used to provide scenarios that are difficult to obtain through a work placement. In developing this role-play, a number of errors occurred most noticeably with insufficient consideration about how to facilitate the use of IT in the classroom. Having made some changes, evaluation now suggests that students find the role-play more stimulating that the traditional lecture-style format of the same material. An important lesson is that the use of role-plays within a digital environment is not simply about using technology, but about people and the way learning is supported.

Virtual reality as a spatial prompt in geography learning and teaching

“…Geographical literature on the implications of immersive VR for teaching practice in geography remains scant, but in some works there are important insights as to certain elements of its efficacy. The capacity of VR platforms to inculcate in students a sense of presence within diverse environments has been heralded as offering a venue for meaningful experiential learning, enabling, for example, forms of role play that might complement or even replace more traditional work placements (Howard, 2011) or providing an experimental space to practise methodological skills and techniques (Kitchen, 2020). Furthermore, as Šašinka et al (2019) have suggested, VR platforms have a specific relevance for geographical study, given their capacity to move between and juxtapose abstract geographical representations such as contour lines and concepts such as scale, which is achieved using visual simulations of environments and spatialities that these representations and concepts are intended to signify.…”

Using a Blended Learning Approach to Simulate the Negotiation of a Multilateral Environmental Agreement

“…First, we used the simulation to highlight the complex and interrelated dynamics that characterize the negotiation of MEAs. Like Brynen (), we mobilized the role‐play simulation as a tool to recreate the complexity of real‐life negotiations and to help students appreciate why consensus around global environmental problems is so difficult to achieve (see also Howard ). Second, we wanted to tease out the multiple ways in which power relationships shape political outcomes in global environmental governance.…”

“…Role‐play simulations—in which students adopt a character and represent this role within an approximation of the real world as part of the learning process—have become a fixture of geographical pedagogy (Maddrell ; Dengler ; Howard ). Lauded as a teaching tool that recreates complex realities in a simplified and condensed manner, simulations have been shown to help stimulate student interest (Druckman and Ebner ), enhance the mastery of course materials (Rivera and Simons ), and deepen both critical and analytical thinking skills (Shellman and Turan ).…”