Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T02:32:54.577Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“EE in Cyberspace, Why Not?” Teaching, Learning and Researching Tertiary Pre-Service and In-Service Teacher Environmental Education Online

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2015

Hilary Whitehouse
Hilary Whitehouse*
Affiliation:
James Cook University
*
†School of Education, James Cook University, PO Box 6811, Cairns, Queensland 4870, Australia. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Information communication technologies (ICTs) have the potential to enable intending and in-service teachers in regional, rural and remote regions greater access to tertiary education. This paper describes how a fourth year environmental education subject has been successfully delivered wholly online for several years and how pre-service and in-service teachers have responded to learning through an online platform. Research indicates the necessity to create a social learning space in cyberspace to support learning; as well as the importance of building flexible learning opportunities and offline assessment tasks to generate meaningful learning experiences related to local places. Teaching environmental education online may initially create the dilemma of how to engage meaningfully with place-based learning through the no-place of cyberspace. However, carefully designed, online learning can and does support positive learning outcomes. While there are limitations to online study, well-conceived, web-based delivery is certainly no barrier to teaching and learning environmental education in the tertiary sector.

Keywords

Tertiary environmental educationonline learningpre-service and in-service teacher educationtertiary rural and remote educationtertiary student experiences of learning
Type
Research Article
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 24 , 2008 , pp. 11 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, N. (2006). Socio-cultural approaches to literacy and subject knowledge development in learning management systems. In Martin, A. & Madigan, D. (Eds.), Digital literacies for learning (pp. 189–195). London: Facet Publishing.Google Scholar
Baskin, C., & Anderson, N. (2003). The on-line classroom: A self-actualising theme park or trial by multi-media. Australian Educational Computing, 18(1), 11–20.Google Scholar
Baskin, C., & Anderson, N. (2008). Learning management systems and virtual learning environments: A higher education focus. In Leu, D., Lankshear, C., Coiro, J., Coiro, J., & Knobel, M. (Eds.). Handbook of Research on New Literacies (pp. 973–997). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bell, D. (2001). An introduction to cybercultures. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Briano, R., Midoro, V., & Trentin, G. (1997). Computer mediated communication and online teacher training in environmental education. Journal of Information Technology for Teacher Education, 6(2), 127–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fien, J. (1995). Teaching for a sustainable world: The environment and development project for teacher education. Environmental Education Research, 1(1), 21–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fien, J. (2001). Education for sustainability: Reorientating Australian schools for a sustainable future. Melbourne: Australian Conservation Foundation.Google Scholar
Gleick, J. (2000). Faster: The acceleration of just about everything. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Gruenewald, D.A., & Smith, G.A. (Eds.). (2008). Place-based education in the global age. New York: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Jenkins, M. (2006). Supporting students in e-learning. In Martin, A. & Madigan, D. (Eds.), Digital literacies for learning (pp. 162–171). London: Facet Publishing.Google Scholar
Kennelly, J., & Taylor, N. (2007). Education for sustainability for the K-6 Curriculum: A unit of work for pre-service primary teachers in NSW. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 23, 3–12.Google Scholar
Knapp, C.E. (2008). Place-based curricular and pedagogical models. In Gruenewald, D.A. and Smith, G.A. (Eds.), Place-based education in the global age (pp. 5–27). New York: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Levin, T., & Wadmany, R. (2006). Listening to students' voices on learning with information technologies in a rich technology-based classroom. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 34(3), 281–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lopez, B. (1989). Arctic dreams: Imagination and desire in a northern landscape. New York: Bantam Books.Google Scholar
Mayes, J.T. (2001). Learning technology and learning relationships. In Stephenson, J. (Ed.), Teaching and learning online: Pedagogies for new technologies (pp. 16–26). London: Kogan page.Google Scholar
Mayes, J.T., & Fowler, C.J.H. (2006). Learners, learning literacy and the pedagogy of e-learning. In Martin, A. & Madigan, D. (Eds.), Digital literacies for learning (pp. 26–33). London: Facet Publishing.Google Scholar
McKibben, B. (2004). Enough: Staying human in an engineered age. New York: Henry Holt & Company.Google Scholar
Miles, R., Harrison, L., & Cutter Mackenzie, A. (2006). Teacher education: A diluted environmental education experience. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 29(1), 49–59.Google Scholar
Orr, D. (1999). Education for globalisation. The Ecologist, 29(3), 166–170.Google Scholar
Orr, D. (2002). Political economy and the ecology of childhood. In Khan, P.H. & Kellert, S.R. (Eds.), Children and nature: Psychological, socio-cultural and evolutionary investigations (pp. 279–304). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Owen, S., & Moyle, K. (2008). Students' expectations about learning with technologies: A literature review. Canberra. Australian Information and Communications Technology in Education Committee. Retrieved October 30, 2008, from http://www.aictec.edu.au/aictec/webdav/shared/Learner_Research_Literature_Review.pdf Google Scholar
Ross, A., Siepen, G., & O'Connor, S. (2003). Making distance learning E.R.O.T.I.C.: Applying interpretation principles to distance learning. Environmental Education Research, 9(4), 479–495.Google Scholar
Simon, S. (2002). Participatory online environmental education at the Open University, UK. In Filho, W.D., (Ed.), Teaching sustainability: Towards curriculum greening (Chapter 7). Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Sutton, C. (2006). Literacy, e-literacy and multiliteracies: Meeting the challenges of teaching online. In Martin, A. & Madigan, D. (Eds.), Digital literacies for learning (pp. 110–122). London: Facet Publishing.Google Scholar
Tilbury, D., Coleman, V., & Garlick, D. (2005). A national review of environmental education and its contribution to sustainability in Australia: School education. Canberra: Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage and Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability (ARIES).Google Scholar
Tilbury, D., & Henderson, K. (2003). Education for intercultural understanding in Australian schools. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 19, 81–95.Google Scholar
Thomas, A. (2008). Community, Culture And Citizenship In Cyberspace. In Leu, D., Lankshear, C., Coiro, J., Coiro, J., & Knobel, M. (Eds.), Handbook of research on new literacies. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Van Petegem, P., Blieck, A., Imbrecht, I., & Van Hout, T. (2005). Implementing environmental education in pre-service teacher training. Environmental Education Research, 11(2), 161–171.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, H. (2000). Talking up country: The discursive production of environmental meanings in tropical Australia. Unpublished PhD thesis. James Cook University, Cairns.Google Scholar