This article examines the complex relationship between digital technologies and environmental education through a special issue that brought together diverse perspectives from over thirty contributors across various sociocultural, geographical, and disciplinary backgrounds. The research employed an "assemblage methodology" involving ongoing conversations between editors and authors, ultimately resulting in six final manuscripts that explore both opportunities and challenges in digital environmental education, particularly those that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The researchers argue that while digital technologies offer significant educational benefits, they also present serious concerns that require critical evaluation rather than uncritical acceptance or wholesale rejection. Drawing on Feenberg's critical theory of technology, the study advocates for case-by-case evaluation of each technological application based on its specific benefits and challenges to social and environmental systems.
The research identified several key themes in digital environmental education. Digital technologies function as double-edged tools that enabled essential crisis teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, reduced ecological impacts through virtual conferences, and provided powerful platforms for citizen science data collection and environmental activism. However, these same technologies created inequitable access issues across multiple scales, excessive strain and burnout among educators and learners, and risks of replacing locally relevant ecological literacy with virtual alternatives.
The study revealed how digital technologies can both support and undermine environmental education goals. While they offer new possibilities for environmental justice through digital cartography and counter-mapping efforts, they also carry hidden socioecological impacts from their production and use. The research highlighted critical gender implications in digital platform reliance and the potential for digital tools to diminish direct nature experiences that are fundamental to environmental education.
Six contributed studies examined diverse applications across different contexts, from formal and non-formal environmental educators' experiences during COVID-19 lockdowns in Barcelona to children's nature experiences through backyard video tours in Brisbane, environmental digital storytelling using augmented reality in Finland, and family engagement with digital technologies for environmental learning in the United States.
The article concludes by identifying critical areas for future research, including intersectional considerations related to gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic class in digital access, effective professional development of digital competencies for environmental educators, and long-term impacts of COVID-19-driven digital adoption. Rather than viewing digital technologies as inherently beneficial or harmful, the authors emphasize the need for continued critical investigation that acknowledges both achievements and concerns. For environmental educators, this means adopting a thoughtful, case-by-case approach to digital technology integration that recognizes both transformative potential and significant challenges while ensuring that technological solutions do not replace essential direct experiences with the natural world.
Key Takeaway: Environmental educators should adopt a critical, case-by-case approach to digital technology integration, recognizing both the transformative potential and significant challenges these tools present, while ensuring that technological solutions do not replace essential direct experiences with the natural world.
The Bottom Line
This special issue explores the complex relationship between digital technologies and environmental education, examining both opportunities and challenges that have emerged especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. While digital tools offer significant benefits—including crisis teaching capabilities, reduced ecological impacts from virtual conferences, and powerful data collection through citizen science—they also present serious concerns around inequitable access, educator burnout, and the potential replacement of direct nature experiences with virtual alternatives. The research advocates for Feenberg's critical theory of technology, which encourages judicious evaluation of each technological application based on its specific benefits and challenges to social and environmental systems, rather than adopting either uncritical acceptance or wholesale rejection of digital tools.