Children’s learning across natural and digital environments supports developing eco-literacy Mobile technology, such as tablets, presents new possibilities for learning outdoors and education for sustainability. This study considered how children navigate an “intertwined nature-digital interface” to create meaning in ecology. The researchers asked: How do young students develop ecological literacy when using technology and nature together to explore ecological interactions? To contribute to the understanding of ecological literacy learning processes in physical and digital environments, students’ dialogue and actions were considered using a chain of transduction as an analytical tool.
Researchers documented three consecutive days of ecological study at an elementary school in Sweden. The first-grade students, age 6-7, were observed in their classroom and while using an iPad in a nature setting. While a total of 24 students were in the class, the researchers specifically considered the experiences of two students who worked as partners over the course of the three days. Research materials consisted of audio recordings, field notes and photos, as well as drawings, screen shots and digital photos created by students. To analyze data sources, researchers applied a concept chain of transduction to explore how children’s meaning-making processes developed through different modes in the digital/physical context.
The researchers present the dialogue between two students to illustrate the transduction processes involved in their simultaneous ecological and digital learning. Four chains of transduction, or transformative learning stages, emerged: 1) Drawing and communication; 2) Physical arrangement; 3) Extended digital interface arrangement; and 4) Photo. In the first chain of transduction, the students’ narrative around ecological interactions of consumers and producers is initiated by their drawing of small animals and bacteria hiding in a feather. The picture encourages their on-going communication as they begin making meaning of ecological concepts. In the second link, the children transform their drawing into a physical arrangement with real eagle feathers in nature. They arrange the feathers on moss, aiming to create homes for bacteria and small animals, furthering their exploration of ecological interactions, and use the iPad to take a photo of their creation. In the next link of the transduction chain, extended digital interface arrangement, the children use the iPad to download a photo of an eagle and incorporate it with their physical feather arrangement. In their communication “the digital and material outdoors is blurred” and the children’s narrative expands with both humor and seriousness as they continue to consider potential predator-prey interactions. In the final link, photo, “the students’ science inquiry gains an empirical answer supported by visual evidence” as ants unexpectedly crawl onto their feather arrangement. The children take a photo of the ants and express joy in capturing a photo of small animals using the hiding places they created. They continue to question prey-predator relations in regard to the (digital) eagle and the ants through this digital/nature encounter. Throughout the links in the transduction chain, the children’s initial question regarding the potential of feathers as a shelter for small animals, or as nests for birds of prey in the third link, unfolded as a scientific inquiry with children directing the stages and demonstrating agency over their learning.
The research offers detailed insight to how young learners create ecological meaning through intertwined nature/digital environments. Students’ developing ecological literacy was evident through the four processes along the transduction chain. Nature afforded “vital physical transactions,” such as the arrival of the ants, while the digital tablet was an essential resource that allowed for “multimodal and advanced representations” which encouraged students to maintain their focus on ecology within their on-going communication. Importantly, the children directed each process as teachers afforded them the freedom to choose their own actions. Through the outcomes of their actions the children experienced agency, which the authors highlight as central to education for sustainability.
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