Rationale

One of the most exciting ways to teach students is through informal

education. Informal educational settings such as zoo, aquariums, and museums offer real
life experiences that produce life long learning. Kids are quickly and easily engaged
when attending an informal educational program. First, its often something different
from what they are doing day-to-day. Also, it is something they are most likely
interested in from the start. So how can we take this already proven and successful
teaching opportunity to the next level? I believe that through the use of technology we
can make the visits more interactive and can gamify the experience. Through the use of
interactive experiences between visitors and zookeepers and the use of badging we can
make a typical trip to the zoo more exciting and more meaningful.

The child is the starting point, the center, and the end. His development, his growth,
is the ideal. It alone furnishes the standard (Dewey, 1902, p. 107). This quote from
John Dewey epitomizes my values and sits at the core of my educational philosophy.
How we get to the point where this quote is not only a part of someones belief system,
but an actuality in our schools, drives my thirst for learning and exploration. My project
will incorporate multiple learning strategies and use various technologies to personalize
each lesson to individual students and their needs. The use of mobile devices and
technology will take hold of technology students use everyday and incorporate it in
order to provide more depth to the experience. Mobile learning can transform pedagogy
to cater for new generations of learners because it offers the opportunity to use active
learning strategies and for learners to learn in their own context, which will result in
higher-level learning (Ally, 2014, p. 149). By allowing children to explore and to guide
this exploration we offer them a chance to control their learning. This leads to greater
engagement and a more meaningful learning experience. The future of education can be
seen as moving toward more and more mobile learning and the use of its positive assets.
This learning will become more real life and individual. Learning will move more and
more outside of the classroom and into the learners' environments, both real and virtual,
thus becoming more situated, personal, collaborative and lifelong (Ally, 2014, p. 149).
In an article on the use of iPads in a school district in the Netherlands, a professor states
Tablet technology is crucial to individualized learning (Riley, 2013, p. 1). I couldnt
agree more with that statement and believe that more exploration of tablets use in
education is needed. This project will also promote the idea that we must pay attention to
and respect the learners individual interests. One of my favorite statements from Dewey
asks a critical question. What are we to do with this interest are we to ignore it, or just
excite and draw it out? Or shall we get hold of it and direct it to something ahead,
something better (Dewey, 1915/ 2011, p. 32)? I firmly believe it is our responsibility as
educators to grab the spark from a student and run with it to provide the best possible
learning experience, and that we must use all tools available to make this happen.

The main idea for this project will be to change the way a school group typically visits
the zoo and make it into an interactive experience that benefits not only the students, but
also the zoo and its staff. Students will be using mobile devices to study and capture
data about the zoo exhibits through learning quests and scavenger hunt types of
exploration. They will then interact live with zookeepers and zoo staff through distance
communication. These interactions will promote further questions and exploration of
topics that improve and benefit everyones knowledge. Students will also be given the
opportunities to take what they have learned and experienced, and bring it back to the
classroom for further investigation. This project will bring together community and
educational resources so that all involved will be provided with a real life learning
experience.

This project will take place at Sunset Zoo with the help of Jared Bixby, the Curator of
Education at Sunset Zoo. This project will be a pilot and testing project for what Bixby
hopes to be the future of Sunset Zoos educational programming. Bixby, like myself, has
a strong belief in the power of informal education. The flexibility and the opportunity to
grab a students interest is a major benefit of this type of education. Together we will
bring together the best of schools and community in order to take a traditional zoo visit
and make it something that will be a quality lifelong learning experience that engages the
students on an individual level.




References

Ally, M., & Prieto-Blzquez, J. (2014). What is the future of mobile learning in
education? RUSC, 11(1), 142-151. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.er.lib.k-
state.edu/docview/1504941850?accountid=11789


Dewey, J. (1902) The Child and the Curriculum & Dewey, J. (1915) The School
and Society. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.

Riley, S. (2013, Oct 21). 'Steve jobs schools' sprouting as iPads take hold tablets gain in
education students in one district in the netherlands use them for up to half their
learning. Investor's Business Daily Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.er.lib.k-
state.edu/docview/1442846064?accountid=11789