Aaron Doering’s 5 Tips to Integrate Technology in Education

Here are several tips by Aaron Doering on integrating technology into education.

Don’t Design The Products, Design The Experiences

Think engagement, not completion. Aaron Doering wants students to go through experiences that they’ll love to tell others about. He’d like people to create change, not just respond to it. Adventure Learning (AL) is a hybrid model to pinpoint an issue to be studied by actually going there. Aaron Doering’s team identifies what they want students to learn via a curriculum based on inquiry. Subsequently, they work on coming up with an adventure-based experience. How can they collaborate with teachers? Through synchronized learning, they bring it all together. They also offer pedagogical guidelines so teachers can integrate the material into their classes. They utilize the internet, as well. For instance, GoNorth and Arctic Transect adventure learning trips covered numerous miles in the Arctic, reaching millions of students and spanning several countries.

Build Trust, Demonstrate Commitment With Attitude And Experience

The traditional way of learning involved an instructor coming up with content, and then coming up with lessons to convey it. That is now turned upside down: facilitated by the instructor, the design leads into the content. How do we get students involved in the environments we build?

Guide Learners As Designers

It’s the power of the story that engages us. Referring to the North of Sixty project, Aaron Doering worked with Inuit elders, who shared their voices worldwide. He worked in conjunction with six Canadian Arctic communities, tying what they shared to an expedition. Using an iPad, they could upload their stories to the learning environment so everyone participating could access them. The arrangement offered educational resources and lessons for teachers. 

Recognize Learners As Professionals By Experience

Everyone has expertise in a particular area; the question is how can we tap it?  Aaron Doering explained in an Arctic blog where students shared their expertise regarding whaling and living in the community. It became the most active area of the online community. Let students be professionals within an area identified by GIS. The GeoThentic project has participants that pinpoint an issue, and then deal with it through analysis. For example, where is the best place to build a hospital in San Francisco? This project brought many students in and excited them regarding the issues they were required to solve.

Encourage Collaboration

Working together without boundaries should be encouraged. According to Aaron Doering, the world has no boundaries. A community is built at the point where our stories intersect. Earthducation is a series comprising seven expeditions covering all seven continents over the course of four years. It’s designed to build a world narrative of the dynamic intersections between sustainability and education. Participants have designed novel learning environments every time they went to places like these, doing live updates at every location. The project was created to allow students to ask regarding several issues. The project got teachers, students, along with other adults to collaborate. An angel ambassador is now funding it. It has impacted over 15 million students, 150 conferences, been the subject of or mentioned in 41 journal articles, involved 6 continents, 3,000 classrooms, and all 50 states.