Outdoor Journeys

Outdoor Journeys is an approach to teaching and learning that enables students to learn about the places in which they live and go to school.

Through a combination of journeys outside the classroom and indoor sessions, students are able to learn in a way that is active, cross-curricular, and place-responsive. Teachers can use the Outdoor Journeys framework and resources as a means of ‘bringing curricula alive’.

The App can be used in almost any setting: schools, outdoor centres, field trips, expeditions, and city visits. It can also be used for remote teaching, where students can explore their own places while the activity is being facilitated through a web-based application by an educator who is in another location.

The Outdoor Journeys (OJs) approach involves three phases that can be repeated over and over: Questioning, researching and sharing. First, students generate questions about the socio-cultural and ecological ‘story’ of the land. Second, they find the answers to their questions through books, the internet, old maps, and by asking people in the neighbourhood. Third, using creative means, students share what they have learned with their classmates, communities and families.

You can read more about OJs at https://www.outdoorjourneys.co.uk

Outdoor Journeys was created and developed at the Moray House School of Education and Sport in 2008. This companion App has been developed in Sweden with funding from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences.

This education tool works best with students from ages 10 and up. While it is technically possible for each student to have a mobile device, this is probably more suited to distance / online learning. The best results have involved groups of 2-4 students working together with one designated phone or tablet.