Recent research from the University of Northampton found that learning outdoors greatly impacts on young children’s development and can, as a result, boost their future attainment. As part of a European funded project the University of Northampton has launched a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) exploring the use of technology outdoors for education.

The MOOC, which is part of the Digital Learning across Boundaries’ (DLaB) project, will explore the effective use of technologies to extend teaching and learning beyond the classroom walls. Through the MOOC student teachers, teachers, pupils and lecturers across four European countries will work together to experiment and develop their technology skills for education.

Helen Caldwell, Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Northampton said: “Children are increasingly spending less time outdoors exploring their environment, while spending more time engaging with the world around them in a digital format. As educators, combining exploration of and learning within the natural environment with technology will give children quality outdoor learning experiences

“The idea of the MOOC is to collaboratively learn about ways different ways to use technology outdoors. We’ll be using apps, mobile device, combined with learning experiences to create trails, explore art in the environment, wild writing and science; collaborating on projects, sharing our developing practice in teaching with technology outdoors and learn together as we go. We’re delighted to already have over 30 people resisted for the MOOC from Norway, Denmark and Germany, as well as from Primary Schools and Early Years settings in Northamptonshire. ”

The MOOC will launch on 1 May 2017 and run for four weeks, register for the free MOOC here.

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