New Technology and Outdoor Learning (8 of 8): The Curriculum

This is the eighth of eight posts where I discuss some of the things that I talked about at the 2010 Learning and Teaching Scotland Outdoor Learning Regional Events

One of the parts of the 2010 Learning and Teaching Scotland Outdoor Learning Regional Events was to let delegates have an opportunity to read over the relatively new Curriculum for Excellence Through Outdoor Learning Document. I personally think that this is one of the best Curriculum for Excellence documents that has been produced so far.

The core values of Curriculum for Excellence echo the key concepts of outdoor learning: challenge, enjoyment, relevance, depth, development of the whole person and an adventurous approach to learning.

Curriculum for Excellence also offers opportunities for all children and young people to enjoy first-hand experience outdoors, whether within the school grounds, in urban greenspaces, in Scotland’s countryside or in wilder environments.

Such experiences inspire passion, motivating our children and young people to become successful learners and to develop as healthy, confident, enterprising and responsible citizens.

If you have not read the document you should even if you are a school from outside Scotland. You can view it online here and download it here.

During the Outdoor Learning Regional Events delegates were also shown the new Learning and Teaching Scotland Outdoor learning Web Pages. The LTS Online service is about to get a bit of a facelift but much of the outdoor learning content will remain the same.

One of the best features of the new site is the section on ‘where to go?’ in this section you can type in your schools address or postcode and it will list some of the outdoor learning opportunities that are close to your school using a Google Map.

There is also a great section on Risk Assessment as well as lots of great outdoor learning case studies in the support for staff area.