Naturally Technical:
How Teachers Might Use Technology to Engage Students in Nature

     Students are always connected. Ear buds in, iPhones out, texting, video games - our young people are searching for connections using online social media outlets. On the surface it would seem that our gadget-crazed, technology-driven culture is at odds with nature, that nature and technology represent two extremes. However, this is not the case. Instead, perhaps as educators we can begin to think of ways that our students can use technology as a way to engage in nature. How might we use technology to get our students reacquainted with nature?
     Writing is the bridge between nature and technology. Asking our students to write about their experiences in nature online is a way to connect our students not only to nature but to a larger audience also interested in nature. We can help our students make connections and find a community when we have them use writing as a bridge to connect their experiences in nature with their interest in forming online connections. As writer and teacher Lesley Roessing suggests, when we teach literature and writing, we are helping our students find connections to the larger world. As Roessing so eloquently states, it is through their writing that students discover “there is seldom them; it is more commonly us” (11, 28). Therefore, the teaching of writing and reading should call us to put our greatest energies into the endeavor of helping our students understand themselves and their relation to the natural world around them through writing. The language arts classroom is one in which students discover and shape who they are. This process should include appreciating nature and extend to writing about their experiences in it. In order for this to be meaningful, students must also find venues for sharing their work, not only to gain invaluable feedback on their writing but also to make connections with others based on their experiences with nature.

Into the Classroom:
     From the clean desks arranged in tidy rows, a sea for fresh, eager faces stare back at me, pens poised in anticipation. Then, from the back of the room a hand shoots up and a call echoes forth, “Will I need to include this in my paper?” As a tenth grade honors English teacher, I struggle with encouraging my students to write authentically, to bring their personal background and reflections into their written work. As members of a more affluent suburb of Philadelphia, many of my students feel increased pressure from their parents and family members to achieve high grades early on so as not to blemish their academic record for the Ivy League school applications still three years down the road. In the meantime, many students enter my classroom more concerned about their overall grade and less concerned about finding their writing voice and identity. They have learned from their previous experiences how to rip a poem to shreds, strangling its breath. They can dissect a piece of writing for its metaphors and similes, its analogies and allusions, but they do not seem to hear the words speaking to a larger truth. Students are more concerned about their grades than they are about writing for an audience other than the teacher. Writing is for a grade, not for making connections.
     However, by harnessing some of their interest in online communities, writing can be about making connections. And by rooting those writing opportunities in nature, writing online can be a way for students to share more meaningful, more authentic writing experiences. As Kelly Gallagher points out in his book Teaching Adolescent Writers,
"It has been my experience that even when students understand the purpose behind their writing, they often give little thought to who their audience might be. They might know why they are writing, but they don't give much thought to who will read their writing. Many of my students have come to think there is only one audience - the teacher - and that writing is just another laborious hoop to jump through. By the time they become seniors in high school the notion that audience might be someone other than their teacher has long since drowned in a decade-long flood of 'fake' writing - writing they will never use outside of school." (130)
So what could be more important than having students share their writing about nature with an actual audience of their peers?

Practically Speaking:
     This blog serves as an example of how a teacher might go about setting up online writing experiences focused on nature. Like we were given in the Literacy in Bloom class, teachers can provide students with a variety of writing opportunities about nature - whether they be in the form of writing based on a reading centered on nature or writing based on a personal experience within nature. Students can then use these experiences as a springboard for their own reflective writing on nature. For example, having been asked to create a visual collage of my background and experience in nature inspired me to do a bit more reflecting and writing about nature, in particular about my experiences on a family farm. Reflecting on the process of putting the collage together led me to do some creative writing, inspiring a poem (found in another blog post). Sharing that piece of writing with an actual audience, that of my online readers, helped me to hone my word choices, reflect on my line breaks, encouraged me to deeply think about my writing choices. And isn't this what we want our students to do?
     Sharing writing about nature in online an online venue a like blog encourages our students to really engage in their writing. And what better topic to engage them in than nature. What could be more important in a world where many of our students only write Facebook updates and text messages on a regular basis? By asking our students to engage deeply in writing about nature, we ask them to slow down, to think about nature, their place within nature, and to share those experiences. Their writing becomes an example for others and becomes a way for our students to begin to think deeply about their place within nature. They become the reflective and engaged writers we want them to be because we ask them to write for a real audience, an audience who shares their interest in nature. By harnessing technology we can help our students more deeply engage in nature.

Works Cited
Gallagher, Kelly. Teaching Adolescent Writers. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers, 2006. Print.

Roessing, Lesley. “Creating Empathetic Connections to Literature.” The Quarterly. v. 27, n. 2, 2005. 7-11, 28.