ForestLearning has been recognised for the quality, innovation and usefulness of its unique suite of resources for primary and secondary school teachers and students.
From drone resources to virtual reality, as part of the Australian Geography Teacher’s Association (AGTA) biannual awards held in September, two ForestLearning resources were awarded the organisation’s top prize, with a third receiving a high commendation.
The awards were accepted by ForestLearning National Education Program Manager Beth Welden in September at the awards night event in Hobart, who said, “I’m proud of this huge achievement that reflects not just the work of ForestLearning, but also the forest and wood products industry, education and government partners that collaborated with us to produce these award-winning resources.”
The newly launched Drones in Forestry teaching units for primary and secondary classrooms, produced in partnership with She Maps, won the award for best Digital/Online Resources Drones in Forestry.
These innovative and technology-rich resources have already been met with enthusiastic take-up from educators and were downloaded more than 520 times during the first month of being published online!
The Drones in Forestry units feature real-world case studies focused on how drones and geographic information systems (GIS) help forestry workers to effectively manage forest environments that provide sustainable and renewable resources.
Meanwhile, the award for best Reference Resource was given to the popular, world-first ForestVRTM – Learn Through Immersion virtual reality toolkit. These 360-degree video and photo tours give students unique insights into Australia’s productive forests and milling sites, as well as opportunities to explore a range of agroforestry case studies, and access snapshots of various careers within the industry.
AGTA judges praised the high quality of the ForestVR™ education products and pointed to the “explicit value to the classroom with their technology-rich product design,” which presents a “highly accessible and engaging resource for students.”
Finally, the highly commended Year 10 Environmental Change and Management resource, produced in partnership with the Geography Teachers Association of Victoria (GTAV), cleverly embeds ForestVR™ 360-degree video and photo environment tools, as well as other high-tech interactive spatial resources into the geography classroom.
Judges commented this “commendable” teaching resource “closely aligns with the Australian Curriculum for Year 10”, offering “a supported approach to embedding virtual reality and interactive resources into the classroom” with “the high number of positive teacher feedback comments reflect the discerning quality of this resource.”
“Our Australian curriculum aligned resources make it easy for teachers to engage students on topics such as sustainability, spatial technologies and the environment. Importantly, they address the gap in Australian-specific teaching resources about forests and wood products,” Welden said.
“Using the power of virtual reality, the ForestVR™ 360-degree videos and photo tours allow areas of Australia otherwise inaccessible for school field trips to be easily accessed online by educators and their students.
“Similarly, the Drones in Forestry Story Maps, drone coding activities and forester case studies draw from a wide range of multimedia and tech-rich materials, combined to create interactive and highly engaging learning experiences for students,” Welden said.
A December 2021 survey of Australian teachers conducted by Youth Insight on behalf of ForestLearning revealed that, although 90 per cent of teachers believe it is important to teach students about forestry and wood products, 78 per cent said they either did not feel confident or felt only ‘somewhat confident’ about teaching on these topics.
ForestLearning resources aim to bridge this gap by equipping teachers with the innovative and modern tools they need to teach these important topics effectively.
“We congratulate our Drones in Forestry partner, She Maps, on this win, as well as our Year 10 Environmental Change and Forest Management partner, the GTAV, for our ‘highly commended’ award, and all other winners,” Welden said.
“I would like to particularly thank our collaborators and other partners, including the Australian Government, which supported the second phase of development for our ForestVR™ video experiences. We also thank AGTA and the judges for their investment of expertise and time in conducting and evaluating these awards.”
ForestVR was developed by ForestLearning, an initiative of FWPA, via collaborative consultation through industry partnerships with GTAV, the Design and Technology Teachers Association Victoria, successful early adopters of virtual reality in classrooms, leading universities, and the Australian Forest Education Alliance.
The ForestVR ‘Year 10 Environmental Change and Forest Management toolkit’ and ‘Drones in Forestry’ resources are available to download at the ForestLearning website
