First off, I got an iPhone on Friday, and I love it. It’s not perfect, but I’m pretty impressed. (I know…that doesn’t take much.) It’s just…um…smooth and easy. The screen is amazing, and I am loving the full web browser. And the camera was way better than I expected. Nice.
So yesterday, when we spur-of-the-moment decided to go for an afternoon hike on the Appalachian Trail, I threw the iPhone in the pack. I know purists will decry the mixing of technology and trees, and to be honest, I didn’t tell Wendy that I brought it. But I’m glad I did.
We were nearing the top when another hiker and his dog appeared coming down the trail. Suddenly, his dog stopped short and started growling at the bushes. The hiker said, “Whoa! Check this out.” Of course, my kids started running over there, until they heard him say “It’s a black racer snake.” They screeched to a halt until we slowly walked over and saw this beautiful, long, black snake slithering through the underbrush. “Is it poisonous?” my daughter asked. The hiker didn’t think so, and I surely had no clue. So we kept our distance and watched a bit longer as it gracefully moved further into the stand of wild blueberry bushes.
I sat down on a rock overlooking the Delaware Water Gap, buzzards and hawks catching thermals and spiraling up right in front. And I reached into my backpack and pulled out the iPhone. Within a couple of minutes, I was reading about black racer snakes on Wikipedia. Nope, not venomous. They eat crickets, moths and small rodents. And they are fast. Tess and Tucker took turns looking for other pictures, and we pretty much confirmed what we had seen. We were learning on the fly. And then, we zoomed in on where we found it using the satellite feature on Google Maps which the iPhone makes really easy.
I, for one, think that’s pretty cool. We’ve seen stuff on other hikes and said that we were going to go back and “look it up” but, as often happens, we never did. The immediacy of this was what was cool. The fact that we wanted to know now, and we could. I know you don’t need an iPhone for that. No doubt, we coulda brought the trail book that identifies a lot of the things we saw. But this gave me an interesting feeling all around. And what it made me really yearn for was to have my kids chronicle their find at the Encyclopedia of Life, when it comes into full use.
Now that would really be cool.
Technorati Tags: iphone, learning, snakes, hiking, wikipedia
That is awesome! Will – I think that could actually be a 60 second i-Phone ad! Cut to tape : A hiker with an i-Phone saying “It is so easy to type on this phone. Watch me as I check out how much danger I may currently be in here on the trail… G-R-I-Z-Z-L-Y…”
I grew up in a family who couldn’t make it through a dinner without having to go to the encyclopedia at least once or twice to find out answers to questions posed in conversations. Now my husband and I do this in our home, only we go to the internet. This is also the culture in my classroom. I’ve told my students before that my ideal classroom would be a school bus, now I will have to add an iPhone to that classroom….:)
To me, that experience was very cool. But, I can imagine that my wife wouldn’t be as impressed, and I’ll bet she would NOT appreciate the fact that I was still “connected” even on our hike.
Guess I’ll have to start warming her up to the idea, though, eh? 🙂
Now that is what I’d call an iOpening experience. I did a similar thing although at a restaurant during a conversation using my [now standard] cellphone. It was powerful to have such a tool at the fingertips. I guess it saves potential arguments and snake bites!
Hi Will,
That is very cool! Ubiquitous connectivity – I’m actually surprised that AT&T gave you a strong enough signal on the trail. Was there a cell tower nearby? 😉
One thing though, I don’t believe that the EOL is going to accept open contributions. It will be a great field guide, but the sources for information are going to be restricted. Their current list can be found here: http://www.eol.org/sources.html
That was so cool. Here in NZ we have to wait and wait and wait til we get the opportunity to buy an iPhone. I will be in the queue though.
Will, I have a great deal of admiration for the ways in which you encourage your children to use technology. In some sense you might say that it’s not about the technology. It’s about the learning. Isn’t that what technology is supposed to be, the tool not the end. Thanks for sharing the post.
That’s fantastic Will. Being disconnected seems more stressful to me. I’ve taught online Pepperdine courses from the rainforest of North Queensland Australia. Being online allows me to maintain relationships, work and play in ways unimaginable 20 years ago.
How else could I live in Los Angeles, conduct my doctoral research in Maine and be enrolled at the University of Melbourne?
My suggestion is that you load John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” onto your iPhone so you can listen to it when you reach mountain summits. I did so at the top of a Mexican pyramid.
Wow! Taking pictures, online research, satellite photos of your location . . . all this on a portable device while on a family hike. Apple could make this into a commercial.
It’s exciting you were able to take this tool and use it to turn your family hike into a learning experience for you and your family.
Wow! I love this use of technology to both support and foster inquiry into the world in around us. We share this interest at mywonderfulworld.org–the campaign to promote geography education and inspire our nation’s kids to care about the planet. Thanks for helping to keep the learning and sharing alive!
The “iPhone excursion” could be a new trend in hiking. You used it as a field guide to reptiles. The camera is the portal for sharing out the experience with others, and there is that special “stun” feature that will channel lighning right out of the sky to thwart any marauding wild life!
What a fantastic learning opportunity. Now, if only I could have our district invest in a few of these great tools, we could take them with us on various field trips and walks around our campus. I think it would be much better than my students taking my word as “law”. Sometimes we do miss those teaching moments when we have to wait to get back and look it up. This is a great solution.
Can’t wait to get an iPhone myself, but let’s be clear. This can all be done on many other phones.
That being said, yes, great implementation of real-time learning tools.