Abstract
Adult learning today takes place primarily within walled classrooms or in other indoor settings, and often in front of various types of digital screens. As adults have adopted the digital technologies and indoor lifestyle attributed to the so-called Net Generation, we have become detached from contact with the natural world outdoors. As a result, many of us are beginning to experience a variety of often debilitating physical, emotional, and mental health problems.
At the same time, recent adult education scholarship shows the benefits of restorative, natural experiences in the outdoors, their contribution to adult learning and positive effects on our emotional, physical, and mental health. This paper identifies two themes in outdoor learning for adults:
(a) cultural, spiritual, and transformative learning in natural settings and
(b) survival, group, and leadership learning in the wilderness.
It then offers suggestions for integrating digital technology into outdoor adult learning and offers conceptual parallels to thinking and activities in the digital world in relation to adult learning.
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