Protecting the nature within: framing digital-downtime through Western and Indigenous approaches to preserving nature

Abstract

ABSTRACT The role of digital technologies in outdoor and environmental education is contested and therefore educators should carefully consider their inclusion or exclusion of networked spaces. In addition, educators are asked to make their pedagogical intentions visible to students. We ask ‘How might we include our students in decisions about digital-downtime?’ This article takes Western and Māori (Indigenous) approaches to preserving nature and applies them to looking after human-nature (the nature within). Learning lessons from the past about preserving nature offers a way for educators and students to discuss and consider the benefits of setting aside times and places to exclude networked spaces. Simultaneously these discussions offer students a language and framework to support their intentionality about digital connectedness or disconnectedness in their wider lives.