Real and virtual experiential learning on the Mekong: Field schools, e-sims and cultural challenge

Abstract

This poster describes two innovative and linked approaches to teaching the environmental geography of a region remote from students’ normal experiential options. The first approach is field-based learning through Field Schools carried out over five weeks as a collaboration between Sydney University students and students in Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. The second approach is a structured role-playing web-based simulation exercise (e-sim) on Mekong Basin environmental management challenges, run over four weeks for students at three Australian universities from both social and physical science backgrounds (human and environmental geography; groundwater management and engineering). All 20 students who participate in the Field School also go on to join the approximately 150 students who are part of the e-sim. Both the Field School and the e-sim have multiple objectives, including substantive learning about development and environmental challenges as experienced and dealt with by different social actors in the six countries of the Mekong Region and by Australian and other external interests in that region. Another significant objective is to give students experiential skills in dealing with cultural difference, particularly in the field of environmental and natural resource management. Two dimensions of culture are part of this process: the cultures of different societies and countries, and the discipline cultures of the social and natural sciences.