Assignment #2 Collective Intelligence – The Impact and Benefits of Nature

By: Jonathan Krywulak

Green Fix

In this article, Naomi Lubick suggests that although past research has made a compelling case for the healing affects of nature, the direct causes related to “nature’s curative powers” (2013, p. 42) has been difficult to determine due to the medial field largely overlooking it. Lubick references E.O. Wilson who suggested nature’s restorative benefits to human beings is the result of an evolutionary process between the natural world and the human mind.  This helps to explain our “innate preference for such scenery and provide(s) clues as to why such scenes might trigger restorative brain responses” (p. 42), even if those scenes are artificially constructed.  This can possibly explain why simulated natural environments help people recover faster (deceases in heart rate and stress) in hospitals or feel better in office settings.  Artificial images of nature have the ability to generate a response from the human brain that can result in a variety of psychological and physical health benefits. According to Lubick,  “faking nature will help us hone in on exactly how the real things might be promoting healing, but more importantly, it might help bring nature’s benefits to those of us trapped in places where nature cannot follow”  (p. 44).  As technology advances, it will be interesting to see how nature continues to be simulated in the not so natural world.

Biophilia: Does Visual Contact with Nature Impact on Health and Well-Being?

Bjorn Grinde and Grete Grindal Patil examine the influence plants and other aspects of the natural world have on the human mind.  They suggest that like all other species, humans “have been shaped by forces of evolution” (2009, p. 2333) and it was particularly early in history that humans and the natural world were closely united in order to survive.  It was during this time, according to Grinde and Patil, that plants became an integral part of the human environment, thus evolving alongside the human mind.  Based on this theoretical perspective it is thought that humans “have adapted to live in a green environment” (p. 2333), and any deviation away from the environment may result in unsettling affects such as disease or reduced life quality.  I found this part of the article most interesting as provides a possible reason as to why humans seem to be more calm, comfortable, and balanced (in mind, body, & spirit) when they see or are around nature.  By being close to plants, people are experiencing what they always been accustomed to since early history.  I think in many ways this serves to explain why people have an urge to be around nature and why often times their health and well-being benefit as a result of being around it.  As noted by Grinde and Patil’s, “nature appears to have qualities useful for stress relief, mental restoration, and improved mood simply by being consciously or unconsciously “pleasing to the eye” (p. 2336).  Interaction with plants both indoors and outdoors are encouraged as it serves to benefit the human body and mind.

The Human Relation with Nature and Technological Nature

In this article, Peter Kahn questions whether or not it matters for the physical and psychological wellbeing of humans that actual nature is being replaced by technological nature. He argues that it does matter and his analysis of the question raises the concern that as we move away from actual nature “the baseline across generations for what counts as a full measure of the human experience and of human flourishing” will be lowered.  This may substantially affect the human connection to the natural world and have a negative impact on the physical and psychological well-being of humans.  In his study using plasma HDTV’s to simulate nature, Kahn came to the conclusion that real nature is better than technological nature however technological nature is in many ways better than no nature at all. The general trend provided by research suggested that “interacting with technological nature provides some but not all the enjoyments and benefits of interacting with actual nature” (2009, p. 41).   I agree with this statement as I think technology can afford humans a lot of different opportunities to connect and experience the natural world. Various technological tools have the ability to create mood and provide imagery that people can resonate with, however, I feel that interacting with real nature can generate greater benefits as it relates to physical and psychological well-being.

References

My Delicious link:
 https://delicious.com/jkreek

Lubick, N. (2013). Green fix. New Scientist, 218(2921), 42-44. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0262407913615018

Grinde, B., & Patil, GG. (2009). Biophilia: Does visual contact with nature impact on health and well-being? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 6(9), p. 2332-2343. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/a/ualberta.ca/file/d/0B21EMxFJbDZ6bnVuVldDQ28xbWs/edit?pli=1

Kahn, P., Severson, R., & Ruckert, J. (2009). The human relation with nature and technological nature. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18, p. 37–42. Retrieved from http://depts.washington.edu/hints/publications/Human_Relation_Technological_Nature.pdf

Assignment 2 – Collective Intelligence

Bringing Nature to Kids through Technology

For this assignment I decided to look at the idea of using technology to help children experience nature. All three of the articles/ videos that I examined encompass the themes of nature, technobiophilia, and transliteracy.

In his TED talk “A teacher growing green in the South Bronx”, teacher Stephen Ritz talks about how he and his students teamed with Green Living Technologies, a company that develops technology for green roofs and green walls, in order to build an indoor edible wall in their South Bronx classroom. Green Living’s technology allows plants to grown in an urban setting, both inside and outside. Ritz states that the edible wall allowed all of his students to participate in this farming exercise. He says, “I wanted to figure out how I could get this kind of success into something small, like this, and bring it into my classroom so that handicapped kids could do it, kids who didn't want to be outside could do it, and everyone could have access…And lo and behold, we gave birth to the first edible wall in New York City” (Ritz, Jan. 2012). The food the students grew was served to students and teachers in the school cafeteria. Students were also encouraged to graze directly off the wall whenever they wanted. They had access to fresh vegetables during school hours that they grew themselves.

Ritz’s students were so inspired by their green wall, that they went on to build and design more walls and roofs, and they got paid for their efforts. Ritz discusses one case, which seems to embody technobiophilia, where his students designed and installed a green wall on the John Hancock building in Boston. Ritz states that “And my kids, from the poorest congressional district in America, became the first to install a green wall, designed by a computer, with real-live learning tools, 21 stories up” (Ritz, Jan. 2012). Some of Ritz’s students have become licensed Green Living installers, and have gone onto work with contractors in their neighborhood who build affordable housing. Through this introduction to green technology, and what they have learned about growing food, Ritz’s students have been able to transform their neighborhood, their school, and their future.

In her Ted talk “Using tech to enable dreaming” Shilo Shiv Suleman also discusses how children can use technology to enhance their experience with nature. Suleman states that she felt that technology was killing imagination. She felt that cellphones and digital cameras had “stopped us from dreaming. They stopped us from being inspired. And so I jumped…into this world of technology, to see how I could use it to enable magic as opposed to kill it” (Suleman, Dec. 2011).

Suleman did this by designing an interactive iPad app called Khoya, which allows children to become immersed in a digital fantasy adventure story. She states that she realized that the iPad was the perfect storytelling device – a transmedia storytelling device – because it could connect readers all over the world, plus the device can tell the way it’s being held, and it has a GPS so it can tell where the reader lives. She states that digital storytelling allows for transliteracy because “It brings together image and text and animation and sound and touch. Storytelling is becoming more and more multi-sensorial” (Suleman, Dec. 2011). In terms of technobiophilia, as part of the interactive digital story, readers are asked to go outside and take pictures with their iPad of nature – like flowers or leaves - and upload the photos online, where they can share with other readers around the world. Suleman states that “now with mobile technology, we can actually take our children outside into the natural world with their technology.” (Suleman, Dec. 2011). She feels that we are moving towards a world where nature and technology are becoming closer, stating that “We're bringing our children and ourselves closer to the natural world and that magic and joy and childhood love that we had through the simple medium of a story” (Suleman, Dec. 2011).

In her article “Get Your Students Outside With Technology”, Patty McGinnis discusses how technology, students and nature can be a ‘winning combination’. McGinnis writes how the creation on an interpretive trail helped her students interact with nature while using technology to “create a product that would be beneficial to the community” (McGinnis, p.59, 2014). This exercise allowed her students to become transliterate because it “addressed many 21st-century learning skills while making learning relevant and providing students with an authentic audience for their work” (McGinnis, p.59, 2014). Students were tasked with creating numbered posts that contained a quick response (QR) code to be placed along a nature trail. A QR code contains an embedded URL, that when scanned with a smart phone takes the user to a student created Web site. Each student made their own QR codes and created their own Web sites which contained text information, photos and student created videos explaining different points of interest along the trail.

During this exercise, students were required to become familiar with different types of technology, along with their life-sciences course content. Students were placed into small working groups, and each group had to record their point of interest along the trail on Google Sites. McGinnis explains that “Students were made editors of the site, which enabled them to add information about their point of interest to their page” (McGinnis, p.60, 2014). Students were encouraged to use "text, images, podcasts and videos when discussing their points of interest” (McGinnis, p.59, 2014) on their sites, plus they learned how to place a marker on their point of interest on Google Maps. This exercise seems like a great example also of Dr. Sue Thomas’s definition of technobiophilia, because students were encouraged to “achieve a ‘tech-nature’ balance through practical experiments designed to enhance…digital lives indoors, outdoors, and online” (Thomas, July 2013).

My Delicious site is: https://delicious.com/nawoods

References:
McGinnis, P. (2014). GET YOUR STUDENTS OUTSIDE WITH TECHNOLOGY!. Science Scope, 37(7), 58-64.

Ritz, S. (2012). A teacher growing green in South Bronx. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_ritz_a_teacher_growing_green_in_the_south_bronx

Suleman, S. (2011). Using tech to enable dreaming. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/shilo_shiv_suleman_using_tech_to_enable_dreaming?quote=1330

Thomas, S. (2013). Technobiophilia: Nature and Cyberspace. Retrieved from http://suethomasnet.wordpress.com/technobiophilia/