Education Conference 2015

Learn Life Outdoors

Every year the Conference becomes a little bigger and a little better, providing an important opportunity for Outdoor Educators, teachers and students alike to come together. This years’ highly successful event was held in the glorious location of Camp Marysville. Despite some rather chilly mornings, the sun gods thankfully smiled down upon us over the 2 1/2 days. We were packed to the rafters, selling over 335 tickets, up from our 203 from the previous year. We hosted 53 speakers who offered up to 84 diverse presentations from lectures to active workshops. We were also thrilled to have Mark Collard as MC, as well as 3 wonderful Keynote speakers, Andrew Douch, Dr Paul Sinclair and Andrew Brookes.

We want to send out a BIG thank you to everyone who participated, from attendees to presenters to volunteers and of course our Sponsors!! You all helped make this years’ event the biggest and most successful yet.

Education Outdoors Conference 2015 picture gallery

Outdoor Learning Resources

Links to 2015 Program

The Education Outdoors “Learn Life Outdoors” program for 2015 was full of a wonderful variety of Keynote speakers, presenters, practical workshops and lectures. Download your copy of the full program. or visit the online schedule here

Roo Davis from Wodonga Tafe was one of our wonderful presenters. If there was a prize for the best head shot in the OUTDOORS, I think Roo would win first prize! Thanks also for bringing a great bunch of students with you Roo.

A diverse group of 53 different presenters shared their wisdom and expertise with attendees this year. We thank you all for your contributions! View the full list of presenters on the SCHED program website.

Mark, who is the Founder & Director, playmeo was our CONFERENCE MC and I don’t know what we would have done without him. He did a superb job of keeping it all together! Mark Collard is an experiential trainer, speaker and best-selling author of three books in the adventure programming field. He runs a professional development business called ‘playmeo’ which features the largest online database of group-based activities in the world. A sought-after trainer and speaker, Mark is super passionate about helping outdoor educators design and deliver programs that are not only fun, but make a positive difference in the lives and performance of the groups they work with. Prior to developing his own enterprise, Mark established and operated the business of Project Adventure in Australia for 10 years. Over the course of the past 27 years, he has worked with tens of thousands of people all over the world, including Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Japan, Turkey, Taiwan, China and Hong Kong. On a personal note, Mark has been struck by lightning twice, can’t back-up a car towing a trailer to save himself and has camped on the lawns of Australia’s Parliament House for three days (as part of a logging protest). Mark lives with his beautiful wife and son in Melbourne, Australia, and counts his time travelling and working with groups all over the world as some of the most rewarding and funnest times of his life!

Dr John Quay form Melbourne Uni has provided us with the notes from his presentation: What is outdoor education? Knowing, doing and being. Download here. You can also find this resource in our resource library Watch this space for further updates

Keynote Speakers

Andrew Douch

Andrew Douch was one of our three Keynote Speakers and he had the audience enthralled with his inspiring presentation.

Andrew is an independent education technology consultant with 22 years’ classroom experience. He has won numerous awards for his work with emerging technologies in education, including the The Victorian Education Excellence Award for Curriculum Innovation, An Australian Government Quality Schooling Award and the Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teacher of the Year. As a conference presenter, he inspires teachers to think differently about their role in the learning process and to be more innovative in their approach to teaching. He shares high-concept ideas and low-tech tools that make it easier for teachers to do their work of capturing the interests of young people.

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Dr Paul Sinclair

Paul’s inspiring presentation officially opened the conference and in such a poignant way.

Director of Environment Campaigning at the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) I love the beauty of ordinary places. Growing up in a small town taught me how tough and necessary it is to go against the flow when things aren’t right. For over a decade now I have been working with non-government, philanthropic, government and business sectors to create policy and law reform across issues of drought, nature conservation, natural resource management, rural water allocation, environmental flows, urban water supply and nature-based solutions to carbon pollution mitigation and climate adaptation. During this time I wrote The Murray: A River and its People (Melbourne University Press), an environmental and cultural history of the Murray River. I also worked with two of Australia’s leading artists, Mandy Martin and the late John Davis, on collaborative art projects exploring the importance of arid rangelands and river environments to Australian national identity. I am currently a member of the Community and Industry Advisory Board for Environmental Programs at the University of Melbourne and the World Commission on Protected Areas; I was recently a member of the Australian Government’s National Wildlife Corridors Plan Advisory Group. My work at ACF involves thinking a lot about how and what we can do to help places and species have the best chance of adapting to the impacts of climate change. I am lucky to work with a talented campaign team who build community, business and government support for initiatives that conserve and restore Australia’s safe climate and ecosystems.

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Dr. Andrew Brookes

Andrew Brookes is known and admired by many in the Outdoor Education Community. His talk inspired some lively debate.

Dr. Andrew Brookes joined the Bendigo College of Advanced Education, later to become part of La Trobe University, in 1988 when university courses for Australian outdoor education teachers were in their infancy. Prior to that he had run an outdoor program for Glen Waverly High School, at Nayook camp, and worked for the Bushwalking and Mountaincraft Leadership Course, Ski Tour Leaders Certificate Course, and various Education Department in-service courses for teachers. At La Trobe he has contributed to the development of undergraduate and post-graduate courses as course coordinator, Head of Department, and Head of School, at different times. He left La Trobe as research-intensive Associate Professor at the end of 2014 to pursue private consultancy and to prospect for gold. He has a long-standing interest in clarifying and strengthening the role of university OE courses, and in research. His research has focussed on curriculum questions that follow from the location of OE in specific places, critique of OE aims and purposes, and serious incident prevention based on systematic study of actual incidents. His research is highly regarded internationally. He has extended periods of service on the editorial advisory boards on several international journals, including the Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, and Journal of Experiential Education, and frequently peer-review papers for several journals. He helped found the International Outdoor Education Research Conferences, and has been on the academic committee for all past conferences. Some of his research papers have sunk without a trace, but others are among the most cited works in the publications they appeared in. Overall his work makes him one of the 5 most cited OE researchers internationally since 2000. He has consulted for a number of law firms, and was a member of the 3 person review team which reported on the Mangatepopo tragedy in New Zealand. He lives on a rural property with his offspring and a small mob of tame kangaroos.

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Gold Sponsors

Silver Sponsors

ROSA schools

Federation University

Mainpeak

MudPath

Murrindindi Shire Council

One Planet

Outdoor Education Group

Quest Skills for Life

Survive First Aid

World Challenge

Bronze Sponsors

Adventure developments

Antipodeans Abroad

AUSCAMP

Bayplay Adventure Tours

Canoeing Victoria

Christian Venues

Go Ride a Wave

Holmesglen at Eildon

La Trobe University

Monash University

WSUP

Yachting Victoria

YMCA

Volunteers

Of course being a non-profit organisation of 3 people you can imagine there is no way we could organise such an event without the assistance of our wonderful volunteers. First of all we’d like to thank all the students from Wodonga Tafe, La Trobe and Federation Uni. These girls and guys are always happy to muck in and do whatever is needed at any given moment. They also do it all with a big smile on their faces. A special thanks goes out to Geoff Adams from Fed Uni who did all the filming of the Keynotes (as well as organised the lanyards again). Stay tuned for the edited versions of the films to be uploaded shortly. Last but not least is the work of the Education Committee, and most importantly the sub-committee, Steve McMurtrie (ROSA), Michael Cox (Rubicon Education Outdoors) & Colin Abbott (many of you will know from VOEA days), who were specifically in charge of the event. Thanks for all your hard work guys.

Education Conference sub-committee

Steve McMurtrie

Steve volunteered so much time again this year. His knowledge of the community and understanding of what is needed to make a successful conference is invaluable. Thanks for everything Steve.

Michael Cox

Michael was our go-to logistics man in Marysville, measuring, and liaising between the country and city folk. Thanks for all your help Coxy.

Colin Abbott

Colin ran around all weekend, guiding the volunteers, plugging things in here and sticking things up there. All that as well as offering a couple of presentations. Thanks Colin