Cleanup work continues at the side of a large rockfall in Floyd County that has US-23 reduced to one lane of travel in each direction and complaints of aggressive drivers in and around the work zone have prompted officials to reduce the speed limit in the area to 45 miles per hour. Coming north and southbound into the zone there's advanced warning on the roadway indicating drivers that there's road work ahead. Second thing you'll see is a 45 mile an hour speed limit sign even before you get into the zone itself. Sergeant Ferris explains his officers as well as Kentucky State troopers will be visible in the area while the work continues for both safety and enforcement. We've had several complaints of traffic driving extremely fast, hitting cones, falling too close, so we're gonna be aggressively enforcing those violations. I'm going to see both units possibly driving through the work zone running radar. We could be possibly sitting alongside the road. We could be outside of our cars with handheld lasers determined by laser speed. Officials hope the extra presence of officers in the area will slow down traffic and reduce the instances of aggressive driving, especially during times with higher traffic volumes. Manpower and scheduling and providing I'm going to have as many units out here as I can, particularly in the afternoon and the mornings due to rush hour. Everyone commuting in the pipe going back in the afternoon. Now as far as how long it will take to get the slide cleaned up and the road completely opened, Highway Department officials say it will be several weeks. We think we've located the source of the water. It's not on state property and you know somebody said well you know can't y'all use emergency imminent domain. No we can't do that. You know there's certain procedures we have to go through to get right of entry and there's not a road to the site. We can't get equipment to the site but we think it'll be two months or less before we get this permanently fixed. Reporting in Ival for EKB News, I'm Shannon Deskins.


cyd-nw'n gweithio ar gyhoedd yr Uned Gwellion. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It is my pleasure to bring this debate to the Scottish Parliament to mark 40 years since the ending of the Falklands War. The war lasted 74 days, with the loss of 907 lives, three islanders, 255 British personnel and 649 Argentine soldiers. Both the citizens of Britain and the Falkland Islands owe a huge debt to those who lost melys. Mae oedd balog ar gweithio, yr Bryddech chi ac yr drwg i gynhyrch i g orientationatoriaeth i gyd. Nid ddim ynogi'r amser Falkland dysgu i ddifprinio i chi'n brytu. Rwy'n gweithio fel y cwrsrwynt gyda'r Gresau. Dychydig yn naddw i ddweud ym mhelys i ddweud sy'n bryty i gynnul i'r footnog i gyfrifinodol 80 mili gyd, a driio i gyrwgwetheiddiog ymweliadu i'r llai fath. shadow ymddangos i gyfrifinodol i ddifesu'n gwybod nhw hefyd i'i ddweud ac, in many cases, new little about. That is truly admirable and something that we can appreciate collectively as a Parliament. Their conduct is a shining example of the very best of the British Armed Forces, acting with professionalism, ruthlessness, skill and compassion to bring freedom back to the Falklands. Last week I had the honour of hosting a reception in the Scottish Parliament along with Richard Hyslop, the Falkland Islands representative in the UK and Europe. After the speeches, Richard played a short video made by school children in the Falklands in which they expressed their thanks to those who had fought for their freedom. It was a touching tribute that affected many of us who were present. The comment that stuck with me most was a wee girl at the end who said, thank you for keeping us British. Things would not have been the same without you. It was a reminder that those who fought and gave their lives led the foundations for the Falklands of today and their sacrifice has not been forgotten. The video also showed that the Falklands is a changing place, not the 1982 time capsule, which remains in many British minds. For most, thinking of the Falklands conjures up grainy photographs of marines and cagoules crossing a foreboding landscape of penguins, waddling and beaches, or perhaps the liberation of Stanley in the war's final days. Few in 1982 could have foreseen the dramatic changes that have swept this small but significant territory over the past 40 years. It was clear from my conversations with Falkland Islanders that they have only prospered since the war's conclusion. Both Richard and his deputy, Michael Betts, were eager to tell me about the exciting developments taking place in Stanley, with a huge increase in tourism, not to mention a booming economy that is the envy of South America. If you were to take a walk through Stanley today, perhaps along that drive, you would see new houses going up, more fishing boats in the harbour or the development of a distinct Falkland islands culture, Britishness with a Latin twist, with their own favourite national sports and food, namely Falklands squid and lamb. The Stanley of 1982 is now, for many, just a memory, just as the war thankfully is too, but those are memories we must preserve. We owe that much to those who fought and lost their lives in defence of freedom. Given more time, it would have been good to delve into the rich connections between Scotland and these islands or the Scottish role in the British response, whether it was the merchant navy sailors or members of the SES, but I suspect others will touch upon that in contributions to come. Before I end, though, I would like to return briefly to the reception that I mentioned earlier to thank those who came. Representatives from the South Atlantic Medal Association and Lothian Veterans Centre, representatives of the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, not to forget the Governor of Edinburgh Castle, Alastair Bruce, and the Royal British Legion members, who also attended, are for that matter Poppy Scotland, who were a great help in organising their event. It was also fascinating to talk to Ian Gardner, a veteran from 45 Commando Royal Marines, who went on to become an author and military expert writing vividly about his experiences during the war, particularly the battle for two sisters, the fierce night battle that took place 1,000 feet above Stanley. Finally, it would not be a Falklands event without a strong contingent of islanders present, and it was great to invite members of Falkland Will Grores, the chief islander of Tristan de Kuna, and students from the Falklands studying in Scotland to the Scottish Parliament, and learn more about island life from them first hand. We had speeches from Richard Hyslop, who I have already mentioned, as well as Keith Brown, MSP, who has the honour of being the only parliamentarian who served during the conflict, in his case with the Royal Marines, who spoke memorably of his experiences during the war, of friends lost and battles fought—something few of us in this chamber will ever know. To conclude, I would like to thank the MSPs who attended from all sides of the political spectrum. It was touching that despite our differences, it is fair to say that we all saw how much British identity meant to the people of the Falklands. What is more, we can all respect the sacrifice made 40 years ago, ensuring that Falkland islanders remain free from foreign rule to this day. Thank you very much, Ms Dowey. It was good to hear of events that are well attended by islanders, I have to say. I now move to the open debate. I call for Christine Graham to be followed by Murdo Fraser for around four minutes, Ms Graham. I sincerely thank the member for bringing this debate. I, too, wish to commemorate all the lives lost and those injured both physically and mentally—British groups, civilians and Argentinians. I also recognise the professionalism and courage of our armed forces. In total, 904 military personnel were killed in the conflict, as well as three Falkland islanders. 255 of those were British military personnel, Argentine 649. British forces reported that 775 were wounded in the war, with 115 captured between April and June. Meanwhile, 1655 were reported that the wounded among Argentina's military personnel and over 11,000 were captured. I want to go back to 40 years, because, for me, those lives might not have been lost or injured. Before her shot had been fired, pretty well none of us knew where the Falklands was or what the UK Government had to do with it. As I travelled to my law studies on the bus, I recall how horrified I was to hear passengers in front of me cheering that we should bash the argys. As we came to learn more, we found out that there had been an incursion onto the island by metal workers with some Argentinian marines raising the Argentinian flag, which in turn raised the alert. It was thousands of miles from our shores and a population in the low thousands. The islanders were not British citizens, indeed, and this was only granted to them after the war. Of course, I shared the concerns of their wellbeing and safety, but I know that I was not alone in having grave concerns about launching into a war. The country was not united in the decision to attack and even the way the war was conducted. There was, I believe, an opportunity to resolve the dispute over the sovereignty of the Falklands by diplomacy. It might have failed, but, for me, it was not given enough time and space. I will, indeed. I accept that the UK Government at the time made strenuous efforts through the UN to reach an accommodation and made offers of all sorts of proposals of joint sovereignty over the Falklands. Those were rejected by the Argentinian Government. We will disagree about that, but I want to raise the issues of the press coverage at the time and how it behaved. The sinking of the General Burgen on the ageing Argentinian cruiser was the loss of 320 Argentinian lives in 2 May 1982, after it was attacked, as it sailed out of the 200-mile exclusion zone. I do not know the ins and outs of whether what was correct, but it is certainly still in dispute. There was a retaliation, of course, two days later, with an attack on HMS Sheffield, which was sunk off the coast of the Falkland Islands, killing 20 men, and there was no going back after that. However, I recall that, before even one British ship had sailed, the increased feverish warm bongering fuelled in particular by a circulation war between the sun and the mirror newspapers. The sun had a bloodthirsty sands from the start, including inviting readers to sponsor sidewinder missiles, offering free, quote, sinkly arges computers, and it never relented. The sun splashed with the poster front page. We'll smash them, printed over pictures of Winston Churchill and a Bulldog, and finally, for me, with infamous gotcha. Increasingly, the sun became frustrated with the attempts of politicians, which I agree with, trying to negotiate a settlement, avoiding, as they called it, a shooting war. At one point, US Secretary of State Al Haig was accused of standing in the way of war because of his efforts to avoid bloodshed. The paper even urged the Government to reject an offer of peace talks from the Argentine and military regime with the headline, Stick it up your junta, which became their cat's face of the war. But not all the press was like this, of course. For good measure, however it called the BBC and the Pygmy Guardian in quotes, were described by the sun as traitors in our midst. The mirror was a quotes timorous, whining newspaper, and the mirror, of course, retaliated by saying the sun had quotes falling from the gutter into the sewer. Now, very few politicians, so this language at the time, worried me. It worried me the way we were looking at the dangers, and the dangers we're putting our troops into in war. Very few politicians have experienced the front line of war, excluding my colleague in here. Those that often speak, and they speak at Westminster too, they speak very differently of conflict, and I always listen to them. Dr Johnson, seeking to prevent an earlier haughtlands conflict, said, quotes, it's wonderful with that coolness and indifference the greater part of mankind sea war commenced. Those that hear of it at a distance or read of it in books but have never presented its evils to their minds consider it as little more than a splendid game, and I'm concluding. I return to the lives lost and damaged. They must not be forgotten, and I have not forgotten them, but I have not forgotten how those lives might have been prevented, intelligence, diplomacy first, and tested to its limits before we put our armed forces into conflicts. Some 1,000 dead and 1,000s were injured. We owe it to them and their descendants and our armed forces today to exhaust every diplomatic international avenue before ever resorting to the brutality of war. Thank you. I start by congratulating Sharon Dawey for securing this debate on a very important anniversary and joining with her and others in recognising and remembering the lives lost, the British servicemen lost, the civilians lost and also we should recognise the Argentinians lost because many of them were conscript soldiers who had no particular appetite for this particular conflict but were forced into it by what was an evil military junta in Argentina at the time, which was trying to divert away from its domestic problems by invading British sovereign territory. I had the privilege of visiting the Falcon Islands in 2012 on the 30th anniversary of the liberation, along with Keith Brown, who was there. Indeed, Christina McKelvie was there from this Parliament as well. It was both a fascinating and, at times, a very moving visit. I had the great honour of laying a wreath in memory of Cooke Brian Easton from Aileth in Perthshire, who had served upon HMS Glamorgan and had been killed on 12 June 1982 when that ship was hit by an Argentinian missile. He was 24 years old. I know that his former colleagues appreciated that gesture that I was able to perform. Like others in the chamber, I have my own memories of the Falcon's conflict. I was sitting my hires at the time when I was 16 years old. Mr Carson is nodding, he is obviously a similar vintage to myself. Against the backdrop of sitting my hires, I well remember the news reports coming through daily of the first of all the sailing of the task force and then the conflict in the Falklands. Names like Goose Green, Sam Carlos, Bluff Cove are still resonant to this day in my memory from that particular time. Like many people of my generation, the Falklands conflict had a substantial impact on the formation of my political opinions, not least my view of the leadership of Margaret Thatcher and her Government at that particular time. There are a number of myths that have grown up around the Falklands conflict. Christine Grahame made some fair points, but she overstated the enthusiasm for war that there was in the UK Government at the time. We have to remember that Margaret Thatcher's cabinet was made up predominantly of middle-aged men who had themselves known war, fought in the second world war and were not enthusiastic for war at all. The UK Government at the time made enormous efforts to try and reach an accommodation with the Argentinians through the United Nations. Yes, of course, look away. Thank you, Mr Fraser, for giving me a way to go to that point. We can disagree about how the diplomacy was conducted. Will he concede that the actions of the UK Government before that point in reducing for taking away HMS endurance were things that sent exactly the wrong messages to the Argentinians and some things that resulted in the honourable resignation, for example, of Lord Carrington at the time? I am not going to disagree with Keith Brown's point. He makes a very fair point in recognising that, but he and others should also recognise that there was no gungho attitude in the UK Government at the time. They were desperate to try and avoid conflict, not least because of the very substantial risks of sending a task force thousands of miles to the South Atlantic with no idea as to whether that would be successful if I have time. I can give you the time back, Mr Fraser. I think that, in fairness, you will concede that I was talking about the gungho attitude of a particular tabloid newspaper, which gave me concern how it came into public, if the public began to own that. I am grateful to Christine Grahame for that clarity, and I recognise the point that she makes, but there were strenuous efforts to arrive at a diplomatic settlement, and those were resisted by the Argentinians, leaving armed conflict as the only way to resolve the particular matter. I have taken up probably too much time already. I encourage others who have not been to the Falkland Islands to make their visit. It is now a vibrant economy and society, as Sharon Dowey pointed out. It is growing enormously as a tourist destination. You can see wildlife, historic sites, linked with the conflict 40 years ago. You can see penguins in large numbers, which are always a delight. I hope that we will continue to see the Falklands economy growing and thriving, thanks to the sacrifice that was made by our soldiers, airmen and sailors back 40 years ago, and we should continue to recognise their memory. I very much welcome this member's debate, and I congratulate Sharon Dowey on securing it. 40 years ago means it for many that this is history. However, as the work done by Help for Heroes, the charity reminds us that a quarter of those aged 18 to 24 have never heard of the Falklands conflict. Nearly one in two of those aged 18 to 34 did not know in which decade the Falklands war took place. An 11 per cent thought that it was the UK invading the Falklands rather than Argentina. There is something about the importance of this debate going on the record and expressing our solidarity with Falkland Islanders, but it is also important to learn the lessons going forward. For me, the conflict was marked by the fact that the UK was led by Margaret Thatcher, somebody whom I had profound disagreements on almost every topic that you could mention. However, for me, the exchange between Christine Grahame and Murdo Fraser and Keith Brown is part of what is important about this debate, because we are a democracy and we can have these discussions and we can look back in history without any of us being put at risk. There is something about being a democracy that is important, but also to pick up from that discussion the importance of peacemaking diplomacy in a democracy as well as having armed forces. It is an important principle to celebrate today that the people of the Falkland Islands, with strong links to the UK and Scotland in particular, were united in wanting to retain their UK characteristics and their links to the United Kingdom, and they relied on armed forces to restore their freedom. However, as I think is really important in the motion that Sharon Dowie has put forward, we need to express our support for those who lost their lives on both sides of the conflict, whether they were from Argentina or our armed forces, because the people who were injured also had to deal with the aftermath of the conflict. That was something that a Falkland war veteran said not a day goes by where he doesn't think about his experiences in the conflict and those who were badly burnt when his ship was sunk by Argentine jets 40 years ago. For many people, that lives on today. However, I think we need to also celebrate our links with the Falkland Islands and Scotland in particular, and I want to thank Michael Betz, the Falkland Islands Government deputy representative for meeting me last week. It was good to reflect on the similarities between Scotland and the Falkland Islands. As I mentioned in the introduction, the fact that we have islands in Scotland as well, we have a similar topography and weather in Scotland. Lots of wind power, sheep farming and climate-proofed homes. Sheep are important to the Falkland Islands community and they are looking to get recognition to brand as Falklands wool because it is excellent quality and it is organic. I think that there are also important issues in terms of us reflecting on climate change as well. The high wind and solar power generation because they don't have an alternative because of the location of the Falkland Islands and also the links that we have between the Falkland Islands and our universities in Scotland and the rest of the UK, but also the reliance on the state because of the size of the country and an expectation of provision from the state. People get support to go on holiday. They have a very good welfare system and they have funded university and living fees to enable people to come to the rest of the UK to study and the vast majority of them go home. It is important that we reflect on the achievements of the Falkland Islanders and our links. We have strong links through the work in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and our British, Irish and Mediterranean region branch. I started by saying that 40 years was a long time ago and for many it's history. I think that it's important that we continue to try and improve relationships between the UK and the Falkland Islands nearest neighbour Argentina. It's critical that respect for the Falkland Islanders are at the heart of that relationship and that we continue our support. Wars are expensive both financially and in terms of people's lives and we look to the future. Let us look at the unique opportunity to welcome support, to recognise the sacrifices made 40 years ago but to look to the future to celebrate our cultural links, to work together to share our expertise, our academic links and to continue the exploration of best practice between our countries and our people. Let's look at, as we go forward, how we continue to strengthen the links between the Falkland Islanders, between Scotland and the rest of the UK. Thank you very much. The final speaker in the open debate, Alexander Stewart, again for around four minutes. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm delighted to have this opportunity in speaking today and I would like to congratulate my colleague Tandawi on bringing the debate to the chamber. It was not only at the invasion and occupation of the Falkland Islands but Argentine forces back on 2 April 1982 was seen as an horrific and illegal act. It also marked a significant turning point for the then United Kingdom Government and was a test of the then Prime Minister's leadership and her Government. A British naval task force was sent to reclaim the island. However, assembling that force was no simple task. To amass the kind of defence for these islands 8,000 miles from the United Kingdom in the South Atlantic, whether by sea or by air, was going to involve logistics and planning of an epic proportion. The 26 ships, later rising to 44 from the Royal Navy that took an active part in the campaign, were supported by 20 ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. Those included six specialist logistics landing ships to ships from the Royal Marine Auxiliary and there are as well as 54 requisitioned vessels. Many of those civilian ships had to be fitted with extra equipment, including helicopter landing decks, specialist communication apparatus and water treatment plants for the long voyage. In addition, the cruiser, the USS Uganda, was requisitioned and converted into a hospital ship. As well as the sea-borne captivities and the act of air superiority to ensure that that was also going to be a monumental task. Although the air task was clear and the assets that we needed were not clear in any shape or form, even from the absence of a base at the Incession Islands and the aircraft that were required to fly to the Falklands and return. They had to ensure that air-to-air refuelling took part and for the operation of the famous op involving Vulcan bombers from the RAF Waddington that thwarted Argentina's ability to fly over Port Stanley, they are required to be air refuelling. 17 times one aircraft had to be refuelled over a 15-hour, 45-minute capacity. Deputy Presiding Officer, such a short time to talk on a speech today really does not justify any of the significant operations that took place, nor can it come close to acknowledging the significant contributions that were made by so many military and civilian personnel. We have already heard today that the loss of 255 British servicemen, including 15 personnel from our broth base, were five commando, and the second battalion, the Scots guards, three individuals from the island amounted to over 900 lives lost in total. In conclusion, the British success in this war came about chiefly based on the ability of an impromptu military campaign for which there was no prior planning or projected to sustain any form of task force. As we know, Argentine forces are rendered on 14 June 1982, a date that has gone down in history and with the island itself in their liberation day. This is a national holiday in the island, and as stated by the Ffotland island government, Ffotland islanders continue to be profoundly grateful for the strong support of the United Kingdom government, continues to provide in acknowledging their choice to remain an overseas territory. The people of the Ffotland islands continue to be forward looking with a strong sense of culture and a strong sense of heritage. The immense bravery and fortitude that is shown by Ffotland islanders, the armed forces personnel, and Mr Hart's terrain and conditions during the conflict should never be underestimated and should always be universally commended. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and I call Keith Brown to respond to the debate, Cabinet Secretary, for around seven minutes, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and thank you to Shardindoway for securing this member's debate to mark the 40th anniversary of the liberation of the Ffotland islands. Also, thanks to Shardindoway for the sponsorship of last week's 40th anniversary commemoration event held here at Parliament, it was a fitting way to reflect on the impact and legacy of the Ffotland conflict. I should reflect on trying to mention all the MSPs who attended that night and missed out too, for which I will try to rectify. Pam Goesel and Tess White were there, and I did not mention them by name. I am happy to do so now. I also mentioned by name somebody who was not there, which was Murdo Fraser. I do not know where he was that night, but I did mention the fact that, as he has done, he came down to the Ffotland islands in 2012, as I and Christina McKelvie did. It is a fantastic opportunity to see a really remarkable place outside of the Ffotland conflict, of course. Back to today's debate, and what is clear from the contributions that we have heard is that, across the chamber, we are unanimous in recognising the bravery and heroism of all those individuals who set sail to free the islands. I was particularly interested in Murdo Fraser's speech, because the young man that he talked about on HMS Clamorgan, who died on 12 June, was the evening between 11 and 12 June, when the unit that I was in was in its 4.5 commando—it is not 4.5—I know that there is no explanation for it, but that is what it is known as 4.5 commando. We were conducting an attack, and the person next to me was directing fire from HMS Clamorgan on to our position, which scared me endlessly because the idea that somebody would know exactly how far they were advancing and be able to direct their fire with that kind of accuracy, I thought, had an act of faith. However, it just showed how skillful and brave those people were on the HMS Clamorgan, and my full condolences go to the family, the surviving family of the young man that Murdo Fraser mentioned. As we near the 40th anniversary, there are a number of upcoming events and activities that will provide all of us with a chance to consider the lasting impact of the conflict, but I am glad that a number of members have mentioned the Arsentynians who were involved. It has been mentioned that many of them were not there by choice. The ones that I met were young men—one had a suitcase—why you would take a suitcase to war. He did that because he had no other way of taking proper equipment, so he took a civilian clothes. They seemed to me to be younger even than we were. They were hopelessly all-prepared, hungry and cold. The prisoner that I had taken back to our headquarters was absolutely petrified. I have to say that one of the major achievements of the Falklands war, for me at least, was that I saw no ill treatment whatsoever of any Arsentynian prisoners of war. They were treated exceptionally well in my experience, so that is a mark of a very professional force in my view. I will be delighted to be attending the Scottish National Event in Edinburgh on 18 June. That event has been delivered by the Scottish Government in partnership with Legion Scotland and Poppy Scotland. It will provide the people of Scotland with an opportunity to commemorate this important and poignant anniversary and I would encourage MSPs of all parties if they can to in turn encourage others to come along on that day. To coincide with this, Poppy Scotland, to go up to Sarah Boyack's point, is delivering a wider learning programme and package of resources to schools across the country to allow young people to learn more about the conflict, as well as highlighting the role of the armed forces and the role that they play today and how we can support them and their families. It is interesting to think that, of course, back in 1982, we were closer to the end of the Second World War than we are now today to the Falklands conflict. I can speak for myself when I say, thinking back to 1982, I thought that World War 2 was a way in ancient history, so you can imagine how it feels now to be thinking back to the Falklands. I am also looking forward to attending the Royal British Legion's national event at the National Memorial Arboretum to mark the official anniversary, but I would like to take a moment today to highlight the work done by Andrew Cave to ensure the efforts of Dockyard workers who worked skilfully and tirelessly to ensure that our personnel and fleet were ready to sail to the Falklands, that they were properly recognised and commemorated—this is the work of Andrew Cave—to make sure that they were properly recognised and commemorated with plaques placed on current and former naval dockyards around the world, including just across the Forth and Rossife. It is only right that we pay tribute to those often forgotten about individuals, along with everyone else, who made a contribution during the conflict from the serving personnel to their families and the wider communities. I was scheduled to go to an event at Rossife, which was going to unveil the plaque commemorating those workers and the work of Andrew Cave, but unfortunately contracted Covid earlier on in that week. We should also take a moment to recognise and appreciate something that we heard last week, which I will now remember the strong cultural links that Scotland shares with the Falkland Islands communities to this day. Many of the Falkland Islands population are descended from Scottish and Welsh immigrants who settled in the territory after 1833. Again, many individuals from the Shetland and Orkney Islands emigrated to the Falkland Islands in the second half of the 19th century during the development of their sheep breeding industry. Just to turn back briefly to the war itself and its lasting impact, the war involved all elements of the armed forces lasting just 74 days, claimed the lives that we have heard of hundreds of servicemen and had a lasting impact on thousands more as well as their families. Many veterans still struggle with physical or mental scars or have faced hardships in the years afterwards. If I could just briefly mention the four men in my troop who were killed, Pete Fitton and Uren, Bob Bleeming and Keith Phillips. Those last two, as I mentioned last week, Bob Bleeming was a sergeant and a wife for a family, a children at home. Keith Phillips, who was the same age as me, same first name, who was killed just before the attack on two sisters. For him, his life has finished there. When we went back down in 2012 and murdered Fraser made a call, trying to ensure that as much assistance as possible is given to the families to allow them to go down, and even some who do not recognise the fact that they are entitled to receive a medal on their son, brother, father's behalf. While we reflect on the events of the Falklands conflict and are ties with communities involved, we have to take a moment to recognise and remember all those who lost their lives or were otherwise impacted by the war and the occupation of the islands. We have quite recently accounts of leader in Highlands who was resident in the Falklands at the time, so that goes to the links that we have between the two countries. It is also important that we acknowledge the lasting impact that can be experienced by some members of the armed forces communities, and we continue to try to address that. I would just like to finish by expressing my gratitude to the close-knit charity sector that we have here in Scotland. I am sure that I speak for everyone today when I say that I am continually impressed by the level and quality of support that they provide to our ex-service personnel and their families. I extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone who supports those charities in whatever way they can. Finally, we will not forget the brave souls who paid the ultimate price to ensure that the Falklands had the ability to exercise their right to self-determination. That is the crucial point. Just to finish on the point, the exchange between Christine Graham and Murdo Fraser. Sarah Boyack is quite right to say that this is the stuff of democracy. We do not have to agree on those things. Sometimes people think that all members of the armed forces or veterans have the same view on those things. When we have fought wars in the past, it has usually been to protect democratic freedoms, and that means disagreeing. I think that the way that the war was conducted, the much that I have learned about, gives me a certain degree of anguish about how things could have been conducted differently, and that is probably true of any conflict that there has been. However, the idea that once those forces, the Argentinian forces, representing a fascist regime were on the islands, that it was going to be necessary to forcibly eject them, I have no trouble with that. I think that that is right. The principle is, to me, self-determination. You have to allow the people in the Falklands, it was not reclaiming them for the UK, it was reclaiming them for the Falkland Islanders to have the choice to make their own decision, which of course they did subsequently in a referendum. I think that that is something that we all want to imagine. I hate to say that everyone has the same view of those things. When people look back, they think that that is what they were fighting for. Although, in truth, most people in the armed forces will tell you that they are fighting for the person next to them and the unit that they belong to as much as anything else. Thank you for everyone who has been involved in the debate, and thank you again to Sharon Dowd for making sure that this is not forgotten and that it will continue to remember those who served in the Falklands in future years. Thank you very much indeed. Cabinet Secretary, that concludes the debate, and I suspend this meeting until 2 pm.


We are announcing the nation's first comprehensive early alert system for earthquakes. We're announcing the ability for millions and millions of Californians to download an app, My Shake. Download the app, My Shake. Millions of people do that. We will have points of contact, the ability to crowdsource information, the likes of which no country in the world has advanced. I say that knowingly that Japan and Mexico have systems already in place in this space. But because of the extraordinary, complementary work that was done by UC Berkeley, by Caltech, by USGS, and by our own Office of Emergency Service, we feel we are on the leading and cutting edge in terms of the ability to utilize this technology. But it is only as good as you. If you download that app, we now have another point of contact, and we are now all part of this remarkable capacity to iterate, to experiment, to advance science in real time to make us all more safe. I'm a seismologist. I live earthquakes. And we have been working on this problem for over a decade at this point, so it's great to see this finally coming to fruition. At UC Berkeley, we're very proud of the contributions that we've made over the years. We started working on this problem back in 2005, when we started developing and testing the algorithms to generate the alerts, the algorithms that are generating the alerts today. We've then worked to build the collaboration that UC represented to here today over the years to build the system. And then we're very proud today to be going that last mile and be providing the My Shake app, which can actually deliver this warning to everybody across California. One of the things that we really try to do at Berkeley, of course, is come up with solutions for society, for the state that we're in. And this is a great example where we went and we were doing the science and we saw an opportunity to create a product that could actually save lives. We followed through on that over the course of the last 15 years, and today everybody gets early warning. We're very confident about the system. Now, it's not perfect. It's still a prototype, but we're ready. We think we can reduce the impact of earthquakes. And by rolling this out today, we're going to better understand the system and the system will only get better with time.


So good afternoon everyone and many thanks for joining this webinar today. My name is Efe Celtidio and I will be the host of today's webinar focusing on teaching in natural and cultural places. In this webinar we will try to understand what teaching and learning outside actually is, yet a better understanding of the practicalities as well as the pedagogical considerations that come with it, by focusing on teaching that takes place in nature and in cultural places like a museum. I will also have the opportunity to discuss about recent research concerning the students outcomes and the speaker of today will share with us the relevant experience of the Nordic countries and will present evidence from research and practice. Without further ado I would like to introduce Karen Barford who is a senior lecturer and the research leader in outdoor studies at the VIA University College of Denmark at the Department of Teacher Education. During the presentation of course you will have the opportunity to interact with us via the chat so please feel free to share your questions and comments and we will make sure to address them by the end of the live event. Karen many thanks for being here with us the stage is yours. Thank you and welcome everybody. I'm so impressed of so many people joining this webinar from so many different Turkey. It really makes me feel part of a community so thank you. I will now share my presentation with you and then I will switch to this figure so you can see me sometimes. So I hope you will understand my English. As you can hear I'm not a native speaker but I will try to express me in a way that it's possible for everybody to understand. Yeah so I share my presentation and we have become good in this during the COVID. So as you can see in the left corner I'm from VIA University College and that is teacher training and we are now working in the school education gateway in this platform for school education. My name is Kam Bafo and I'm PhD in outdoor studies. I'm also a research leader in the program of outdoor studies so we have a lot of research going on and I try to lead it. I try to take care of the research, the quality of the research that is done in teacher and kindergarten area in outdoors. Sorry Karin to interrupt. The way we see the presentation is in a different mode. We see also the notes and the next slide maybe you need. We don't see it in full screen. Is this better? Yes now excellent thank you. Good and that's me and my kayak. We went here and then I teach biology and physical education and we have national networks concerning working outdoors. So you can see in the last line it says head of the board of the national UDESKOLE network and I will come back to the UDESKOLE in Danish. Now this is a Danish lesson also UDE means outdoor and SKOLE means school so it's outdoor school. This is what you were promised and I will try to work with this. I will try to see if we can get around because it's a lot in about 45 minutes but I will start talking about what do we mean with outdoor outside the classroom and then I will draw on the experience from the Nordic countries. You know in Scandinavia we have a strong tradition of teaching and working outdoors with the pupils and I do hope that you will write your comments and if you had any remarks or discussions in the chat and then we will take a look at it afterwards. So we can see this place-based this outdoor as an umbrella and under this umbrella as Knapp he wrote it in 2013 there are maybe I should move this one can I do this whoa then there are many different ways and understandings of working outside the classroom. In the right corner you can see it's the outdoor adventure outdoor activities outdoor education path with the kayaks with rope skipping then we have more place-based teaching where you where the place means a lot it's very common in history we have visits at museum we have community projects, experiential education, nature, kindergarten, forest schools and so on and so on. So when we when we work in this field it's important for us to say what is it actually we're talking about oh and now I can't change mine yeah so when we say we work outdoors or outside what is it is it outside like under the blue sky or the gray sky this could be when we work on school grounds with the pupils in parks and in nature but maybe outdoor or outside teaching also is outside the school grounds but could be inside as if we go inside a museum so when we leave the school we it doesn't mean that we need to be under the blue sky maybe we will go into a church to an art museum or visiting people some people also say well if it's outside then it could be outside the curriculum like extra curricula that it could concerning not the place but also the content or is it just a pedagogical way where we work outside the teacher center pedagogy so it's not the teacher in the center but the activities and the learning process of the pupils as you can see on the picture so today when we work with this field it's outside the school grounds but it can also be inside in museums so it both when we are outside under the blue sky and some of the research concerns school grounds parks and nature but it also inside like in museum it's not outside the curriculum this webinar concerns what's inside the curriculum what should the pupils learn in school and then it has also something to do the pedagogy are you happy okay yes everything is good Karen you can understand me or hear me or please write yes you hear you perfectly that's great I will continue my presentation and if you um you can also raise your hands or anything if you start to get bored then I will speed up I'll share the presentation again and see if it's in a good way yeah it's still like this good so Simon Beams Peter Higgins and Robin Nichols from the University of Edinburgh have been working about where do we go when we go outdoors and they say well we can go very close to the school on the school grounds we can go into the local neighborhood and we can go on day excursions or in residential expeditions overnight stay and this webinar concerns when we are at the school grounds or in the local neighborhood maybe on day excursions so this is not what we're talking about today it's not like week long trips in the desert with rucksack and less food and so on this is how do we teach when we take the pupils out during every day school day and for this we use the pedagogical model designed by Arne Nicolaisen-Joel in 2010 that we have translated in this way so if you start in the upper left corner it says classrooms activities, paper and computer based versions of the world and then there is a dotted arrow between what we work with indoors and what we work with outdoors because when we teach outdoors it's nothing extra it's just another way of teaching exactly the same curricula elements but it has implication on forms of knowledge so we use with the pupils we work with the pupils bodies their senses there's activities in another way as we do indoors but there's a double arrow so what we learn outdoors when we teach outdoors what the pupil learns they can use indoors and vice versa what they work with indoors they can use outdoors and here we can either use the school surroundings as a learning area arena that is a place to learn but it can also be a source of knowledge things that we learn about let's have an example if you in biology learn something about whales you know the very big very very big fish like animals in the sea you can go outside in the the school and you can paint them in full size on the ground here you use the place as a learning arena it's just a place where there's a lot of space but you can also go somewhere where they have a skeleton from a whale and then you can use the school surroundings as a source of knowledge because you need to go to the place where the skeleton are yeah so when you go outdoors you can see in down it says then you will cooperate with a local society maybe you will go to the church or to the mosque or wherever and talk to the imam or the priest or the local farmer or anybody yeah and then there is an arrow pointing towards the left corner saying well but when you choose to teach outdoors then it will have consequences for your pedagogy so you will use more practical inquiry based and problem solving approaches to your teaching because it makes no sense to make the take the pupils outdoors and then just make them sit and talk to them you can do that indoors because you have the blackboard or the computers and so on but outdoors the pupils need to be practical they need to work with these problem solving approaches they need to work with in creative creating and playful approaches and when the pupils work like this when you plan your teaching like this it will have implication for the learning theories how do the pupils learn they will learn by using their body and their senses they will learn by communicating talking to each other collaborating and when they work like this they will form the a holistic human both their head what they know their hand and their heart what they mean I have done research with teachers that work a lot outdoors and I ask them try to formulate try to tell me why do you work outdoors and they said so they said it's because we want to form a holistic human and to form this human being to form them pupils with their minds on their hands on their heart on then we need to work with their body and senses we need them to learn by collaborating by talking together by trying to solve problems together and if they need to do this they will learn by their body and their senses and then we need to take them outdoors so actually the teachers they didn't start by taking the pupils outdoors because outdoors is good they started the teachers that I made my research upon Danish teachers they say we want to form a holistic a child a child with head heart and hands and then being outdoors is the best way to do it so it's like the other way around for the teachers yeah so this is a pedagogical model that you can use when you have to express why you're going out because we don't go out just to go out we go out because we have aims and wants the pupils to develop in a certain direction here is from a recent study where it says according to I don't know if you can see my arrow here but I point with it according to the respondents museum-based learning can affect both student and teacher creativity especially in the aspects of insight and inspiration that generate new ideas and add the variety of solutions that students can come up with when solving a problem so this is a study upon museum-based learning and it says more or less the same as the pedagogical model now I have to click here no yeah but it's not only about the place where you go this picture is from the net and from future learn here you see a museum pedagogue talking to the children the children stays passively here and listen so what if you want to affect creativity inside inspiration new ideas you also have to take into account the approach that you have at the museum or outdoors in nature or anywhere outside the classroom uh john quay wrote in this journal of outdoor and environment education that he argued that the thing still this is a difficult word for me distinctiveness of outdoor education lies in neither a body of knowledge in the content nor skills or practices process but in a deeper level of educational understanding which emphasizes ways of being so when we go outdoors it's not only about the content or what you can do but what it makes us discuss what should education do why do we educate the pupils we don't educate them just so they can a lot of have a lot of knowledge upon ancient times no we need them to have this educational understanding why are we here as human and what should we do I know this is very philosophical but this is also a webinar we really need to um work on the high lines too so here are two different approaches to learning in nature here on the left you see one where we copy the same approach as we have indoor so we have tables the pupils must sit in the certain direction and they look at the blackboard so actually the only thing that they will uh do here is they will learn the same maybe and then they would freeze and think and maybe they get wet if it rains to the right you see an approach where the pupils are in essentially sensory and bodily um interaction with nature they are also together as a group so this is another approach so if we go into nature I will argue that we need to use the possibilities and the specialities the special things and approaches that we can use when we are outdoors instead of just copying the things that we do when we are indoors so it's not only about the place it's also what approach do we have to uh teaching outdoors and here I will recommend if I don't know how good your German is but this is a German film of Lernen im Leben, how to learn in in life, Bausenschule, that's German and means learning outside and you can see in this this is just a picture of the video how the pupils they actually work with their books but they are also concentrating they are experiencing they are trying to get new knowledge by being at at this museum maybe I should move this one um and Isfraelian group of researchers Bamberger and Tal they made this study of learning in a personal context levels of choice in a free choice learning environment in science and natural history museums so this is about museum learning and they said well the pupils um no I'd say something else the teacher can have different approaches to teaching in a museum that the pupils can be given different choice constituents constituents that's difficult one too so um who choose which topic you work with who choose where to go the space who choose the objects that the pupils have to work with how much time do they have who can they work with is it that they can go and ask the teacher is it possible that the museum the people at the museum they can make interaction with them choose to let the pupils can choose to make interaction with them can they choose to make interaction with other pupils and in which order do they have to work with a task and then Bamberger and Tal they worked with this study where they said okay if there are no choices for the pupils if they can't choose anything about topic space object time interaction or order then they just have to follow the instructions given by the teacher then the learning outcome will be lower than if they are giving at least some choices then there are different levels of limited choice maybe the pupils can choose how long time they work with this thing the with the tasks or in which order and then there is the free choice visit I don't know if you have ever been with pupils at the museum with no limits no topic they can go everywhere they want they can look at every object they just have to finish to lunch they can choose to interact with each other and there's no order and this is the less a fair way of making a museum visit which is actually also not a very good idea if you want them to learn anything so Bamberger and Tal concluded in this store in this study where they had I don't remember how many but a lot of different classes at the museum they said okay if there are a certain level of choice for the pupils then the learning outcome will be largest so you don't need to make it very very very strict and instructional you don't need to make it totally less a fair and free but you need to give them at least some degrees of choice something they can choose to make this visit a learning experience for pupils are there any comments for this no not yet not yet okay it's good with a little break huh yeah it's not always like this in this recent research an undergrade graduates motivation following a sue experience this research group Heim and Holt took the students to a sue and they said while others have reported that structured assessment and chapter owns may limit the learning opportunities that's the no choice visit yeah while others have reported that structured assessment and chapter owns may limit the learning opportunities and interest of student visiting informal learning settings our students participate in in the most structured group benefited in multiple aspects of motivation just as much as students in the free choice learning group so it's not always like this these authors conclude that it's because being in a sue it's so motivating it's with all these animals and all these exciting tasks but at least also we me as researcher I can't always say that it's always so that they need these free choices because they are also researchers saying well it's not always like this but at least mostly it's like this so how do we work with these free choices because then we have indeterminate situations because we will have situations where we were me where you as teachers don't know exactly what is going on but as bista says the the pedagogical researchers from the Netherlands he says off and pedagogical philosopher uh yeah bista he says if you always know what is the result of education you can lose the aim of education because the aim is not to make small copies of us of me at least not and small copies of people who only know the same as you know so we will need some uncertainty in the learning process and then we will need indeterminate situations and simon beams and mike brown have been have written this book adventurous learning a pit get a pedagogy for changing world because the pupils that we teach now they need to be in a changing world so one um one approach for us as teachers are that multiple courses of action should be available for students to pursue that there's not one right answer to the task that we will ask them there are open situations there are some choices of importance for them to to do during the teaching lessons the lessons oh yeah now we will turn to something else are you ready for this because what are the qualities of being outdoors to the left you can see uh one of my courses in outdoor education where we are cooking outdoors there's a lot of sensory um experiences we are cooking apples pancakes up in the corner you can see some mushrooms that we have been picked and to the right is the one of our local museums this museum is about ships wrecks you know ships that um what you call it when they they can't sail anymore and then they go down on the bottom of the sea and these are very old sailing ships and you can see them in here and then the sea is very close so here you will see the some sensory qualities and you will see some qualities where what's in the museum is connected to what is just outside the museum so it's not when I take my students here they they don't just have to be inside the museum they also have to experience the neighborhood of the museum because that's also one of the qualities paid up yeah we answered his name is down here he made this model of uh qualities in outdoor teaching or outdoor education and he said okay there will be some sensory and exploring qualities the pupils will use their senses but they will also explore other things in the world they will move their bodies there are some physical and motor qualities they are not just sitting they have to walk around maybe they have to lift something maybe they have to climb under things they are also very often some manual and productive qualities if you're going to if you're going to make your own food if you're going to make the fire if you're going to run down here and write a poem concerning the wild water whatever then you have to produce something you have to work with your hands which is manual and then there are often many social and verbal qualities of course if the approach is that the teacher stands in the middle out in nature and talk to the pupils you will not have so many social and verbal qualities but if you take the pedagogical model and say well the pupils have to work inquiry based they have to talk together they have to work in groups then there will be social and verbal qualities and these are all connected together when you're outdoor so is it really so that one cure just going outdoors fits all that outdoor teaching will improve your teaching by enhancing physical activity build motivation give you better knowledge more social awareness more less bullying no because this is in Danish because it's a very bad word this book is about very bad education the education your teaching will not become good just because you go outdoors your teaching will be good because you're a good teacher and because you use the possibilities that you will have outdoors you will use all the experiences you will use the the approaches that are different when you are outdoors so this say this book was said also poor teaching is not a common pedagogical concept it is a currently important concept as it sharpens the awareness of what it takes to achieve good teaching also outdoor teaching needs development and quality so now it's your turn please here in the sunken ships yeah here in the chat to write what is really bad education what should you avoid as teachers when you go outdoors so please don't hesitate to write something i'll start anybody else who knows what should we avoid when we are outdoors avoid lecturing yeah not finished yet this type they have to be a sort of structure yeah not yeah that's true this type is in this passion yeah i see also comments regarding about the need for planning to have learning activities and not just have this free time that you mentioned also yeah yeah i will i will come back to something about planning yeah avoid going along with a large group kids yeah yeah make boundaries yeah so that's something about safety to avoid screaming yeah that's true scaffolding all students yeah it's so nice to to see all your comments and you know good teaching outdoors is maybe not very much different from good teaching indoors because it's some of this experience and the objectives and planning and misbehavior all these things are also issues that we work with when we work outdoors so please here is a picture of me teaching outdoors and what can you see what i'm doing wrong here this is me uh standing there so please write in the chat what am i doing wrong on this picture i think it's okay because it's me who is wrong yeah i'm lecturing i'm not at the same level i'm not interacting yeah teacher center teaching yeah that's true standing students yeah i'm also take yeah you have them against the sun yeah that's true i have them against the sun you take like glass yeah yeah uh i'm so happy to say it's an old picture you can see they are sitting still they are freezing it's in danmark it's always cold in danmark and uh there's a person uh in the back she's even try she started to do something as with her back to me there's somebody sitting here with an axe and i tell you this is not a picture taken because of uh it's not instructed this is just a real picture i'm so ashamed but the good that you can see what you shouldn't do so now it's time for a two minute break please don't check your emails but stretch your body and mind and if you want to because i'm a PE teacher i will make a short program for you so you can stand up yeah and you can move your shoulders and you can stretch up to sun one arm another arm one arm another arm you can take your arms out wide because it will take this away come up here open open and in your knees and up and knees and up and all knee yeah and then jump side to side yeah i'm ready again and then we will take our shoulders up and down up and down up and down up and down and our heads okay let's take the few slides left yeah so this is my husband fishing actually if we go to uudskåle then the museum pedagog Heinz said the children need time usually more than one visit to become orientated to a museum so when we work with uudskåle we work regularly out by outside and that can be one or a half day per week that's a lot it's a scandinavian or nordic term in germany they call it pausensschule as i showed you on the film and we go in nature to cultural places and in society so it's curriculum based teaching in elementary school and we have elementary school from six to sixteen where we are taking advantage of environments outside the school buildings including school grounds on a regular basis and here you can see different examples we have focus on place and pedagogy and we work with these collaborative action centered experiential inquiry based and thematic learning processes we had a great study where we had 18 classes working outdoors and the parallel classes you know the same class but with another teacher working indoors and we could see that not much in english 37% of the time they were in nature and 28% of the time they were in cultural places and but they also used a lot of time in the school area so going outdoors can be many places in this study we showed and i need to explain this figure this is from self-determination theory different kind of motivation going to school so it's not time on the x-axis it's different motivations and the red line is the control classes those who worked indoors so but you can also see they're really spreading the numbers but those who are working indoors compared to when we started the teaching which is at zero then all the ways all four ways of motivation were lowered so these students they get more and more bored going to school in all kinds of motivation but the pupils that were outdoors they did not lose the motivation being in school you know it's a main problem that during the year the students lose their motivation but these students that were outdoors they were measured in the beginning of the year and when the year were finished and they did not lose their motivation while those that were indoors they lost their motivation their intrinsic motivation their identified and introjected motivations and the external motivation that was one result from the teacher out project yeah it's the same i'll just the other result that we had were that depending on where the education outside the classroom took place they were moving their bodies more or less the yellow ones are the sedentary behavior they were sitting still less time when they were in nature than when they were at the museums they had more light physical activity when they were in the green areas you can see they have more more and they had a more moderate to vigorous physical activity when they were in the green areas so it seems if we only look at how much physical activity these students are doing then nature is the best place to be okay to teach them compared to school grounds it's not a big difference but still they are moving more light physical activity than they are doing when they are having physical education in school which is a bit strange but they are oh here is a picture of pupils running i have taken them outdoors and you can see this is totally panic for me as a teacher because some students are running into the forest with no goals some are running back but very close to the sea one is freezing they doesn't seem to have any aims there's no structure and no control so when we're talking about bad outdoor education this will show us some of the barriers that we will have as teachers. Fandík Veselius made this study of barriers to outdoor teaching and they said one barrier is there's a lack of a formal status of outdoor learning in teacher educational practice so when i go out with my students my colleagues say oh you're going outdoors and having a bonfire again or something like that it has no formal status many teachers have no confidence in their own outdoor teaching expertise and many teachers said it difficult to get started so these are the three main barriers many teachers say we have lack of time we have lack of communal structure they are also saying we fear losing control and managing children's behavior some of you also wrote this in the chat and yeah if we look of the lack of confidence in your own teaching outdoor teaching expertise because i cannot work with you and say well you need to make conscious decision to devote time to establish outdoor learning because that should be your leader but i can say well some of the things you can do is that you can familiarize with outdoor learning you can start take one hour out or half an hour and then it's really important to work with the organization and rules with the habits with the pupils habits with your habits so the pupils know what are we going to do what is the aim of going out that you have worked with the papers they need to bring out that you have told them when do we have lunch break that you have worked with what are we going to learn and these are some of the barriers you can work with so you lose your lack of confidence so you get confidence in your own outdoor teaching expertise one of the things you can work with and this is this film again Bauschen Schuhn Lernen in Leben where they said you need to leave responsibilities to the pupils they need to know where to meet they need to know how to behave and in this film the pupils ask each other so one pupil say to the other did you bring your rainclothes did you bring your outdoor book and then they said did you bring your brain and i really love this has to do here and thereby did you bring your brain so maybe we should conclude that good education outdoors is not very much different from good education indoors you still need introductions you still need aims you still need activities and feedback to the pupils the pupils still need experiences and time for reflections this is an outdoor reflection book that the i always all my students get this book so and you can see it's hard back so they can write in it and we always take pictures so we need to have time for reflection upon what the activities and we need to have strong relations between teacher and pupils so now it's time for questions i need to go up and see anything scaran well i see that in the comments i see that participants were very interested in everything that you described and explained so thank you very much for that i saw a comment popping up from isabel well highlighting actually the number of students per per class or per school what's what's your advice here related to organizing learning outside the classroom if you have a big number of students for instance in your class yeah i think there are very many national differences here because in Denmark we have only up to 28 pupils in a class and if you it also depends on where you go because if you go in a nearby environment if you go just down in the schoolyard or at the sports place if you as an example have language at the sports field maybe you can be just by yourself because you're so close to the toilets and you're so close to to the office where the people at the at the school works if you have to go further you always have to need to the need to be at least two either you have some parent helpers maybe you have a museum pedagogy that is there as an adult too maybe you have a help you have i don't know if you have it but we usually have some student helpers or something good to go to a class pedagogy so there are many different solutions to this but you should never go alone and you should always have a mobile phone that the pupils are instructed to use too because if something happened to you somebody else has to call for help so there needs to be a number they can dial to the school and so on so um i would actually i would say that you could just be the same amount of adults as as you are indoors if you're just in the very close neighborhood and if you have worked with the routines when i do like this you all go to the wall or when i wave i once was in latvia and there was a teacher she just raised her hand and then all the pupils came i don't know how she made that but really yeah can you share how you plan an activity outdoor how you start the planning do you have a checklist do you work alone um when i start my planning i always think of what is the topic what is it that we are working with just now and what outdoor activity can enhance the learning process so if we work with verbs you know announced and different words tree leave go out and find these things or uh if we work with i can run i can hop we go out and do this if this is what they need to learn if they if they need to learn mathematics and they work with numbers then i say well you make can you find anything with a symbol of five and it can be leaves and so on so uh i think what should they learn and how can this going outdoors make them learn it better and then um i either make the activity myself or i find them on the net or i find something on the internet that i make a bit different sometimes if if you are a bit unsure you can take some of the tasks that you usually do indoor you know maybe maybe you have um a task where there's a lot of words and a lot of things they need to find here and then need to make lines then you can copy them take them outdoors and make the pupils run from one thing to another so you can also start by taking some of the tasks that you do indoor and make them bigger is a field study necessary before the action with what is a field study i suppose that ever means that if the teacher needs to visit the place before just to check what the also the safety issues the possibilities offered by the space itself you always need to go there first but when you have been there you don't need to go there again so uh um yeah um and also i see a question from an ass if there is if you have an interesting website or resource or repository in general of ideas related to uh teaching outside the classroom uh do you have resource to share uh just to know mention also here that the current has included in the presentation some links and some uh resources for further reading so you will receive the power point um we will share the power point online as as we promised and also if you need to the dive a bit deeper on the topic and hear more from Karen if you want to uh learn more about the practicalities of organizing learning outside the classroom we warmly invite you to join the MOOC which started last Monday the teaching outside the classroom MOOC i shared the link on the chat and there you will find also videos with Karen sharing more practical ideas and suggestions about what you're asking about organizing teaching outside the classroom so make sure you join it and benefit from these free online professional development opportunities maybe i should show some of the tasks that i i can i didn't claim this so i have to get them over here if it's okay will you yes i see some questions in the meantime are parents sometimes allowed to participate in outdoor education activities yes i think as Karen mentioned it's also recommended to involve parents in some outdoor activities and make them be your help helpers in these outside learning activities but of course guidance is needed yeah this is uh we were working with whales and and with math and we were working with scale you know how big is a whale actually and what is the mathematics behind and then we went to the beach and they had to make them in real size so they had to measure they have to work together the pupils and so on this is uh this is a game we made with small wood glasses with small insects that they have to run as fast as possible this was actually in physical education because the the small animals has to come first we we really work with a lot of of different things and they always have this booklet where they write in and and have the ideas written yeah so um one more question related to the weather Karen is it uh is outside learning considered only for during the well autumn or springtime because of weather restrictions or is it something that we can do also in winter what's your advice here that's depends on which country you come from before but um usually i say when we work in Denmark and you know it's a northern hemisphere it's really really bad weather sometime we um the pupils are used to have good clothing son so what i work with is that they need to i need to plan activities where they are physically active like when we start the day we like go fast for a walk for a quarter of an hour so they will be warm then the activities is not things where they have to ride or sit the with flowers or something it's more like running or moving a stone or something and and then i have some um games to i i have um a lot of ideas with small games that i can use so uh like here we have the crowds a bird and here we have another kind of birds the owls very clever ones so oh there's a lot of kids here there's a lot of kids here and i'm in the middle and then i say something you know depending on what we're working with um this is a book and if it's right then the owls they have to run and catch the crowds and if it's wrong this is a bird it's not a bird then the crowds have to get the owls and so on so i have some running games that i can yeah i can use during the day so clothing um that the pupils are moving their body that you are aware of that they don't stand in the wind and then we have hats um you know warm hats for everybody that somebody gave us for free i won't say who but somebody gave us a lot of hats so you can use them on the kids yeah and one question from Iro from Greece from what dates you start taking students out yeah you know we have this strange habit in Denmark that from they are very very small they sleep in the cribs outdoors so we have uh we are world champions in outdoor kindergarten kids are outside in Denmark and when they come to school they get more or less indoors so it it's more that the oldest one they're sitting there with their computers all day it's um younger kids are outside and they are outside three or four hours per day in kindergarten in Denmark you know so i see people also are very interested in activities that you can plan outside so i think that this webinar currently provides a great inspiration for people to start searching more about it so i would very kindly redirect you to the to the MOOC that i mentioned earlier because there you will find yeah great idea served and also idea served among teachers who practice outside learning already so uh we we we learn from each other we inspire each other there are many great practices taking place in schools in across europe so we really want to serve them and learn from each other so please make sure that you can uh follow and join this opportunity as well um if there are not any other questions which i don't see now in the chat um i would like to yeah thank you Karin very much for this very interesting presentation if you have of course anything else to say any last words please please do uh otherwise i think we are perfectly on time on closing this webinar it's all always a good idea to close two minutes before time i i'll uh i'll just say that my last slide was that now you all had to reflect a bit what was new to me what did i learn what will i use during the next few months in my own practice so i hope for all the kids in europe that it's that you have a lot of good ideas i know you're good teachers because you joined in for learning something more but still we can all improve our practice and uh so thank you for sharing your questions thank you for joining in and let's get outside with the kids excellent thank you karin thank you all for joining have a lovely evening and keep up the great job


So welcome. I'm Catherine Prezner. I'm from Montreal, which is in the province of Quebec in Canada. That's about 450 miles directly north of here. So the first word camp Montreal was held back in 2009 and it was a two-day two-track event. It was pretty ambitious for a first-time event and talks were mostly in English, a couple in French. Two women gave solo talks and two women co-presented with men. And if you'll notice on the here on the schedule, two of the women's talks were scheduled at the same time. It was a really good inaugural word camp in many ways, but something that bugged a lot of people was the real gender imbalance and even the fact that you couldn't see all four women speak because of the way things were scheduled. So as a community, we went on a journey to change things. And our transformation was slow and steady. It happened over the course of years. It wasn't easy and it took persistence and hard work by a lot of people. So I want to clarify that when I say we and our here, I'm referring to the whole community in Montreal, both official organizers and supporters. And when I say women, I'm referring to anyone who identifies as a woman or a non-binary. Earlier this year, Rachel McCollum said, if a word camp has a healthy proportion of women speaking at it, that tells the women attending that this is a community they can feel part of and they too can aspire to speak at word camps and meet-ups and pass on their knowledge. My hope is that you'll find some things in our journey in Montreal that you can bring back and try in your own word camp community. 2010, our second year, Shannon Smith stepped in as the first woman co-organizer alongside founding organizer Jeremy Clark and new organizer, Brendan Sarah Schreyer. And here they are after a very successful word camp weekend. Do you notice anything? So Shannon had two of her four kids during her seven-year tenure as a word camp organizer. That second year, we again had just four women speakers. This time two of them were Shannon and me. We had attended and met the previous year at word camp and decided that we really needed a good beginner overview talk. So we created one. This time we also didn't put all four women up against each other at the same time. As a bilingual city, we also wanted to see more talks in French. And so this year there were a couple more talks in French and even one in France, which is a pretty uniquely Montreal combination of English and French. And looking back, 2010 was a very blue year. Do you notice? I don't know. I don't know how that happened. So 2011 was our third year. We're moving along now. And we had some more solo talks by women and a couple more joint talks as well. Our percentage of women speakers went up to 28 percent. And that year we tried something different. Shannon had an idea and it was to have an informal discussion to brainstorm why there were so few women making their voice heard in the word press world at the time. And we called it, where are the women? We did it bilingual style. So the room was pretty packed. There were tons of ideas flying and people of all ages shared really personal stories. We brainstormed what some of the problems were, possible solutions. Men asked how they could help. It was pretty inspiring. I used this kind of wacky mind mapping tool to try and capture the gist of the discussion at the time. Looking back, it's kind of hard to look at. I'm not quite sure how well it worked out. But looking back at it, it did bring back some of the salient points and reminded me what we talked about. And one of the things that really struck me was looking at this little cluster about how to get more women speakers. And things that came up a lot, like feeling like an imposter as being the reason why women didn't want to present, feeling like a fraud. Being worried about expressing strong opinions. 2012, we tried a few new things. We wanted to make a conscious effort to put women's images right on the website as speakers. To make us feel like we belong and that we're welcome and have our place there as speakers. So this is Roseanne Harvey, right in the header of the website itself. She'd given a talk the year before. And we even used the same image on our little badges that we gave for speakers and attendees and volunteers. Our proportion of women speakers jumped by 10% that year to 38%. Here's something Aaron Jorbin said. It's also about inspiring. When you look at a career path and see only people that look different than you, it becomes a lot easier to drop out and say, eh, it's not for you. When you look at the breakdown of speakers and you don't see anyone like yourself, you question if you even want to buy a ticket to attend. 2013. Another woman joined the organizing team. This is Alex. And something else happened. We went from two tracks to three. So now we had even more speakers to find. Shannon started doing something. We have a very active Facebook group in our community. And she started putting little reminders saying how many people had submitted so far, how many women, and do you know anyone who might be able to submit a talk. And they started to show the community that this is something we care about. Maybe it prompted someone to consider submitting who might not have considered it. I also made it a habit to get up and pitch our local community at other events for women in tech that I would go to. So we have a very active community for women in tech in Montreal. And I would always get up if there was an opportunity for announcements and invite people to submit a talk to our local meetup group, or if the time of year was right to submit a talk to WordCamp itself. I'd also keep an eye out when I went to other WordCamps in nearby communities, for example, in Ottawa or Toronto. If I'd see a really great woman speak, I'd invite her to submit a talk to Montreal. We did something else in 2013. We ran a troubleshooting workshop for women as well. And Shannon led another women in WordPress discussion session. 2014. We have about one community meetup a month, and we started doing some more participatory style meetups. So things like a plug-in slam where anybody could get up and talk about their favorite plug-in. Or we shared tips on things you wish you'd known when you first started using WordPress. Or we had a panel on the business of WordPress.  Something else really key for me happened in 2014, and these are some pictures from it. The Vancouver WordPress community was facing a situation where they had almost no women submitting talks to the WordCamp. And they decided to do something about it, something extremely concrete. They ran a workshop, a public speaking workshop, for women, and it was a half a day. And they did things like look at how to brainstorm, how to narrow down your talk ideas, how to write pitches, and how to structure a talk, things that beginners can find very challenging. I was extremely inspired reading about this. I thought it was an amazing idea, and I thought it was something I'd like to try. I asked two of my colleagues, Tammy Lister and Kat Rimer, at Automatic, if they'd be interested in developing a workshop similar to this for our colleagues within Automatic. And they said yes, and we ran a bunch of these within the company through video conferencing since we're distributed. And then Tammy and I sort of took this on the road and continued to give the workshop at other WordPress communities, local workshops in WordPress communities and AdaCamp and Montreal Girl Geeks. And along with the things they'd covered in Vancouver, we did things like how to handle stage fright, how to avoid common beginner speaker mistakes, how to handle post-talk questions and answers, something that beginners can get very nervous about.  We continued, mostly Shannon continued, tweeting and Facebooking our submission stats. So how many talks in French? How many talks in English? How many talks by women? And they started to get the community talking. So here you see in French Elise Desonnier saying that her and Kay Lynn are going to help each other with their pitches, and if anyone else needed help, to get in touch. As a side note, Elise is speaking here at WordCamp US this year. This started to nurture a really supportive environment in our community rather than a competitive individualistic one. I continued to do something a little bit more strategically that I had started to do and that was to make a list of all the women I thought would be great speakers for our Montreal WordCamp and invite them individually to submit and ask if I could do anything, if I could help them look over their pitch or anything at all. And a friend who I'd been doing this with for a couple of years gave it a name and she said, Catherine, you're so great at flatter nagging. I said, flatter nagging? That is amazing. She says, yeah, you're asking me to do something, but you're also complimenting me at the same time, so I want to do it. So I wrote up a blog post about this technique to share it with others because it was very effective. In 2015, a third woman joined the organizing team. This is Veronica. WCMTL. And we also put up a diversity statement on our WordCamp website to show the community diversity in all forms is something important to us. This is alongside our existing code of conduct as well. Continued with the Facebook nudges. And we started to get some really good results. Belinda Darcy, who'd done my beginner workshop the previous year, did her first solo talk and did an amazing job. We reached a milestone this year. 2015. 51% women speakers. This is something Shannon has said from the perspective of an organizer. Transparency lets people that you know that you have diversity on your own radar. Publishing your participation stats is really useful. We let people know how many women speakers we have, how many people we don't have, how many people we don't have, how many applied, how many attend, and we talk about how we want even more. It does help. And we talk about wanting to be diverse in other ways, too. And that also encourages people to participate. 2016. We lost our organizer Veronica to the charms of Berlin, and we miss her. But we invited Andrea Zellner to replace her on the organizing team. And if you remember this person from the top left, she was the speaker, and last year she ran a great beginner workshop the week before WordCamp, because we do a series of workshops. And we asked her if she would like to do it again this year. And she declined. But she said, I'm going to get a new speaker to do the workshop. And indeed she did. She got Alice Fia to do the beginner workshop, who did an amazing job. And Elita also really took this flatter nagging to the next level. She started really mentoring new speakers. And so this is Lara Ben-Aime. Elita helped her with her pitch, helped structure the talk, rehearsed with her, and Jess Nudo as well. They both gave their first time solo talks this year. And if you remember Belinda, who had given her first talk the previous year, well, this year she took it to the next level as well by organizing a panel on the business of WordPress and invited three other entrepreneurs to be with her. So you could say she went from being flatter nagged herself to flatter nagging her own panel. I continued my flatter nagging. Even people who'd turned me down before, I would come back to them and ask them if maybe the schedule would work out this year. And we got Lynn Nguyen-Farley and Dara Skolnik from Toronto. And Michelle Bluma in our local Montreal community got Shelley Peacock, who was here in the audience, and Jamie Schmidt to come up from the U.S. as well. And remember those speaker workshops? Well, speaker training is now part of the official WordPress.org training materials. So it's available to anyone. Some of our workshop material is incorporated in there, along with material developed by the team in Vancouver. So anyone can now give a beginner public speaking workshop in your own community. Where are we now? Well, this is a pretty cool graph showing how we got from 20 percent women speakers in 2009 to 50 percent. And it also correlates it with the percentage of women organizers and the number of women's t-shirts ordered, which is kind of a not too accurate proxy for how many women attend, because some women order the women's sizes. So this was Shannon's last year as an organizer. She retired after serving the community for so many years. We realized we still have more work to do. We need to develop diversity in other areas besides gender as well. And we need to keep working on this and it's something we're going to continue to work on. I hope you've gotten maybe one or two ideas of things you might want to try in your communities. And also maybe you thought of things that you have been doing in your communities that have been successful that you'd like to pass on. So I'd love to hear about them. Thank you.