Implications of Abundant Content for Lifelong Learning: Weather Forecasting

Topic

We (Sean and George) decided that we wanted to learn more about weather forecasting and meteorology.

Resources to Help Us Learn About Weather Forecasting

We found that there were many resources online. A sample of the types include:

• Amateur meteorological blogs
• Discussion groups, forums, and newsgroups
• Journal publications
• Official weather tracking organizations
• Teaching and learning software

We also found that there are many resources offline such as print books and journals along with communicating with meteorologists or faculty at universities/colleges who teach meteorology.

Is There Abundant Content Around Weather Forecasting to Enable Learning and Is It Enough?

Just from a cursory search of resources, we were able to find a wide variety of tools and writings on the topic of weather forecasting. There were many resources aimed towards teachers for teaching in the middle/high school level. The resources themselves were also varied in that they did not just take the form of a written document. We found modeling software, games, and visuals of various identified weather phenomena to name but a few.

While the resources were abundant, we noticed that a lot of it was not geared towards beginners who wanted to get started in learning how to predict the weather (i.e., with zero knowledge). A lot of the resources for learning were intended to build upon previous knowledge and the amateur blogs expected you to have a baseline of knowledge as well. Based on this focused abundance, learning through sets would be possible since through this method you would be reaching out to those who have an expertise in the field. Of course there is no guarantee that the information is entirely correct and you may run into issues such as crowd stupidity and filter bubbles (Anderson, 2016).

Generally speaking, if one were interested in learning about how to simply predict the weather, the barrier for entry is exceptionally low. At risk of sounding facetious, you only need to guess what you think the weather will be, observe the weather, and determine how accurate you were. Additionally, there are numerous radio, television, and web resources to aid your predictions and compare your results against. However, the challenge comes in selecting resources that will take you beyond this entry level.

With the broad spectrum of options from picture books to Master’s degrees, a learner’s first obstacle in this abundance would be to identify how much they are looking to learn, and which resources might match their abilities and goals. For example, are they interested in becoming a professional meteorologist, or are they looking for a complimentary skill for another activity such as sailing. Ertmer and Newby (2013) identify these resource matching tasks as belonging to those of an instructional designer (p. 43). Is an instructional designer really necessary in this context? Weller (2011) points out that in a pedagogy of abundance, it is the time and attention of the learner that becomes the scarce resource, and that abundant options can be overwhelming and make evaluation difficult (p. 10). In our context with an abundance of content, but dealing with a sharp learning curve, learners with intermediate objectives would benefit greatly from an instructor or facilitator that could assist in identifying materials that can fulfill their learning requirements. This suggests that although the resources for learning may be abundant, the skills of an instructor (or instructional design in general) continue to reside in a paradigm of scarcity. Self-directed learning can only get one so far in this field.

As an example of one possible approach to addressing this issue, our proposed course outline lays out the steps that one would take to learn, incorporating a pedagogy of abundance. It is our intention that the tasks described below will activate the benefits of Resource Based Learning, Constructivism, and Connectivism as described by Weller (2011).

Welcome to Sean & George’s Online Intermediate Meteorology Program

Unit 1: Utilizing the prescribed textbook, learners will conduct their own local weather observations and report their findings in a blog post.

Unit 2: Learners will identify a weather forecasting resource to share with their colleagues. Additionally, each student will make note of a seven day forecast by this resource, then make note of the accuracy of the forecast. Group forum discussions would include overall accuracy; accuracy relative to the number of days in the future; and the differences in local weather between the students.

Unit 3: Selecting from a provided list of weather related blogs and forums, learners will report on the challenges and issues faced by that resource. Group discussion will identify connections and comparisons among these resources, as well as the resources identified in the Unit 2 exercise.

Unit 4: Learners will gain skills in the use of online weather radar technology, and explore the more complex considerations of atmospheric prognostication through the use of WSXIM (a downloadable weather simulator application).

Conclusion

There is sufficient information both online and offline for one to dip their feet in and get a general idea of the theory behind weather patterns and why high or low pressure matters. Although, if one wanted to further their knowledge in these concepts to a more advanced level, formal education would be the best route.

References