Most people don\u2019t complain of time moving too slowly. Busy schedules coupled with the constant barrage of information and new technologies buzzing around make weeks seem like just a few days and months seem to pass in a flash. News cycles refresh at a dizzying pace, and it\u2019s often difficult to mull through the media traffic to get to the important points.<\/p>\n
But if we slowed down and took a look around us, we might be surprised by the interesting, often amazing things getting swept up and lost in the whirlwind of everyday life.<\/p>\n
This is the idea at the foundation of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Paul Salopek\u2019s Out of Eden Walk<\/a>\u2014a seven year walk across the world, retracing the migratory pathways \u00a0of our ancestors, using the digital realm to connect communities and explore the narratives we have to slow down to see.<\/p>\n Beginning in 2013 and continuing through 2020, Salopek will travel by foot from Ethiopia and end his journey at the southern tip of South America, checking in around the online “campfire” continually with dispatches from National Geographic<\/a>, and pausing every 100 miles to make a \u00a0digital record of his location, called a “Milestone<\/a>.”\u00a0Out of Eden Learn<\/a>, a project of Educator Innovator<\/em> partner Project Zero<\/a> at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is a unique online community designed to accompany Out of Eden Walk, with classes, after school programs, and young people from around the world clustered into small, diverse learning groups to take a \u201cslow looking\u201d journey together.<\/p>\n Participants complete weekly activities, post their responses, and read and respond to others\u2019 entries. Out of Eden Learn takes an activity as simple as walking around the neighborhood and documenting what\u2019s seen and transforms these seemingly small moments into opportunities for greater social and cultural connectivity between peer groups around the world.<\/p>\n Though students can\u2019t physically accompany Salopek on his travels, they are able to walk a parallel digital path to investigate global issues and come to understand their place in the world around them. \u00a0Like an evolving virtual field study, students are encouraged to carefully observe and engage with their communities and to then share their pictures, drawings, writings, and more.<\/p>\n In outlining<\/a> the research goals for the initiative, Project zero hopes that by taking one of the learning journeys participants will develop:<\/p>\n Educators interested in participating in a learning journey should sign up<\/a> to have their classes or groups (ranging in size from one home-schooled student to a group of 40 students) assigned to a learning group, known as a \u201cwalking party.\u201d Walking parties consist of five to six groups from different locations connecting and learning together.<\/p>\n \u00a0Take a look at a recent Out of Eden Learn webinar below to get a better understanding of the project.<\/p>\n\n