Learning experiences don’t just happen in school. Places of learning are many and varied: although school is traditionally viewed as the centre, the pandemic showed us that we can decentralise learning.

Aside from the pandemic, many students have been learning outside of schools for years. These include students from remote and regional communities studying online by distance, or communities such as Aborginal and Torres Strait Islanders who may have a totally different education ecosystem. All of these places of learning are equally valid.

Being thoughtful about place when designing learning experiences allows educators and students to be much more flexible, creative and connected in their approach to working and learning. In its 2017 report, Getting Smart define Place-Based Education as ‘an approach to learning that takes advantage of geography to create authentic, meaningful, and engaging personalised learning for students. Place essentially personalises learning and has the potential to deepen the connection between mindsets, toolsets, skillsets and knowledge. Simply, once connected to a sense of place, students have the foundation to explore their learning. This cements place as an essential element that helps learners tune into a hybrid learning situation.

When you shift the variable of place between school and home, interesting things can happen. We can explore the possibilities for both learners and teachers: what does it look like when neither the learner or the teacher is in the physical classroom?

Place can be:

• multiple and varied (school, community, home)

• essential to build connection & SEL

• varied according to both plans and emergencies