How do you make not only the classroom but the whole experience of school interesting and inspiring?

That is something that I have asked myself repeatedly ever since I left school. I struggled through my education, spending time in classes that never interested me; finding the subjects dull and boring because it was what had to be done. I dreamed of being outdoors and couldn’t wait to get home and see what the surf was doing during evenings, or escaping to Dartmoor over the weekends to go hiking and exploring. My boyhood hero was another Plymouth born explorer, Captain Robert Falcon Scott. I wanted so badly to follow in his footsteps and go on an expedition to see remote parts of the world for myself. The classroom was something that I associated with being grounded, stuck in a room as a punishment until I could escape again.

As I got older my love for the outdoors grew along with my passion for travel; suddenly I found an eagerness to learn, to experience and to see everything I could. To be able to venture to a location enables you to fully appreciate the beauty of your surroundings. Whether it is a historical link, the natural world or the influence of different cultures or wildlife, there is always something new to learn, to experience. Being able to use your senses stimulates and frees your mind.

It is this passion that has taken me further on my journey to dream, explore and discover.

Over the past 5 years I have been travelling in the Arctic, completing 12 expeditions whilst learning about the Inuit people, the Arctic environment, the animals that live there and documenting the effects of climate change. I have been shocked at the stories I have heard and the sights I have witnessed travelling through the same landscapes over this period.

My greatest achievement Arctic included a successful crossing from Canada to the Geographic North Pole in early 2010. The Geographic North Pole Expedition saw my two team mates and I ski and snow shoe (and sometimes swim) over 500 miles from Cape Discovery to the Geographic North Pole in just 51 days, collecting valuable scientific data for the University of Plymouth. Over the past few years, I have taken my experiences into over 200 schools, and the enthusiasm I am greeted with from students is just as rewarding an experience as reaching the Pole itself. This has made me realise something else about myself: it is as an educator, rather than an explorer, that I would like to be remembered.

As my journeys take me to more remote locations, so too have technologies advanced; making it now possible to gain satellite phone coverage in the most remote parts of the Arctic. This enables explorers and researchers to send back daily updates of their findings and experiences; it also enables children to send questions directly to those satellite phones. Using a PDA or small laptop those questions can now be answered with stunning photographs, inspirational video footage and gripping stories from the trail. Suddenly these sights, these sounds and these experiences can be sent straight back into the classroom making it an inspiring place in which to learn. Credible eye witness accounts of the world around us can be accessed in real time, whereas a text book is only as current as the day it was printed. It is this that lead me to found my own educational company Education Through Expeditions, a interactive distance learning tool for teachers and students.

For the past 18 months Education Through Expeditions has spent extensive time and resources in researching the market then developing and building a web platform specifically for this purpose. During May 2011 we successfully tested this web platform with the aid of 10 schools from the UK and USA following an expedition to Baffin Island, a project crossing the Penny Ice Cap. During this project, we received over 100 questions asked by students on our secure online discussion board. These questions were then in turn answered by the expedition team members, glaciologists from the British Antarctica Survey, staff from Parks Canada, members of Inuit Communities and young career scientists from UKPN (UK Polar Network). This proved to be not just an essential learning tool for the classroom but also a powerful and inspirational one.

100% of teachers involved in the Baffin Island project strongly agreed that:

- Being able to connect with real people in the Arctic made learning about the environment more engaging

- The interactive discussion board dramatically improved their class’s learning experience

- The educational information on the website was essential to learning

- The responses from scientists and personnel at Parks Canada were informative and inspiring

- Students were more engaged than they would have been in a similar project that wasn’t interactive

The past 18 months have been an exciting time and I am sure the next 18 months will see continual growth within Education Through Expeditions and its services to both students and teachers.

I know, from firsthand experience, how important it is for us all to take an active role in helping young people’s personal development, whether teacher, parent or member of the community. It is in our children that our future as a species lies and so it is the responsibility of us all to make sure that our children grow up in an educational environment which is both inspiring and holds no boundaries. Children need inspiration and to know that they too can reach their own aspirations in life: this is core to everything we do at Education Through Expeditions.

As I struggled within school, I never would have believed that I would have been standing at Bristol Cathedral receiving an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Education. I am extremely proud of this achievement and deeply honoured to have been asked to speak and share in the experience of graduating from the University of the West of England.