The purpose of this article is to inform the reader about possible alternatives to the sometimes costly traditional field trips. This short article offered information about field trips that ranged from baseball museums to NASA facilities. However, these trips do not require you to do more than turn on your projector and draw down your screen. These trips are conferences that are led by a professional guide. These guides will lead you through an interactive display of the information to be presented, but this is not just a video of a guided Smithsonian tour. No, this is, as mentioned before, an interactive tour where students can interact with the guide by commenting and asking questions. This conference call allows both parties to see each other allowing for personal contact and interaction.
I really enjoy the idea of this. As the article mentioned, in today's world of budget cuts the idea of costly field trips are becoming harder and harder to stomach. The idea of a virtual field trip is much more cost effective and efficient. If I were to take my students on a field trip there are waivers to be signed, buses to line up, lunches to purchase, the list goes on. However, if I have a virtual trip I can instantly be in Florida at the NASA facilities and right after the tour I can be back in my classroom doing problems on what was spoken about in the tour. This is an exceptional thought that I hope to use in my own classroom one day.
This is a really cool idea, it is something I would look forward to utilizing in the classroom as well. Also, thanks for explaining the purpose of the virtual docent/guide.
ReplyDeleteWhile it may never be a total replacement for going to the zoo or a local museum, it certainly streamlines the paperwork and reduces the cost of taking a more traditional field trips, allowing the class to take more trips, including trips to places they might not otherwise be able to reasonably visit. (Pyramids of Egypt, craters on Earth's moon) I would agree that this technology holds a lot of potential.
The cyber field trips are a great tool for teachers to give their student's access to some of the best museums for free. Students get so much more out of a virtual field trip than just reading in their textbook. These tours are even led by a professional guide, who can inform the students with a bunch of interesting fun facts throughout the tour. As you mentioned, these tours are so much easier than actually going on a field trip. Although the students will not get the same experience as being in these places in person, they can still take a lot of knowledge away from it.
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