A virtual field trip is a guided exploration through the web that organizes a collection of pre-screened, thematically based web pages into a structured online learning experience. It is an inter-related collection of images, supporting text and/or other media, delivered electronically via the World Wide Web, in a format that can be professionally presented to relate the essence of a visit to a time or place. The virtual experience becomes a unique part of the participants' life experience. (Nix, 1999)
It's always easier to use someone else's definition than to come up with one of my own. We have been hearing the importance of incorporating technology into lessons in order to make them more engaging for students. However, this can prove to be a difficult, time-consuming task, often leaving one foaming at the mouth shouting expletive deleteds at the computer. Virtual field trips can help curb this anger.
The assignment for this week is to take a look at one or both of these websites (http://oops.bizland.com/vtours.htm www.theteachersguide.com/virtualtours.html). These websites contain several virtual field trips.
Your blog post for this week should answer the following questions: How easy/difficult would it be for you to incorporate a virtual field trip into one of your units/lessons? Did you find a particular virtual field trip that you might use in the future?
39 comments:
I would surely like to try using a virtual tour. I found a great site that takes a virtual hike up many of the world's volcanoes, Mount Saint Helens included. The kids would be so engaged, especially since they could access and use the netbooks to spend time "hiking" without breaking a sweat. I'm going to try it since that is our next unit of study. They have been enjoying using Google Earth.
I always love virtual tours and have used the Scholastic Website during computer lab for my students to learn about the Mayflower. However, I found a new one on the list that is about the First Thanksgiving and I think that my students (first grade) would be able to manuever and use it successfully.(It reads aloud much of the information).
I also found one for my photography class that I do with Amy Cassady--the Ansel Adams photographic exhibit which would be easy for 4th and 5th grade students to peruse through.
I find it completely exciting to have a compiled list of online field trips!
Tina McDaniel
RCES
I think that it would super easy to incorporate a virtual field trip to our integrated units. I found a really cool one that takes you on a field trip of the sun with movies, info and lots of cool graphics. It's great that there is a list of "trips" that you can go through to see if it fits your curriculum.
I also found a tour of an Ansel Adams photograph exhibit. I am going to use it in the zero hour photography class I co-teach next week!
I love that everything is already put together for you and all you have to do is find it!
Hmmm I think that in theory it is wonderful... however I ran into a lot of issues looking for fieldtrips digital style for my curriculum. I tried to go to Colonial Williamsburg and to take a virtual field trip there from this musuem there is a $120- $500 cost. Then I tried a Ben Frankilin movie, it froze my computer completely. Finally I tried to view Lincoln's house and it said 'not viewable at this time' The entire thing left me fustrated. I did however see some that would be great for another grade level, such as the jungle cam!
I have used the Colonial Williamsburg website for my Social Studies units a few times. It is a pretty cool website for when my students had to build their colonial characters and the frieze for the story path. However, I had to set up what they could and could not look at though, which wasn't that big of a deal. I did want to look at other sites for other classroom subjects, but alas, my 15 minutes are up for this week. Perhaps another time…
Under the Teacher's Guide the Ocean Planet information will be useful when we teach Marine Life in the spring with first grade. I think I would pick and choose pages to share as the reading level is way too high but the information of which animals live where, the currents, and the information about the ocean depths would be very useful for students to see and explore!
I have not used any of the sites that were suggested, so this was a field trip experience from my den! These are definitely valuable sites worthy of more intense investigation. I loved the preview of the planets that was on the TCM website. The music played long after I left the site!I agree with Susan that the Ocean Planet information will be exciting to use with first grade, with some definite plans of what to use for age appropriateness. I also found some museums under "Museums of the World" portion of the "oops" site that may be useful when lst grade studies Australia.
As a preschool Speech-Language Pathologist, I struggled to find relevance in this week's blog post.
In the past, I have used seaworld.com's website for students to identify animal sounds. So I thought I'd take a field trip to Sea World, but their website didn't do that. So I googled 'farm field trip' and found way too much print, not enough pictures.
I finally googled 'preschool virtual field trip' and was drawn to this website which does a wonderful job of exploring MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York: http://www.moma.org/interactives/destination/#
I found a useful site at Monterey b
Bay Aquarium. There looks to be a lot of information that we can all look at together in my first grade class. There are also some short youtube clips where you can watch the animals in the water.
Overall, I found these sites to be time consuming to go through. A few things that I wanted to look at where not there when I clicked on them. I got a little frustrated at times. It can be hard to find things appropriate for first grade on these types of sites sometimes. I can see how it could be very useful for older grades.
I really liked checking these links out. I did have the same problem as Rachel...a few that I tried were "not available" and my computer froze once. I see great benefit in incorporating these into the integrated units. I found myself being drawn to the links that were related to Astronomy and Asia. In my current role as math specialist, I struggled to find a virtual field trip that would be appropriate for my intervention groups. Bummer - I will probably have to wait until I'm back in the classroom.
I am hopeful that I will find virtual tours to fit with my integrated units, rainforest for example, but haven't found one yet. Many sites are difficult to navigate to find the virtual tour from the links. It would be great to collect reliable and interesting virtual tour sites for Sharepoint.
I like the idea of a thematic web based page, and I'm sure students would appreciate the instructional variety as well. I'd like to see several virtual field trips & other media compiled for each of our integrated units. I found the same frustrations as others when testing some of the "virtual field trips" in the links though (although the Huntington Beach "tour" worked beautifully...ah, summer). I really wanted to see the Holocaust Musem tour, but the link was down. The American Treasures of the Library of Congress was definitely one I would use with the Revolutionary War Unit. It has some great documents, like a rough draft of the Declaration of Independence that you can scroll through and zoom in on. I know my kids would really love this.
I like the idea of a virtual field trip, last year when I taught SS we explored Williamsberg and it was pretty cool! In looking through other fieldtrips on these two websites I saw a few that I could use in my classroom, but I was especially excited to show these virtual field trip to my own kids at home... they will love exploring some of these sites!
I've always wanted to create virtual fieldtrip for my first graders. I think Australia would be a great unit to use a virtual fieldtrip. I had looked at specific software called tram line but never got around to doing the research on it. After looking at some of the virtual fieldtrips, I'm drawn to the ones that have audio for our younger students. I think even older students that are capapble of reading the text, would enjoy the audio fieldtrips more. The Smithsonian for Kids was very cool, but limited in what was offered. I also liked the Chasing tornadoes fieldtrip. I think this was the best qaulity one. It had audio, great pictures and the transitions were very smooth. I didn't care for some of the sites that were more like visiting a website instead of a "fieldtrip."
I think the time involved in creating a virtual fieldtrip would require a lot of teacher time. The good thing about it though, is once it was created you could use it year after year.
I would love to show the fife and drum tour when I am teaching my 5th graders songs from America. I am not sure how to access it quickly. I teach using power points. Can I put the website into a powerpoint?
I am going to try this again! I deleted it. Anyways, I was able to find Victor the Echidna at the San Diego Zoo for my class and it was great. We were talking about using other resources then books to find facts about our Australian Animals. They really enjoyed it. I wish I could find one on Uluru! Any suggestions? I also sent the link to Jennifer so she could use it in the library!
As a preschool teacher I don't know I would use this in my classroom. I have tried to search preschool virtual tours but have had no luck. I think the idea of taking virtual tours is great (even as an adult) because I would love to travel everywhere but may not have the opportunity. I was very suprised to see something like this existed. I am excited to explore more!
Virtual tours will bring my integrated units to life. I envision using them with the first grade integrated units (community, Australia, and sea life). The trick will be to spend the oodles of it will take to going through these sites searching for applicable material. Thankfully, Tahoma is a collaborative district and we can share our great finds with one another.
I enjoyed browsing the web pages for the thematic units. Like others, however, I had some difficulties, like sites not being available (Holocaust Museum, Planets, etc.) I will definitely try utilizing web-based field trips with my students...especially in our integrated units.
I agree that the idea of virtual tours is neat, but as a school social worker I found it a bit difficult to figure out how I would put them into practice. I do like the idea that kids can explore places around the world without having to pay a lot of money, but I also think virtual tours are never as wonderful as seeing things in person. As long as we're careful about continuing to encourage students to explore things on their own and in real life, this is definitely a great interactive learning tool.
I've decided to post a second comment, I guess that makes me a true blogger. I am one of the fourth-grade teachers piloting a technology lesson where fourth-graders take a virtual road trip to a national park and create a scrapbook using a technology application. I found a neat site: http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/index.html with virtual tours featuring many of the national parks. This site had many great photos for downloading as well. Yeah! My commitment to 15 minutes a week paid off.
Like many of the other teachers who have already posted a comment, I can absolutely see the benefit of these sites. I looked mostly at the sites that had to do with Africa, the unit I'm teaching right now. I envision showing the kids some of these sites....another resource available to bring images to the students. And...like many of you, I also had difficulty: freezing up, discontinued sites. It certainly will take a bit of planning and preparation to successfully use these sites, but worth it I'm sure.
To be honest, most of the selections I tried were dead ends or very confusing. I did see a few with good pictures, but many just lead to websites that would then require excessive time to navigate through. The idea of a virtual tour is terrific. It could truly give students a more personal understanding of something that you are studying. If our district had some sort of a "bank" that included pre-screened sites (tours) by topic and grade level that would be truly helpful!
I had a hard time finding a good one too but I read Jan C.'s post and decided to try the 3D parks site she mentioned. It was really great! I took a virtual raft trip through Marble Canyon. Kids will need 3D glasses but even without them the pictures were fine. These types of sites are important to use with all learners because they build background knowledge.
As a resource room teacher of Language and Math, it was a little bit of a stretch to find something that would work for my current curriculum. The Scholastic site had more that related to my classroom, but didn't seem like much of a "field trip" - only links to pages for 100 day ideas, math puzzles, etc... I was side-tracked by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Hawaii field trips because I've live in both Hawaii and Ohio. I'd have to agree with "Suz" above - that these are nice resources, but it sure didn't give either one justice. It is much more meaningful, interesting, engaging to actually be there. Field trips are a nice resource to be aware of, but I don't think I can use them in my classroom.
I think it would be fairly easy to incorporate virtual tours into our world unit (kindergarten) which we're in the middle of right now. We are learning about the 7 continents, and to help the kids get a feel I've been putting together a handful of pictures from each continent, but using some of the tours from the first website (even this week) will be much easier for me.
Like many have already said, the sites were somewhat cumbersome to navigate, and many of the links that I thought were relative lead nowhere or to more links. I did find a few books in our library (LWES) that were called virtual tours (we used an Australia one) and it had pictures and info with related websites listed to find out more. That might be a good place I'll start to begin creating my own list of virtual tour resources. Thanks for the ideas!
I found that several of the sites were quite interesting personally but I thought they would be difficult for my students to navigate. Many sites that I explored were just webpages with some interactivity and some movies. I found these to be great but I did not find a site that explored any content with lower primary kids in mind. The Tropical Rainforest site www.pbs.org/journeyintoamazonia/plants.html was informative but way above my grade level reading abilities. Nice photos though. I found many of the sites full of excellent info and some had good interactive parts but I am looking for a virtual fieldtrip that second grade students can navigate on their own.Maybe that is not the intent of these sites. Maybe they are intended to be directed by teachers and only viewed by students. Any ideas???
As a speech pathologist I am having a hard time thinking of a functional way to use this. I do not do a lot of thematic units because I have such a variety of kids. I guess I could use them as an educational reward.
I did look at the sites and I can see how they would be very beneficial to drawing the interest in of some of these kids. I did come upon some challenges. I went to a marine life site and it said the page did not exist, a page about the planets froze and I think this would be very frustrating to deal with in a classroom with kids waiting.
I teach PE at the elementary level and couldn't find anything that I'd use to support health and fitness instruction. I did find a still picture of a marathon taking place in Hawaii showing very fit and athletic people, but that's about as close as I came to finding anything related. However, I may use a virtual tour personally to find a vacation spot or direct my own children to it when studying various subjects.
http://www.fisheyeview.com/FVCamLive.html
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/efc/rocky.aspx
I found some good things to use with our sea life unit in 1st Grade and am glad some other resourceful 1st Grade teachers have posted about a couple of good Australia ideas because I had trouble finding things for Australia. And, as has already been mentioned, it is difficult to find things which have the level of polish I'd like, easy text and/or audio, with a high level of content. I agree that it might be that WE have to create it for ourselves. Also, it would be great if a great site we find could drive our work, but when we are trying to find something that does what we need it to do it makes it more difficult.
I found the links accessible, but thought to myself how would I use this beyond Discovery Streaming and resources I already use? The pictures were good as reference points, but I think virtual field trips are something that I'll let simmer.
I would love to use any and all things to aid me in bringing the outside world into my classroom of kindergarteners. Most of them have not been out of Maple Valley so it would be wonderful to give them an up close view of things in other parts of the world. We know that any experiences a child has adds to their schedma in life as kind of a file folder in their brains and they are able to take this information with them and add to these 'files' as they grow up. I looked through the first web site and tried to find links that would enrich the kindergarten curriculum and all of them were not working anymore. I did enjoy the Kids Smithsonian website and found a few things that my K's would enjoy...especially due to the fact that all of them have seen the Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian! Great connections going there! I think that it would be an invaluable resource however making sure you can find ones that integrate nicely with your curriculum that actually work might pose a potential challenge. I would certainly like to give it a shot though and see how many I can find that would fit in!! Thanks for the resource!
This was much tougher for me than the past posts. I had a hard time navigating these sites. I’m not sure I feel comfortable with virtual field trips, yet. I do not foresee the use of this type of technology within my current program; unless I have a student who needs support on their field trip. Don’t get me wrong, I do think this is a terrific opportunity for students to explore places/things they would not be otherwise able, but I need a lot more time.
I certainly would use a virtual tour with my students. The second link led to some virtual tours that I will be able to use with our Astronomy unit. There are some short videos of the surface of the sun and of solar eclipses. This tool would certainly be helpful in assisting students in visualizing our solar system.
In the last month I have already had the chance to use some virtual tours of our National Parks with the students. It has been very powerful for them. Their interest level and questions are instantly increased. I don't think I would use many of the trips that were listed as I found many dead links. The level of ease for "going" on a trip varies. There are many great sites out there with resources that would instantly work. It would however take a lot of work to create your own virtual trip. I will continue to use the virtual tours at the National Parks (http://home.nps.gov/zion/photosmultimedia/virtualtour.htm) site as well as a volcano tour of Mt. St. Helens.
I use a lot of visuals with my students, so we have pulled up info to support lessons on topics such as animals. My students aren't able to go through the fieldtrip independently; however, this would be great for a group lesson. I found a couple that I could incorporate-Zoo I found one on the Zoo and the Rainforest.
I was looking forward to 'touring' these sites but found that I had a hard time figuring out where to click, once I got to the website, to lead me into a virtual tour.
I tried to google virtual tours for topics that would possibly be speech therapy related but came up empty.
I think it is a wonderful idea to incorporate virtual tours into the classroom. I'm just not sure it transfers as seamlessly into a speech session.
(p.s. thanks for allowing late posts!!!!! I'm grateful)
I found some different interpretations of the "virtual tour. Some were just pictures, but it was all very visual, which does meet our students needs. It would be fun to have the equipment to do this as a class. I would love to have this for the different geographic regions of Washington state. You could ask students to draw and observe what they see, and even write poetry! 360oregon has some fun virtual tours of Portland.
Laura Bowden
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