The article I read by Juli S. Charkes it was published on March 25, 2007 entitled, "In the Region", I found the article on New York Times.com. The article talks about a middle school in White Plains that has seen the Amazon rain forest in Brazil in a virtual field trip and talked to their peers in Sri Lanka and have watched scuba divers along the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Charles writes, "Virtual field trips rely on interactive, videoconferencing, the same technology that businesses have used for decades". She goes on to say that the equipment used for a virtual field trip consist of camera, projector, special hardware and Internet signal.
The students at White Plains Middle School have also visited the Iditarod sled race in Alaska, chatted with NASA officials and the students played their music for the members of the Cleveland Philharmonic. The principal of the middle school, Joseph Cloherty said, "This brings with it an understanding of the world, students begin to have an understanding of themselves not just as citizens of White Plains, but of the world as well". Although these virtual field trips seem like a good idea to everyone, some educators think that schools need to consider what will be lost when real-life interaction is replaced with just virtual connection. These educators think that it won't submerge the students into the culture.
I think that these virtual field trips are a positive addition to teaching and learning. I think the students and parents would rather not have to pay for field trips out of the country, but still want their children to get to experience new cultures and sights. I think students should get to experience the virtual field trips and the out of school field trips. Virtual field trips give the students oppurtunities to come back the location again and again. The students will be able to get something out of every visit because they will be able to visit the location again and talk to other students there.
I think further research would be very helpful because with more research educators would be able to find more places to visit with their students and more and more schools would be able to participate in virtual field trips.
4 comments:
I loved this article it gives many more prospectives on what the virtual field trips entail and the many possibilities for children to have. Also, my idea was to get further with the technology and try and create a virtual reality type simulation that would allow students to feel like they are actually there instead of just viewing pictures of videos.
I found a similiar article to this that talked about students being able to interact with places all around the world. I agree with you that students should also have hands-on activities as well so they are emersed in it. Although, like the article talks about it's obviously not very common for a student to see areas all around the world. This gives them the chance to understand what's going on in other countries and not be so concerned about the new cartoon that is coming out on TV.
This article seems very interesting. The students were able to go somewhere else in pictures and talk to people who are experiencing the other life style. Interacting with their peers in another environment will allow them the opportunity to truely see the different ways of life there is in this world. Why not have all the children in schools do this? The child gets to see what another country is like and hear about the lifestyle through someone their own age to whom they could relate to. They also get the opportunity to tell their lifestyle, compare and contrast to one another.
I really liked your article. Children deserve to learn hand on just like children who live in Washington D.C. take field trips to the White House and all the special monuments and people who live in the Florida Keys take field trips snorkeling on the reefs. Everyone deserves the same opportunities even though money gets in the way. Its only an internet connection away.
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