In the article "Yes, You Can Take a Field Trip to India!", a former classroom teacher was preparing a trip to India and thought about what she should bring, and thought, what about a classroom. She reached out to a few schools in the Los Angeles area and a 3rd grade teacher from a charter school was interested. A week before the trip she visited the students at the school and showed them a slide show about India and a world map. There was quite a bit of discussion about India, traveling, time zones, and etc. She then explained how she would blog, they would read her posts, and they would Skype together. She also gave them a book about India and took their photos for her blog. She wrote her first blog post the day before she left which featured photos of her virtual travelers and during her 17-day trip she wrote 13 posts. She did write about some of the technological difficulties she had experienced during her trip: adapters that did not work in India, software difficulties between laptop and iPad, blowing out fuses, etc. Also, with the time differences Skype proved challenging as well. However, when she got back from her trip she was reunited with the classroom and they were very eager to hear all about her trip. The students had plenty of questions and they were very inspired to travel to learn more about other cultures.
I think this is a great idea for teachers who love to travel. Students could follow their teachers during breaks and during the summer. I know several teachers that travel during these times and it could be a great learning experience for students. Students could follow their teacher's blogs and comment. Teachers could create iMovies from videos taken during their trips and post on Youtube for students to watch. Or like this article suggests teachers can pair with individuals traveling during the school year for more of an interactive classroom experience. It does take a deal of organization and planning to schedule Skype and classroom discussions. But, overall the real life experience through virtual applications is a very exciting one for students to share.
As for the ISTE Standards for students, virtual traveling addresses Standard 2. Students develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures (Standard 2c). The students were able to learn about India and India's culture through slides, books, maps, blogposts, and Skype. It also addressed Standard 6. The students understood and used blogs & Skype to learn about India (Standard 6b).
Casolaro, N. (2013). Yes, you can take a field trip to India! Learning & Leading with Technology, 41(1), 30-32.
ISTE. (2007). ISTE Standards: students. International Society for Technology in Education.
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