Journal #7 “The Beginner’s Guide to Interactive Virtual Field Trips” NETS I, III, & V

Zanetis, J. (2010). The Beginner's guide to interactive virtual field trips. L&L—Learning & Leading with Technology, 37(6), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=March_April_No_6_1&Template=/MembersOnly.cfm&NavMenuID=4516&ContentID=25443&DirectListComboInd=D


By Jan Zanetis


Virtual field trips are growing more common due to the fact the real field trips are costly and most places that are desirable are inaccessible. Virtual field trips are field trips that don’t require students to leave the classroom. They can be conducted in several ways, by browsing a historic site, observing experiments, watching live demonstrations, and many more. Virtual field trips are internet based. Asynchronous virtual field trips are websites that devote themselves to specific topics, but the quality levels vary. Interactive virtual field trips are synchronous. It is when students that are in one place learn from people that ate in another location, using an h.323 videoconferencing technology. 30% of U.S schools already have this system so you may be able to obtain it for no additional cost. For the other 70%, grants and demos may be available.

Two questions that arose while reading this article were:

1. Do all the classrooms already have a television in them and/or a computer?

I found out that the h.323 is an accessory, so that doesn’t mean that a television would be readily available. Would the school have a television that can only be used with the videoconferencing tool? With everything being so costly now we have to keep in mind that although these technology based field trips are a great alterative to actual field trips, they may not be as realistic as they come off to be.

2. What training would take place for the educators?

Many old fashioned teachers still try to stay away from computers, and now we have a videoconferencing tool available. People are scared of the unknown, so how would this be marketed to make it appealing to all teachers. As the future generation of teachers move forward we are learning new technologies to incorporate into the classroom, but with each school district it would be ideal to have a training class.