Virtual trips in the classroom.

Leon M Peterson
EDU 1141-91
Explain why a virtual field trip might be an alternative to a regular field trip and describe how you might introduce it and follow it up.

As a teacher I would incorporate a virtual field trip to somewhere that would be impossible to go within the school year. The one place that pops in my head would be a trip to somewhere in Africa. More specifically, a country that I think would be interesting to visit would be Kenya. Incorporating this could be easily done in a Social Studies or English class where students might be writing papers. As a class, we would look at Kenya as a whole society- looking at different ways of life compared to ours. We would study foods, economics, industries, government, and health care. We could also analyze the various landscapes and eco systems Kenya has to offer. We would use the internet, the library, magazines, and newspaper articles to gain knowledge and information. The depth of our exploration would depend on the amount of time we have set aside for this unit. If we took a week of class time to take a virtual field trip, each day we could spend time on one main topic. The class would be taking notes and giving the students ways of finding information about those topics. Once the week was finished the teacher could give the students a choice of what topic to write a research paper on about Kenya, relating the differences and likenesses of both societies. Or, in the beginning of the Kenya unit students could be asked to look for newspaper articles or magazine articles that are specific to our Kenya/African unit. The students could look for articles relating to any aspect of Kenyan or African life, society, nature, government etc. They would then write a brief, two paragraph response that described the article and a two paragraph response relating the article to our own society.

A homework assignment after the unit was finished could be a reflection paper on what they learned and how it influenced there lives. Another follow up assignment could be comparing the Kenya unit with the next Social Studies unit, if the information applied. Tying in the differences and or similarities of both units could be an ongoing practice. If the class spends a week of in the classroom time, the teacher could keep going back to this unit as a way of showing the students a different society has the similar socioeconomic questions and problems that we as a whole society do. Relating this unit with others and building a large foundation of information about one specific country or society can make a year full of learning opportunities.