Virtual Field Trips

Virtual Field Trips help facilitate learning in the classroom by allowing students to have vicarious experiences from inside the classroom. Virtual Field Trips are an excellent recourse because even in times of economic hardships Virtual Field Trips are still accessible. They can be viewed in the classroom or, depending on the socioeconomic status of the children and their families, they can be viewed at home. I think they are also beneficial because some places that would yield more understanding through a field trip may not always be safe to visit such as a volcano or an ancient cave. Social issues such as authenticity, bias, stereotypes, and insulting generalizations should be considered before exploring places for Virtual Field Trips.

I was very excited when I saw all the resources for collaborative classrooms and Virtual Field Trips. There is an organization called CILC which stands for Center for Interactive Learning and Collaborating which specializes in connecting people and groups with each other in several different settings from classrooms to professional development. The Virtual Field Trips I liked the most was the one I found that too students on a tour inside of an ancient cave where students could navigate the inside of a real cave and view real cave drawings.

 

Check it Out!

http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/?lng=en#/fr/02_03.xml

 

P.S. the only down side to this field trip is that all of the tabs are in a differnt language. It is still easy to navigate. I managed very well for not being able to speak any other language as fluently as i speak English.