The Importance of Virtual Field Trips
Virtual field trips are a creative way to engage students and provide them with authentic experiences without worrying about the cost and stress of in person field trips. First, virtual field trips are a great way to make a concept or content that is quite boring for students into a more exciting experience. Virtual field trips also allow students, especially older students, to get real-world exposure into areas or fields of study they are interested in.(Davies 2020). Lastly, virtual field trips are more convenient and stress free for teachers and parents. Most of them are free or low cost experiences, and there is less planning with transportation, permission slips, etc.
In my future classroom, I want to make virtual field trips as realistic and memorable as possible for my students. For example, if we were learning about a new country or city I would make it feel as though we are going to that place by creating passports, brochures and plane tickets for the students. (Petersen 2019). The students will feel as though they are a traveler exploring this new place and will really get a feel for the characteristics of the location. In addition, I will integrate virtual field trips into science lessons using the National Geographic virtual experiences. (Davies 2020). Students will benefit by connecting with scientific experts and will have the opportunity to ask questions to a more experienced person on the subject matter. A question I still have regarding virtual field trips is, are there particular virtual field trips that are geared towards certain age groups?
References:
Davies, R. (2020, March 18). Amazing Digital Field Trips to Take with Your Students: Where to find them & how to get started. Retrieved October 05, 2020, from https://www.differentiatedteaching.com/digital-field-trips/
Petersen, D. (2019, September 28). 10 Inspirational Ideas. Retrieved October 05, 2020, from https://www.virtualfieldtrips.org/about_/articles/10-inspirational-ideas/