Virtual Field Trips and Virtual Reality in the Classroom
Just one of the ten EdTech Essentials I discovered in this book - Virtual Field Trips and Virtual Reality.
One of the "truths" for 2-truths and 1-lie that I do with my students at the beginning of the school year is that I have never been out of the United States. This amazes some of my students, especially my English Learners who come from other countries. I have always wanted to travel, just never had or taken the opportunity to do so.
I started to hear about Virtual Field Trips (VFT) and Virtual Reality (VR) this past year when some of the students at my school went on a Virtual Field trip to the White House in Social Studies and another group were given the opportunity to use the AR (augmented reality) goggles in their Career Technology classroom. My school is considered Title I, which means over 70% of our students receive free or reduced lunch. So, when it comes time for Field Trips or other paid activities, if students don't have the money to go, we try to find a sponsor in the community to assist with fees so students aren't missing out. However, with a VFT, everyone can participate and in fact, each student in your class can be on a different VFT at the same time. According to Burns (2021), "Providing students with experiences that allow them to explore their world is essential, but it is not possible to physically take them to every place that connects to your curriculum or their interests." (p. 35).
Sadly, most of my students don't even get to leave Alabama to "see the country", let alone get to go overseas to experience "the world". Finding a section in this book on VFT pushed me into looking into what I can do to help my students make those real-world connections to my classroom. Since we are required to start adding the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards into our classroom, I thought allowing students to take a trip to the Amazon warehouse would be a fun VFT. It shows them the Computer Science behind it and that it isn't just magic when you hit the order button to have it appear two days later on your doorstep. The following link will take you to the main website which you can then access the Teacher and Student guides, as well as, having students participate via Kahoot, either as a class or individually.
I also found a YouTube video from a Math teacher who created his own VFT to show his students "Why" they need to know math in the real world by going to a housing development and walking them through where they needed math in building a house. How relevant would this be for your students to see? Where else could you, as the teacher, make videos and post them to share with your students when you can't take them with you? According to Burns (2021), " The idea of exploration as an essential practice goes hand in hand with the importance of curiosity in the classroom." (p. 36).
We want students to stay engaged, inspired, and use their critical thinking skills to be better students and people. Helping them access knowledge and imagery outside of their little community may open opportunities for them they never imagined. I am excited to see what I can share with my students this year and grow and learn with them in the technology filled society we live in.
References
Amazon Future Engineer. (n.d.). Explore the technology of Amazon's Fulfillment Centers. https://www.amazonfutureengineer.com/fctours?utm_campaign=MDR&utm_medium=Career%20Tours&utm_source=US&utm_content=Top%20Article
Burns, M. (2021). EdTech Essentials: The Top 10 Technology Strategies for All Learning Environments. ACSD.
Butts, C. (2020, April 21). Virtual Field Trip - Math In The Real World [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcw_79bFYpo
Peggy,
ReplyDeleteI genuinely enjoyed reading your post because you hit so many key points! I liked how you shared about both you and your students wanting to visit places in person that you have not been able to, but then thanks to technology you have experienced some of it. This reminded me of a journal article I read recently about an initiative at a university’s Center for Academic Excellence. Brockerhoff-Macdonald et al. (2020) shared that a virtual Coffeehouse was created for faculty to share ideas and receive support through that dedicated space, which is particularly beneficial for those who cannot go onto campus.
I am noticing that more places are adding virtual alternatives. This takes me to your point about being required to add technology standards into your classroom. After all, College and Career Ready means students become more familiar with technology tools than ever. Lawrence (2022) emphasized that companies do not want to spend time training people, and they would rather hire employees who are ready to demonstrate a degree of mastery of the job-related tasks. As we know, this means that the more tech-savvy our students become, the better chances at getting a job when the time comes. Now, this does not mean teachers must become overwhelmed with learning and teaching how to use every single online platform. Instead, “school leadership can provide their staff with a handful of thoughtfully curated apps that give teachers some sense of control in a quickly changing profession” (Potts, 2024, p. 7). I think strategically choosing the platforms that are a better fit for your context in order to prepare students can accomplish more than trying to spread too thin with all the resources. Once you master a handful of platforms, you can move on to learn about more options.
References
Brockerhoff-Macdonald, B., Brennan, K., & Houle, M. (2020). The Laurentian University CAE Coffee House: Developing a physical and virtual faculty learning community. Collected Essays on Learning and Teaching, 13, 140-147. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1277177.pdf
Lawrence, D. (2022). Digital writing: A guide to writing for social media and the web. Ontario, Canada: Broadview Press.
Potts, J. (2024). In praise of less technology: Taking a "less is more" approach in virtual classrooms. Journal of Online Learning Research, 10(1), 7-14. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1428031.pdf
I also really enjoy utilizing virtual field trips in my gifted classroom because we do not get to take our gifted students on class field trips. "Their studies emphasized that
ReplyDeletewell-organized field trips aligned with the school curriculum and designed to meet specific educational objectives resulted in successful cognitive, effective, and psycho motor
learning outcomes" (Garcia et al., 2023, p.2). Because I know that field trips are important, I have tried to find creative ways to bring content experts to us. One amazing resource that I have found is called Exploring By the Seat of Your Pants. This organization is out of Canada, and they put on live events for schools where you can Skype with a field scientist in a variety of interesting careers. If you sign up in time, your class can attend the live event and get to ask questions at the end. They even get to appear on the screen with the expert. My students always love when we get a chance to connect virtually in this way. "Rather than a once-a-year-only event, teachers could maximize VFTs
as an instructional strategy to support teaching and learning both inside and outside the
classroom" (Garcia et al., 2023, p.12). Virtual reality experiences can also be quite valuable in giving students experiences with places they haven't or may never get to visit in person. We have used Google Tour builder to take students on a trip to visit famous structures around the world. Unfortunately, that technology has been discontinued. There are, however, alternatives, but they come at a cost. "Greater sensing can create more enriching and realistic learning experiences, but at a cost of reduced scalability, that is, accessibility to fewer users or requiring substantial investments. Although lower-cost standalone HMDs such as the Oculus Quest have become readily available to many students, the use of VFTs with common desktop computers and web browsers is still the most accessible option" (Zhao et al., 2021, para. 3). I think that the post-Covid world that we live in will bring us more, exciting opportunities to bring virtual experiences to our students.
References
Garcia, M., Nadelson , L., & Yeh, E. (2023). We're going on a virtual trip: a switching-replications
experiment of 360-degree videos as a physical field trip alternative in primary education.
International Journal of Childcare and Education Policy, 17(1): 4. doi: 10.1186/s40723-023-
00110-x. Epub 2023 Jan 25. PMID: 36712410; PMCID: PMC9875167.
Zhao, J., Wallgrün, J. O., Sajjadi, P., LaFemina, P., Lim, K. Y. T., Springer, J. P., & Klippel, A. (2022).
Longitudinal Effects in the Effectiveness of Educational Virtual Field Trips. Journal of Educational
Computing Research, 60(4), 1008-1034. https://doi.org/10.1177/07356331211062925