When I was a kid, we got excited about going to the symphony. Most of us didn't care for the music itself. It was all about the bus trip. Our music teacher even made a large poster of a bus and recorded each student's name on the bus after receiving that child's money for the trip. Teachers would probably get in trouble for doing that today. Virtual field trips offer more opportunities without the benefit of the bus ride. As a teacher, I didn't find the bus ride quite as exciting. I disliked the songs the students loved to sing on the bus, especially the ones from the Brady Bunch.
Forget about the bus. Students are now able to see parts of the world while remaining in their seats.
MIDDLE school students in White Plains have seen the Amazon rain forest in Brazil up close, talked face-to-face with their peers in Sri Lanka and even accompanied scuba divers along the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. But no fund-raisers or permission slips were needed, thanks to a growing phenomenon in classrooms: the virtual field trip.
“Today’s students are part of an awakening,” said Jody Kennedy, an art teacher at the White Plains Middle School Eastview Campus, who coordinates such visits throughout the White Plains school district. “There are no limits anymore. We can truly go anywhere we want.”
Virtual field trips rely on interactive videoconferencing, the same technology that businesses have used for decades. A camera, projector, special hardware and Internet signal allow students to travel the globe without ever leaving the classroom.
This is a way for students to talk to people from other countries and to find out what life is like in other parts of the world. It's not the same experience as actually being there, but you don't have to worry about how many students can fit on a seat in the bus. Of course, an actual field trip every now and then will provide students and teachers with memories they will never forget!