The article "Yes, You Can Take a Field Trip to India"
by Nancy Casolaro reveals the importance of technology in the classroom. It
shows how the use of technology enhances learning for students and can bring to
life different places, cultures, and people students are unfamiliar with. As I
was reading the article, I was able to see how much this virtual trip
benefitted the students. They were able to learn about a new culture, country,
and group of people through Nancy’s blogs, pictures, and presentations.
I think this idea is a
great way to teach students about different cultures, people, and history. Apparently,
the class did not respond to Nancy’s posts while she was in India, however I think that would have been a great
idea and would make it a more interactive experience. I also think that using Skype to
communicate with the travel guide would be another great experience in learning
about another country. Nancy wrote, “It took a group of
children to a place they normally couldn’t go.
What, in your
estimation, were some of the benefits to students in using this approach to teaching history and geography? Can you think of other
social studies units that might benefit from using blogs and Skype? What impressed you most about
this approach to a social studies unit? Would you expand it in any way? I look forward to
your answer to one or two of my questions.
Nicole,
ReplyDeleteThe power of technology is implausible. There are so many advances in technology and as future educators we need to take advantage of it now! Technology is never going to stop, it will continue to grow and it is our job to make it prevalent in our future classrooms.
There were many great benefits to this virtual field trip. One of the greatest benefits is that students were given the opportunity to explore a location which is probably inaccessible to them. Elementary school students are limited in their travels; they usually visit locations which are a short distance away, younger students tend to not do well on long bus trips and finally there is always a school budget which must be considered. There are so many reasons why younger students are limited in their travels and therefore are only left to explore places which are in close proximity to their community. A virtual tour in the classroom makes it possible for younger students to travel, it takes hours of traveling time and wraps it up into a 10-30 minuet lesson! Students who also live in different parts of the world are able to explore places which are inaccessible to them: students who live in Colorado are able to explore the grounds where the Civil War took place; students who live on the East Coast are able to explore the Rocky Mountains… etc. What was once impossible for teachers and students is no longer impossible. Another great benefit of a virtual field trip is that everyone can feel relaxed on their journey; teachers, parents and students do not have to feel the anxiety of traveling and staying together. Students and teacher can relax on their journey and pay close attention to the many details which they probably would have missed!
Personally, I feel that this virtual field trip was well thought out. If this were my classroom, I would expand on a couple of things … while teachers, parents and students may think that a virtual field trip explores all realms of faraway locations, it does not. There is lack of sensory when it comes to virtual field trips; students are unable to really see the overall greatness of a mountain, smell the difference in air (city, country, etc.). The lack of sensory bothers me, so I would expand on the sensory aspect of this lesson by incorporating food from the land being explored, supplying artifacts from a specific place, have students dress up (dramatic play) and put on a play for other students. I feel that students need to physically experience something in order to understand it which goes hand in hand with our reading: knowledge received, knowledge discovered and knowledge constructed. Knowledge constructed is what virtual field trip lack, “It has to be experienced in order for it to be real.”
Jennifer Thatcher' Lesko
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ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading how Nancy Casolaro and Mr. Echeverria worked together to ensure the students had the best learning experience possible. I think using this approach to teach the students helped bring everything to life. Sometimes just reading things in a textbook can become monotonous and make students almost numb to new information because it is continuously presented in the same way. I think having such a connection as was presented in the article really gave the students an opportunity to have a unique experience. I also loved how Ms. Casolaro returned to give a presentation to the students. I think it really helped the students materialize the virtual journey they had been a part of. I think that using this approach also most likely sparked a love of learning about other cultures and traveling in some, if not all, of the students.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the things that could have been done to expand the unit is if Ms. Casolaro interviewed people while on her trip, since she brought an iPad with her, and then posted them on her blog and/or shown the interviews to the students when she returned. Since there are over 3,000 dialects spoken in India, many speak English on either a conversational level or fluently. I think it would have been really fascinating if Ms. Casolaro interviewed some elders to truly learn first-hand about Indian culture and traditions. I also think it would have been fascinating if Ms. Casolaro interviewed school-age children and asked them about school, chores, what they do for fun, etc. I think doing so would have really given Mr. Echeverria's class a level platform on which to compare and learn about life and culture in India as compared to their own.