Entry 6- Virtual Tours

Virtual Field trips are an excellent way for students to learn through experience while sitting in the classroom. These online tours allow students to tour museums, countries, factories, and more by the click of a button. They're an excellent technological resource for teachers wanting to use technology more prominently in the classroom. Another great aspect of virtual field trips is that they are free of charge. Teacher's don't have to worry about getting them approved by the principal, raising money, or passing out permission slips. Students take these trips from the comfort of the classroom computer.

 

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/23905174@N00/3600252879/ -- http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en 

In my future classroom, I'll definitely use virtual field trips in a social studies setting. Several virtual field trips take students to museums. I would be sure to include a tour from any museum with an online tour that corresponds to my lesson. Another great resource is the tours that help take you back to the past. Tours that teach about the great depression or the industrial revolution would be excellent additions to my lesson plan.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hackny/5604805656/ -- http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en 

The pros of virtual tours are numerous. They allow teachers to teach from a more hands on perspective without actually leaving the classroom. Many schools have banned field trips, so these tours can be a, if not parallel, at least acceptable substitute. Some of them are interactive and keep students engaged, and they're a way to move students out of the traditional classroom-lecture setting to a fun-filled online lesson. The cons of virtual tours are that many lack substance and they're not a parallel to actual field trips. Even so, they're a wonderful resource for any teachers classroom.