Ever thought of taking your class to a remote island in the country? Or to the Sagada Caves in Mountain Province? Or perhaps to a museum in Visayas or in Mindanao? You probably brushed off the idea for a lot of reasons—cost, danger, time, and distance, to name a few. But that does not have to be the case anymore.

Ironic as it may sound, field trips can now be conducted inside the safety of the classroom. How? How else but with the use of computers.

Virtual field trip (VFT) is the name given to this alternative computer-based educational trip in which the students view images of a field trip destination via the computer or navigate a Web site that features a specific location. The trips may range from a simple photo tour of a place to a high-tech virtual travel complete with audio and video.

Internet-Based Virtual Adventures

There are several Web sites that offer virtual field trips for a fee, much like travel agencies selling tour packages to some destination. The ones that are sophisticated are most likely developed by professional Web designers. More than just the usual text and photos, these sites offer audio, video clips, and sometimes even animation.

There are also amateur sites created by teachers themselves. These sites usually highlight specific locations that the teachers use for their own students’ specific needs. Most of these sites make use of photos that the teachers themselves took on their visit to certain locations. Brief explanations or captions often accompany the pictures.

Other virtual trips feature general locations such as continents or countries rather than specific destinations. These are intended for providing the students with a general knowledge of the place. People, culture, scenic spots, and other tourist destinations are often featured in these Web sites.

Other Web sites allow students to examine different environments that they would not be able to go to otherwise, such as the bottom of the ocean, the jungle, the volcano, or even the outer space. These Web sites commonly use animations or web cams for the virtual adventure.

While many Web sites take you to faraway locations, some allow you to travel back in time. This won’t be possible even in actual field trips. Such Web sites commonly feature historical locations or important periods in the history of our planet.

Assessing the Quality of Virtual Field Trip

Not all the virtual field trips you will find online are worth your time and effort. Some may present outdated information. Others may simply not fit the specific goals you have set for your class. Thus, to ensure that you get the most out of a virtual field trip, you need to ask yourself some basic questions: Does the virtual trip meet your objectives for your class? Is there anything you would change if you were the one who created the virtual trip? Are all the pieces of information accurate and up-to-date? Is the trip worth your class time? Is it a good use of the Internet? Or can other tool or medium be equally or more effective?

Once you have chosen the virtual adventure that suits your class best, determine specifically how the use of the technology can provide your class with a different perspective of the subject matter. Especially for schools with very limited resources, teachers should be able to justify their use of computers and the Internet.
 
As in real field trips, virtual field trips may serve various purposes in your class. Thus, you also need to determine whether the trip will serve as a springboard or an exploratory activity, a practice exercise, or a closure for your lesson.

What kinds of assistance would your students need during the virtual adventure? It is important that you anticipate what possible problems you will encounter and what guidance your students will need to make the trip more productive.

During the planning stage, you need to determine the pace by which to go about the trip. Moving along too fast might render the entire trip useless because the students might not be able to follow you. Moving along too slowly might make it uninteresting or boring for the students. At the same time, you also need to figure out whether one class session would be enough to complete the whole trip or if you would need to break the trip into two or more parts. Your ability to manage and maximize your time for the virtual adventure will also prove crucial in the success of the trip.

Again, just like in real field trips, decide on what other materials will help you focus your trip. Based on the Web content, you may draft some guide questions that will aid you in directing your students’ attention to the more significant aspects of your virtual travel. You may also create some worksheets for your students to answer during the virtual trip itself.

Using the Technology

One of the decisions you have to make in conducting virtual field trips is whether to make it a whole-class experience or whether to divide your class into small groups, with the students in each group working as a team. Of course, this decision will, first and foremost, depend on the availability of computer in your school. But, it may also hinge on your objectives in class. For example, you might consider putting up learning stations and having your students explore different areas of your trip, and then ask them to work together and jigsaw their findings. That way, you allow your students not only to focus and “specialize” on certain areas but also to learn to cooperate with their team.

Putting up learning stations is also an effective way of organizing your trip. By arranging the stations in a certain order, you define how you want your students to learn your lessons. Remember, though, to be open to your students’ personal inputs.

Conducting virtual field trips can also be a venue to express your own creative side. You may, for instance, opt to adopt a theme for your virtual journey. In preparation for the trip, you may decorate your classroom according to your chosen theme using banners, posters, displays, and screen savers. You may also assign some students to help you decorate your classroom.

When you visit online virtual field trips, you will find that not all of them will suit your students’ needs and experiences. In which case, you have the option of adapting the existing virtual trips or making one of your own.

Adapting Existing Virtual Trips

One of the more common observations of teachers who surf the Internet for possible virtual field trips is that the reading level of the accompanying text is too high for their students. If you come across a Web site whose content you like but whose text you find too difficult for your class, you may create your own PowerPoint presentation, reword the text to make the language suitable to your class, and simply copy the photos into your own presentation. Make sure though that you acknowledge the source of the photos and that you don’t repost them on the Internet. Teachers should promote good values. Claiming the photos as your own or not properly acknowledging their sources certainly violates any ethical standard.

Alternatively, you may also prepare supplementary materials in the form of brochures or handouts that can serve as “travel guides” for your students, helping them with unfamiliar terms and providing them with background information.

Some virtual trips may contain dead links or links to other Web sites that have ceased to be accessible after some time. In this case, you do not need to discard the Web site entirely. You can still adopt the parts that are useful and simply add graphics or create new links to replace the lost ones.

In some cases, you may find the information you need in not just three or four Web sites. To take advantage of all useful Web sites, you may mix and match the best features of each of them to come up with your own virtual adventure.
 
Virtual field trips are also great opportunities to develop your students’ higher-order thinking skills. For instance, if a particular virtual trip features a place or a topic that is not your intended subject matter, you may consider using it for comparison. You may ask your pupils to analyze or infer what might be similar between the featured location or topic and the one you intend to discuss in your class, according to a certain set of criteria.

Some of the virtual travels on the Internet may be a little too simple or limited for your purpose. Consider using these as springboard for your lesson to draw out student interest.

Create Your Own Virtual Field Trip

Like other teachers who make their own virtual journeys and share them with everyone online, you can create your own virtual field trip, too.

Choosing a topic. Virtual field trips are ideal for topics or locations that would otherwise be hard to discuss or impossible to go to. So the first thing you need to determine is what topic to cover. As you decide on the topic, you also have to look ahead a little. This early, having an idea of what resources you have at your disposal, you should be able to judge, more or less, whether a particular topic is feasible or not.

Once you have made up your mind on the topic, you have to be clear with the purpose of the virtual field trip. By being clear with your purpose, you will also be able to identify the resources you will need. For instance, if you are a science teacher and you want to show your class the interaction between animals in the wild, you will have to use a video camera to record animal behavior. If you just want to show how animals protect themselves by, say, camouflage, a camera would probably do.

Planning. The next step is to plan all aspects of the virtual field trip. What locations do you plan to feature in the field trip? How will you reach these locations? When would it be best to visit the site? Aside from the specific technologies you have already identified, what other resources will help you fulfill all your objectives and how? How much would you need to spend for the entire project? You may coordinate with your fellow teachers for cross-curriculum applications. That way, you maximize the usefulness of the project. Who knows, other teachers might find your ideas brilliant and adopt them in their own class. Plus, they might also be able to help you with your project.

Preparation. After the planning, the next step is the preparation. It will be useful making a checklist of all that you need to bring so you don’t miss anything. It would also be better if you will prepare for every contingency. What would you do if it rains? What if the recording takes longer than you expected? Will you need to bring extra batteries, films, or tapes? If you plan to make an interview, who would you interview instead if your original interviewee is suddenly unavailable?

Data gathering. If you are confident you planned the project well enough and anticipated and prepared for all possibilities, you just have to stick to your plans and proceed with the project. Collect all the necessary data you need. Be sure to refer to your checklist so you cover everything as planned. While on the field trip site, try to think of ideas on how your students will better appreciate the virtual field trip you are making for them. Think also of the accompanying text you will place on your presentation.

Equipped with all the information you have gathered, you can now proceed with building your very own virtual field trip.

Making your presentation. Presentation softwares such as Microsoft PowerPoint are commonly used to create virtual field trips. As beginners, you are advised to make virtual trips using templates or pre-made patterns so you can focus more on the content.

There many formats you can use for your virtual adventure. You can present your field trip as a virtual tour to a particular location where you make your students feel how it is like to actually visit the place. This type of virtual field trip normally includes a map of the featured location at the beginning of the presentation that serves as a guide for the students.

You may also simply supply a library of information about a certain place depending on what you want your class to learn about your chosen location. You may cover topics as general as the history and culture of the place to those topics as specific as the life of local heroes.

Another option is to present information according time or space. For example, you can present pictures of the different clothes worn by different Philippine ethnic groups since the pre-Hispanic times. You may also present a comparison of the clothes worn by these ethnic groups.

If you want to feature how a certain process is done, you may choose to present a series of steps or a sequence of activities such as how shoes are made or how buildings are constructed.

A more creative way of presenting information is by telling a story. You can either create a character that will serve as the narrator or you can narrate the story yourself. This is especially effective for young students who love listening to stories and adventures.

There are other possible formats you can adopt for your own virtual adventure. Use them as you deem them effective. Feel free to experiment and add other features which you think will make the virtual trip more fun and interesting for your class.

You may not be well-versed yet with all the possible things you can do using your PC and the Internet but the most important thing is that you are willing to learn and explore. Visit the Web site stated in the Reference below for links to virtual trips and templates for making one of your own.