K-12 Take your students 'virtually' Anywhere
K-12 Take your students 'virtually' Anywhere
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Description: Digital tools provide a means by which teachers can take their students on meaningful field trips to any location on the planet and beyond. Learn to customize existing virtual tours or create your own from scratch.
Description: Digital tools provide a means by which teachers can take their students on meaningful field trips to any location on the planet and beyond. Learn to customize existing virtual tours or create your own from scratch.
Target: Participants will curate, customize, and design virtual tours using a variety of digital tools.
Target: Participants will curate, customize, and design virtual tours using a variety of digital tools.
Icebreaker
Icebreaker
Think about a field trip experience you had either as a teacher or a child.
What challenges did you have?
What were some of the most memorable parts?
What would you have done differently?
Curate
Curate
Exploration Considerations
For what purpose would you take your students on this trip?
How will you address the technology aspect of a virtual trip?
How will students be held accountable for learning?
What type of permission, if any, will be necessary before the trip?
The Aquarium in Chattanooga Tennessee (Thinglink)
Explore the Tennessee Aquarium located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Images, information, and videos are from TNaqua.org.
Egypt from the Nile River (Nearpod)
This Nearpod is open until 11/21/2023
Navigating a Nearpod Virtual Tour
Select 'Join as a Guest'
Enter a name in the first box
Select 'Join'
Use the blue arrows to navigate.
Headphones are recommended.
Collaboration boards are not monitored. Please keep all posts respectful.
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC (Google Arts & Culture)
Navigating the Google Arts & Culture Tours
Touchscreen users can use their fingers on the screen to navigate and zoom.
Mobile device users can enter virtual mode by tapping the phone icon on the screen. This enables a more interactive experience as viewers can navigate the museum by moving their phones instead of pinching and dragging on the screen.
Mouse users can navigate using arrows on the keyboard, movement overlays on the image, or thumbnails along the bottom of the screen.
The site can be shared using a link, QR code, or directly to Google Classroom.
A Dairy Farm Experience (Minecraft Education Edition)
Click the image to enter the Minecraft DairyFarm Trip.
A Day On The Farm takes students through many aspects of a dairy farm and includes activities along the way to make the experience even more engaging. Navigating the world is simple enough that even novice users can be successful.
Helpful tips:
Install Minecraft Education.
A mouse and headphones are recommended.
Identify Minecraft experts in the room to help.
Students must log in with their CMCSS email.
A Data Center Experience (Minecraft Education Edition)
Click the image above to enter world in Minecraft.
Cloudcraft is a Minecraft world that takes students on a trip to a Datacenter. Students have activities to complete at the Datacenter to help them learn about the different roles at the center including Technician, Architect, Engineering, Security, and Recycling. Expect this world to take several visits and include a written activity for accountability.
Essential Questions for this trip:
What impact has the Datacenter had on the local community?
What other security measures are in place to protect people's data?
What services will the Datacenter provide on a local and global scale?
What employment opportunity does the Datacenter offer the village?
The White House in Washington DC (Google Arts & Culture)
This is another tour that can be found at Google Arts & Culture. Navigating is a little less dynamic than the Smithsonian tour linked above. However, students can travel through parts of the White House and see the extensive collection of art that includes many presidential portraits and busts.
National Geographic has created a visually stunning tour of the world's largest cave located in Vietnam.
This tour includes a collection of high-quality 360 images combined with an interactive map of the cave system and a narrative of each scene.
Farm Food 360 is an interactive tour that combines 360 videos with activities to immerse students in learning about where the food that we eat comes from.
Explore.org has a collection of live cam feeds from around the world. Watch brown bears catch salmon as they swim upstream in Alaska, animal sanctuaries, African watering holes, ocean aquatic life, and wild bird nest cams.
The 'Education' link provides lesson plans and additional resources for teachers to use with students in the classroom.
The Google Arts and Culture Collections landing page can be viewed in three different ways. Browse all of the Thumbnails, or sort into alphabetical order, or view by location by selecting the Map option as shown in the image.
Keep the age level of students and district policy in mind when making selections. If your district would not approve a real visit to the location, a virtual visit is out as well. If unsure, check with your administrator before using a virtual tour.
Notable Google Arts and Culture Tours:
Amazon has created a wonderful resource that combines videos of Amazon employees and online activities that give students a tour experience of the Amazon fulfillment center in New Jersey. They even include a teacher toolkit to help you get started.
Click on the image to visit the site with all of the resources.
Click on the title to go straight to the YouTube playlist that goes along with the tour.
Nearpod Virtual Tour of the South West
Nearpod Virtual Tour of the South West
This Nearpod was created for thrid grade students in Tennessee by Katie Robertson.
This virtual tour takes students across the Southwestern area of the United States. It includes virtual activities and videos.
Click on the image to add your own copy of this tour to your Nearpod library.
Once you get your own copy, you can edit it anyway you want.
Customize
Customize
Educators always customize a field trip to meet the needs of their students. Consider how the trips shown above could be customized to fit into many content areas and grade levels. Use the Jamboard linked below to share your ideas with the group.
Share Customization Ideas in Jamboard
Click the image to open Jamboard in a new tab.
Navigate between the four pages to find the one you want to add a customization idea. (Navigation area circled in red at top of image.)
Use the post-it note icon to add your idea. Be sure to include the grade level and content area. (Circled in red on the left side of image.)
Bookmark the page to refer back to it for ideas.
Virtual Field Trip Creation Tools
Virtual Field Trip Creation Tools
There are many tools that support the creation of a virtual field trip. Four tools that were featured today are listed below. Explore these tools to determine which is the best fit for your students.
Nearpod
Nearpod
Pros of Using Nearpod for Virtual Trips
Can be shared a variety of ways
Teacher-led or student-paced
Collect data and grade instantly
Variety of slide types
Built-in 360 library
Cons of Using Nearpod for Virtual Trips
Currently cannot edit 360 images (Hot Spots)
Student-paced lessons must be relaunched after one year
Pros of Using Thinglink for Virtual Trips
Has a built-in 360-image library
Has a variety of tag options
Can be shared in many ways
Robust Learning Center for beginning users
Cons of Using Thinglink for Virtual Trips
The free version limits views on items that are embedded but redirects users to the Thinglink site.
First-time creators may struggle with the interface
Google Arts and Culture
Google Arts and Culture
Pros of Using Google Arts and Culture for Virtual Trips
Has a built-in 360-image library
Has a variety of tours from around the world
No sign-in required
Free
Cons of Using Google Arts and Culture for Virtual Trips
Some locations may have content that is not appropriate for younger students
No way to embed activities
Can only be shared with a link
Minecraft Education Edition
Minecraft Education Edition
Pros of Using Minecraft Education Edition for Virtual Trips
Can be customized
Variety of ways to share, including Google Classroom
Can be teacher-led or independent
Instant buy-in from students because its Minecraft
Cons of Using Minecraft Education Edition for Virtual Trips
The interface can be intimidating at first
Requires login
Mouse & headphones are recommended
Teacher Resources
Teacher Resources
Instructional Technology - Nearpod
Instructional Technology - Minecraft
Thinglink Learning Center (requires an account to access)
Ideas and Applications
Ideas and Applications
For younger students, drive the virtual trip on the big screen and let the students tell you where to go next.
Use digital tools and programs the district has purchased to save time and money.
Use existing virtual resources and add your own customizations.
Have an exit ticket or other product to hold students accountable for the learning objectives.
Let older students create their own virtual trip using the Google Street View app on a smart phone or other 360 device.
Tell the ENGAGE community what you learned to be entered into a drawing for a prize! Padlet Link
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