Cassady, Kozlowski and Kommann describe a field trip as an educational experience “intended to provide students with a hands-on learning condition” (2008). Tate takes a much less specific view including experiences as diverse as hands-on, virtual, and even guest speakers who provide a link between content and its “application in the real world” (2012).
I would not include guest speakers in my definition of field trips. I think just linking content and the real world does not rise to the level of experiential learning. Field trips should include “interaction with contextually relevant learning resources” (Cassady, 2008). They should go beyond just observation to include at least some level of activity on the part of the learner.
Citing Pea (2004), Cassady, Kozlowski and Kommann see field trips as a form of scaffolding, providing a shared experience for learners that can serve as a common point of reference. In this context, field trips are most effective when teachers and learners use them as a frame of reference and an anchor for the content.
Application: I have not included a field trip in any of my instruction in the past, but I think it might be an effective method to build a learning experience around. I’ve been contributing to a national effort to encourage program innovation in Extension. This effort has included “Innovate Events” for Extension staff in several states. These events have focused on the process of innovation.
I think this Extension innovation effort could be enhanced by a learning experience centered on virtual tours of innovative Extension spaces. North Carolina Cooperative Extension is offers a shared-use kitchen to serve as an incubator for small food-based business. Utah State University Extension has set up makerspaces where the public can experience the maker movement by using 3-D printers, laser cutters and other DIY equipment. Ohio State University Extension has transformed one of their county offices into a community space that includes a makerspace and other space for innovative uses.
I plan to work with professionals in those states to produce virtual field trips to their spaces for a class of Extension professionals. These field trips would provide a shared experience for participants and anchor a discussion about program innovation and Extension’s role.
Assessment: Concept Maps (Barkley & Major, 2016, pp. 218-224)
The learning goals of this experience would be focused on participants integrating what they learned into their own approach to Extension programming. I would use concept maps to assess the participants ability connect the concepts from the learning experience with each other and with their work in context.
Participants would brainstorm key themes relating to innovation in Extension. Then each participant would create a concept map of the process they would follow to implement one of the innovative solutions they learned about in their own state. They would need to organize and connect the experiences of our virtual field trip hosts with their own experiences in their organization. The learning experience leaders, myself included, would then analyze the participant maps to identify similarities and differences that could be reported out to participants and used as a basis for further discussion.
References
Barkley, E. F., & Major, C. H. (2016). Learning assessment techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Cassady, J. C., Kozlowski, A. G., & Kommann, M. A. (2008). Electronic Field Trips as Interactive Learning Events: Promoting Student Learning at a Distance. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 19(3), 439-454. Retrieved February 21, 2018, from http://www.learntechlib.org/p/24187/
Pea, R. (2004). The Social and Technological Dimensions of Scaffolding and Related Theoretical Concepts for Learning, Education, and Human Activity. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 13(3), 423-451. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1466943
Tate, M. L. (2012). “Sit and Get” won’t grow dendrites: 20 professional learning strategies that engage the adult brain. (2nd Ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.