Virtual+Field+Trips+(VFTs)

=Virtual Field Trips (VFTs)=

= = =__Description__=

A **[|virtual field trip]** is a web-based curriculum with inter-related collection of images, and supporting text and other media that allows individuals to experience places, ideas, or objects beyond the physical and temporal constraints of the classroom. The **virtual field trip** can use a variety of technologies to allow the student to explore and discover a media-rich learning context for specific content areas.

= = =__History__=


 * Virtual field trips** (VFTs) appeared in the early-mid 1990’s as teachers and other educators wanted to share in the educational potential of the internet. Within a few years, the popularity and ease of using the web to connect content-specific pages, text and images into learning units grew. Websites such as [|Tramline], [|eFieldTrips], and [|LEARNZ] produced standardized VTFs to be used in some cases to supplement or replace classroom content curricula. These sites also encourage the teachers to adapt, create, and develop their own VFTs and provide templates that are then posted and shared through the internet. There are literally thousands of VFTs available for anyone that is willing to peruse the listings to find the sites that fit their needs.

With increased access to the internet technology with in the schools, VFT allowed students to "travel" outside the classroom to visit places that would otherwise be unfeasible and explore concepts that beyond the limitations of the classroom walls. Familiarity with the websites would allow the teachers to plan effectively for the authentic learning experiences. The different methods of learning are limited only by the technology available. Real time experiences and videoconferencing with actual individuals would help to bring education concepts alive. Students would have access to expertise and on-site knowledge on the other end of globe or of their own state to find out about current issues or gather information and data.

=__Impact on Teaching and Learning__=

The VTF is a powerful instructional method that utilizes the internet to produce a structured online educational unit. The VTF integrates a variety of media technology available to the website to enhance their learning units and produce the optimal student-centered learning. It is a guided or structured tour through active learning experiences over the internet where students are involved with observations or analytical activities. A VFT that is developed focused on the learning concepts as a traditional field learning experience and incorporates credible images and experiences has a better opportunity for the student to achieve sound learning outcomes. Advantages to using VFTs include the limitless horizon of places to visit, concepts to explore, and experts to meet. Even the concept of time is not a limiting factor, as learning units can be developed to take students back in history to another era or place. There are no restrictions of traditional fieldtrips such as costs for transportation, parental permission forms to collect, and liabilities for schools and instructors. VTFs can also be used as a classroom activity that helps to focus the students prior to an actual field trip or assess and reinforce learning concepts after a field trip. Often times, it has been used as a multimedia method for sharing one’s own travel or field experiences with an audience and educating informally about the exploration and discovery. The use and potential of VFTs in the classrooms are still expanding. VFTs are still an individualized learning experience and to a great extent still manufactured by the author of the VFT experience. The disadvantages lie to some extent within the costs of technology itself. The access to digital equipment and available technology expertise are barriers for many educational institutions as the fast pace of technology advances beyond their budgets.

= =

=__Practical Applications__=

Given these many advantages and limited school budgets, there are many articles posted on the web about the benefits and advantages of VFTs in the hundreds of websites sharing virtual experiences from museum visits to exotic destinations as well as unreachable locations such as [|NASA’s sites] to Mars or the Moon. Real life ocean research experiences and yet to be described deep sea species are shared through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [|Ocean Explorer] websites and Stanford University's School of Earth Sciences' [|Marine Virtual Explorer] website. Some exotic locations share their culture, environment and history would otherwise not be visited such as [|Easter Island] or [|Antarctica]. Although the sciences have often benefited by field experiences, math concepts are learned through conversions of current temperature in the Antarctic.

Examples of selected VFT content areas:

__Social Studies and Geography__ > http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/easter/explore/
 * PBS Nova: Easter Island

__Social Studies – History__ > Colonial Life VFT http://www.uen.org/utahlink/tours/tourFames.cgi?tour_id=16197
 * Utah Education Network – Take A Field Trip

__Mathematics__ > What’s the Difference – Moon Math VFT http://quest.nasa.gov/vft/
 * NASA Ames Research Center – QUEST

__Science__ > http://pangea.stanford.edu/projects/marve/
 * Stanford University School of Earth Sciences - Marine Virtual Explorer

> http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/welcome.html
 * NOAA Ocean Explorer website

=__References__=

Hin, L.T.W.; Subramaniam, R.; and Aggarwal, A.K. (2003). Virtual Science Centers: A New Genre of Learning in Web-based Promotion of Science Education. Proceedings of the 36th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2003.

Mandel, S. (2007). Why Use Virtual Field Trips? Pearson Prentice Hall (Online). Available: //[|http://www.phschool.com/eteach/professional_development/virtual_field_trips/essay.html//]//

Nix, R. (1999). A Critical Evaluation Of Science-Related Virtual Field Trips Available On The World Wide Web in partial fulfillment of the requirements in SMEC-708 Curtin University of Technology Western Australia. Available: [|http://www.dallas.net/~rnix/vft_text.html//]

Virtual Fieldtrip. Wikipedia. //http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_field_trip///////

Ritter, M. (1998). Virtual Field Trips: Just Like Being There. Teaching with Technology Today Newsletter, Vol. 2, No. 4,// March 12, 1998. Available: //http://www.uwsa.edu/ttt/tttv2n4.htm///////

=__External Links__=

eFieldtrips website. http://www.efieldtrips.org/

LEARNZ website. http://www.learnz.org.nz/index.php///

NASA Quest – Virtual Fieldtrips http://quest.nasa.gov/vft/

NOAA Ocean Explorer website http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/welcome.html

PBS NOVA http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/

Stanford University School of Earth Sciences - Marine Virtual Explorer http://pangea.stanford.edu/projects/marve/

Tramline website. [|http://www.field-guides.com///]

Utah Education Network – Take A Field Trip http://www.uen.org/utahlink/tours/fieldtrips.cgi?type_id=2

Virtual Field Trip to Antarctica [|http://www.can-do.com/uci/lessons98/Antarctica.html////]

=__Author__=

Elizabeth Kumabe, UH Manoa Educational Technology Program e-mail: kumabe@hawaii.edu