TOP 10 Virtual Field Trips amidst Covid-19
 |
| Virtual-field-trips Photo: Wowtravelagency.com |
Field trips are informal learning experiences that get students out into the world, exploring the world and students' interests. Trips to museums, parks, historical sites, and more show students that learning (and life) happens outside the classroom, too. During field trips, students discover new things and learn in authentic environments, placing classroom content into new contexts. Unfortunately, for many schools and students, field trips are rare (if they happen at all).
Thankfully, there are great games, apps, and websites that can bring places and experiences fostered by field trips to the classroom. While not an outright replacement, these field trip tools can offer inspiring and intriguing experiences for students, Commonsense noted.
10. National and State Park Virtual Tours
 |
| Photo: Vt.co |
National Parks are popular vacation destinations and are also great virtual field trips for young learners. Yellowstone National Park, in particular, provides the opportunity for a virtual field trip experience that would be beneficial for students in grades 4 or 5. Yellowstone is the home to the Mammoth Hot Springs and the Mud Volcano, and students are now able to get a feel for what a trip there would be like. The interactive maps on the website take you right to those popular park locations, as well as a live-stream of the Old Faithful Geyser. There is a bounty of information to dive into on this site, Teachhub noted.
9. YouTube 360°
Did you know that you can watch tons of 360° videos on Youtube? You can search through tons of 360° videos on almost anything. Find exciting videos from National Geographic, Discovery VR, the Science Channel and more to use in your class, according to Ditchthattextbook.
8. Empatico.org
Empatico.org is a free resource that connects classrooms through video. Empatico empowers teachers and students to explore the world through experiences that spark curiosity, kindness, and empathy. Aimed at upper elementary school students, Empatico.org is a way for students and teachers to connect to other classes while focusing on sparking curiosity, kindness, and empathy.
7. Google Tour Builder
 |
| Photo: Controlaltachieve.com |
Google Tour Builder is an exciting way to create your own tour to share a journey and highlight locations along the way using Google Earth. Tour Builder brings together the best of MyMaps and Street View. With Tour Builder, you can take viewers from location to location in first-person 3D glory. Choose the locations, choose how you want them to be seen and add any additional information. Students can view tours that have already been created or create one of their own!
6. Field Trip Zoom
Field Trip Zoom provides virtual field trips for home school and public school classrooms. There are 250+ live stream events for the year from 90 providers in fields of music, history, science, art, wellness, etc. for ages K-12. Everyone in your family can watch. All you need is internet access, Familystyleschooling suggested.
5. Google Street View
Street View makes it possible to drop your classroom virtually onto almost any street in the world and walk around. It uses panoramic images that let you turn around, zoom in and walk down roads to check out the scenery. Just grab the little yellow “peg man” and drop him where you’d like to go. (See animation at right.) For practice, try dropping yourself at your doorstep of your school if you’ve never used it before.
4. Nearpod
 |
| photo: Insidehook.com |
Imagine taking your students to the Taj Majal, The Pyramids of Giza, the Washington Monument or the Great Wall of China. All from the comfort of your classroom. Whether you have iPads, Chromebooks, Macs or PCs in your classroom- Nearpod VR works on any device. Our VR headsets make the experience more immersive, but is not required to experience the Virtual Field Trips, Nearpod advised.
3. 360° Cities
Do you want to try diving with tiger sharks? Or maybe parachute jump from 10,000 meters? 360° Cities provides the largest collection of amazing, high-resolution panoramic images of locations all over the world. Some images have sound as well so that the viewer is truly immersed in the experience. Images can be used in VR lessons or on any device!
2. Google Expeditions
With the Expeditions app, classrooms have no boundaries. With VR and AR, teachers are no longer limited by the space of the classroom. VR lets you explore the world virtually while AR brings abstract concepts to life—allowing teachers to guide students through collections of 360° scenes and 3D objects, pointing out interesting sites and artifacts along the way, Edu.Google convinced.
1. Skype in the classroom
 |
| Photo: Learningpersonalized.com |
| Microsoft’s Skype in the Classroom site (SkypeInTheClassroom.com) offers a database of thousands of teachers, hundreds of guest speakers and dozens of free virtual field trips. With contact information. Your class can connect to the world through virtual field trips, Skype lessons, Skype collaborations, mystery Skypes, and guest speakers. |
| A virtual field trip is a guided exploration through the world wide web that organizes a collection of pre-screened, thematically based web pages into a structured online learning experience. (Foley, 2003). Since 2007, another dynamic and interactive form of a virtual field trip has been – and is – freely available. Virtual reality (VR) has been come a long way from the world of gaming to the business landscape and is now preparing to go mainstream for some time. But the coming revolution of reality will look different than what we are used to seeing today, according to Industry wire. VR in general is a simulated, physical-like environment that is computer powered using immersive design and sight and sound, giving users to a totally different virtual world. The market of consumer virtual reality hardware and software is growing at a striking rate, from US$6.2 billion in 2019 to over US$16 billion by 2022. The virtual reality technology will enable users to see new places in a virtual environment, giving them an entirely immersive experience. In recent years, the exponential use of smartphones, rapid technological advancements and the significant reduction in VR headsets costs at the point, are giving the rise to the VR market and is expected to continue to grow in the coming years. |
If you find the article given above a good source of information, don't hesitate to share it widely, many thanks in advance from Knowinsiders!
 TIPS: Watch and Stream Andrea Bocelli's 'Believe in Christmas' Concert at home Andrea Bocelli, a prominent blind Italian who is noted as a opera singer, songwriter, tenor and record producer, has opened an online concert "Believe in ... |
 How to Watch Premier Leauge 2020/21 Broastcast in the US and Other Countries It feels like just yesterday that the 2019/20 Premier League season was wrapping up, but the 2020/21 season is already well underway. We've got all ... |
 How to Celebrate 2021 New Year Virtually: 7 Brilliant Ideas During Covid-19 Pandemic It’s hard to imagine New Year’s Eve without glitter confetti falling over a packed, champagne-soaked party, but like the rest of 2020, this December ... |
