Imagine you’re a student, in middle America, sitting in a classroom learning about the ancient Egyptians and their pyramids. For a week, your teacher has been lecturing, you’ve been reading, a small video clip was played, and you looked at some pictures of mummies and the pyramids. But today is different - all of a sudden, your teacher brings out some weird-looking cardboard boxes and announces to the class that you’re going on a field trip. You’re going to visit the pyramids and walk around the tombs!
For the majority of students, going on an international field trip isn’t in their realm of possibility. Being able to visit foreign destinations, wonders of the world, famous museums, or even outer space is just a dream; but with virtual field trips, teachers can engage their students by harnessing their curiosity for the unknown and their love of hands-on learning. One such way is by using the free service Google Arts & Culture. This service has a mission of preserving the world’s art and culture and making it accessible to anyone in the world. Users can use virtual reality headsets, like Google Cardboard, or any web-accessible device to access more than 1,200 museums, 10,000 places, can maximize and zoom in on famous paintings, or experience cultural heritage sites through 360-degree videos and images (Cowin, 2020).
Curiosity
Virtual field trips pique students’ curiosity. They allow the student to experience what they’ve been learning about almost firsthand. They can travel to new places without leaving the comfort of their classroom and they can bring their peers along for the trip. Dempsey (2018) mentions that students are motivated to learn due to their perceived gaps in knowledge or epistemic curiosity. In the example above, students have a lack of knowledge about what the pyramids actually looked and felt like. The virtual field trip to Egypt and the pyramids allows them to fill that gap by “walking” through the tombs. By using a virtual reality headset to do the field trip, students’ attention is focused on the information that is presented to them. Alternatively, with Google Arts & Culture, teachers can present the field trip through computers or displayed to the whole class using a projector and screen depending on what the educational goals are.
Meaningful Goals
When students enter the classroom, their goals are not always known. They can have personal goals and educational goals that don’t always align with the teacher’s goals for their class. The teacher can use virtual field trips to align with the educational goals of the class. They can do this by setting the purpose of the field trip to foster engagement, this is the concept of transformative learning (Cowin, 2020). This also allows teachers to help bridge classroom learning with real-world experiences. Virtual field trips can help students visualize what they’ve been learning and comprehend difficult concepts. Meyer (2016) describes a high school economics teacher who used virtual field trips to provide real-world context for the 2008 financial crisis. He had his students visit various financial centers in the United States virtually and then compare how they changed after the crisis. His students got a 360-degree view of buildings that they had read about. It made the content real for them.
Self-Regulation
Virtual field trips can be designed to be autonomous, semi-autonomous, or teacher-led. Tutwiler, et al. (2013) found that students prefer to have semi-autonomous control over their field trip experience, but students score higher on post-test assessments on content knowledge when the teacher navigates the experience. A balance of teacher-led and student-led learning in the virtual field trip will allow students to employ their self-regulated volition. When a student prioritizes their own growth goals and learning, they are more motivated and engaged in the experience (Dempsey, 2018). Allowing a student to direct parts of the field trip will give the student ownership over their learning. In the example used above, the teacher would direct students to visit the pyramid selection and then choose at least two other selections to encourage self-directed learning. Students could look at how hieroglyphics are created and translated, they could learn about Egyptologists, or they could explore the significance of cats in Egypt.
References
Cowin, J. B. (2020). Digital Worlds and Transformative Learning: Google Expeditions, Google Arts and Culture, and the Merge Cube. International Research and Review, 10(1), 42–53.
Dempsey, J.V., & Reiser, R.A. (2018). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed.). Pearson Education (US).
Google for Education. (2018, August 22). Edu in 90: Google arts & culture. YouTube. Retrieved March 18, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3bLtn8DLYo
Meyer, L. (2016). Students Explore the Earth and beyond with Virtual Field Trips. T H E Journal, 43(3), 22–25.
Tutwiler, M., Lin, M.-C., & Chang, C.-Y. (2013). Determining Virtual Environment “Fit”: The Relationship Between Navigation Style in a Virtual Field Trip, Student Self-Reported Desire to Visit the Field Trip Site in the Real World, and the Purposes of Science Education. Journal of Science Education & Technology, 22(3), 351–361. https://doi-org.oclc.fullsail.edu/10.1007/s10956-012-9398-4
Curiosity
While a traditional classroom can provide a foundational learning environment and spark a learner’s interest, stepping outside of the classroom adds so much value to the learning process. This blog offers insight into including virtual field trips as an engagement tool and states” They allow the student to experience what they’ve been learning about almost firsthand.” Hans’ study on implementing immersive virtual field trips in elementary classrooms confirms that immersive virtual field trips specifically through head-mounted displays give elementary students an increased sense of realism and immersion (2021, p.180). While curiosity is a great learner engagement tool the study’s reflection also warns of ways VTF can hinder learning. Results from the study showed that the overuse of the head-mounted…
SparkCuriosity
Virtual field trips pique students’ curiosity. They allow the student to experience what they’ve been learning about almost firsthand. They can travel to new places without leaving the comfort of their classroom and they can bring their peers along for the trip. Dempsey (2018) mentions that students are motivated to learn due to their perceived gaps in knowledge or curiosity. In the example above, students have a lack of knowledge about what the pyramids actually looked and felt like. The virtual field trip to Egypt and the pyramids allows them to fill that gap by “walking” through the tombs. By using a virtual reality headset to do the field trip, students’ attention is focused on the information that is…
Google Arts & Culture: Virtual Field Trips that Engage Student Learning
Explore/ Master
The Google Educational resources have been undeniable helpful for teachers and students since 2014. Prior to the global pandemic that that rocked our 2020 and 2021 collective worlds technological processes for education had made many strides to connect our global society to our educational growth. Google Classroom, Slides, Sheets, Docs, Earth, and the other many portals available via the waffle in the upper right-hand corner of the Chrome home screen were advanced and user friendly since 2014 (at least). The pandemic, and the urgent requirement for non-face-to-face learning created the rapid need for teachers and students to become quasi-experts in educational technologies and distance learning. We were…
Motivation to Learn:
According to Reiser and Dempsey (2018) the book explains that learners are more motivated to learn when they perceive the knowledge to be learned as meaningfully related to their goals. When learners can see how the new knowledge or skills they are acquiring will help them achieve their personal or professional goals, they are more likely to be motivated to learn.
To promote motivation through meaningfulness, instructional designers can employ several strategies:
Align learning goals with learners' personal and professional goals: By aligning the learning goals with the learners' goals, designers can help learners to see the relevance and importance of the knowledge or skills they are acquiring.
Use real-world scenarios: By using real-world scenarios and examples,…
As a Career and Technical Educator (CTE), it is beneficial to take students onsite to see how precise technologies or specific skills are used on the job site or applied in various real-world situations. However, traditional field trips have significantly diminished due to the recent pandemic but also the issues of funding, safety, and accessibility (Kenna & Potter, 2018). It occurred to me while reading this article that I could be providing virtual field trips in my own online class, specifically when discussing topics such as design theory (including color and typography) or photography. For example, I could have students explore the Newsprint medium category in Google Arts & Culture to identify how typography is used in headlines. Or students…