Real-Teacher Reasoning

Today, many school districts struggle to fund out-of-school field trips and experiences for their students; however, with a little creativity, similar learning can occur without ever leaving the classroom, thanks to advancements in technology. For this assignment, you will use one of the presentation programs explored in class (Prezi, GoogleSlides, etc.) to design and present a digital field trip for students in the grade of your choice. Design your own digital field trip that allows students in the grade of your choice to experience a location or a culture that they might not otherwise be able to experience.

What do I need to turn in?

There are two parts to this assignment: the digital field trip presentation, and a commentary paper describing how you designed your digital field trip. Use the following guidelines to develop your digital field trip presentation assignment:

Part 1: Digital Field Trip Presentation Software

• Using the presentation program which will allow you the features you will need in order to create the most rich and authentic experience, design a digital field trip that will virtually take your students to a new location. Be sure that your digital field trip meets the following guidelines:
• Include a mix of images, colors, text, videos, and other features as relevant and applicable to the task (e.g. links to the Internet or to other programs, music, narration, etc.).
• Consider the design of your slides; use McKenzie’s tips to create interesting, attractive, and informative slides that are balanced and clear. 
• Include between 5 and 15 stops along the field trip to different locations (consider that you will have 10 minutes to present and time-manage accordingly); make sure all hyperlinks work and are accessible to all viewers; give copyright credit when due (N.B.: Students who have adapted a previously-created presentation for this assignment have tended to score lower if they failed to adapt it appropriately for the intended purpose of this assignment. Be aware of the assignment requirements and adapt accordingly).
• Make sure that all information included or accessed on your digital field trip is reputable and reliable; select high-quality resources and make sure information being displayed is accurate and unbiased.
• In class, you will have 10 minutes to present your digital field trip and will be assessed on your ability to use the presentation program and technology you selected for this assignment. You should practice your presentation and troubleshoot ahead of time to ensure a smooth presentation that visits every stop along the trip within the allotted 10 minutes.
  
  

Part 2: Commentary "Paper" Explaining Your Reasoning

The final requirement is a Commentary Paper that will describe the planning and development of your digital field trip presentation. In 2-3 pages, write your responses to the following questions/prompts about w you planned and designed your digital field trip.

1. Describe the lesson in which this digital field trip would be presented. In what content area and grade would this presentation be used? What is the central focus of the lesson? What are the learning objectives? What is the purpose for this digital field trip? How would you assess for student mastery of the learning objectives? How does your digital field trip meet the needs of all of your students?
2. Explain how you designed your digital field trip. How and why did you select the presentation program? Why was this program the most appropriate tool for your digital field trip? How did you determine what images, videos, and other media to include? What challenges did you face in designing your digital field trip?
3. Describe how you selected the content of your digital field trip. How did you select your digital content? How do you know that your content is high-quality?  How do you know the selected content is appropriate for your students?​​

Commentary Sentence Frames

How will I be graded?

Digital Tools and Experience: 33%

Presentation: 17%

Overall Quality: 17%

Commentary Quality: 33%

Project is worth 20% of overall course score.

Digital Field Trip Software

Slides

Slides is the presentation software I strongly recommend using for this project. It has many of the same features as PowerPoint. It's interface is familiar,  you can save it in "presentation" mode so that viewers aren't encumbered by tools to which they don't have access. Possibly most importantly, it is "light." Publishing it online means that viewers don't need to download anything to interact with your field trip. It lives online and you're just viewing it. In a world in which your class content needs to compete for mobile data against cat videos, YouTube binges, and Pandora, it's best when no one needs to click a "download, 4.3 mb?" prompt.

Prezi

Prezi is an amazing presentation software for a digital field trip. In fact, I think it is the BEST presentation software for a digital field trip. The different, tiered levels you can create and the cascading, unpredictable effect of "how much can I see if I click..." mimics the reality of investigating cities on foreign continents. That being said, the interface is not user friendly, and the unpredictable effect that makes user exploration so fun makes field trip creation incredibly difficult. That being said, the final results are breathtakingly streamlined and user friendly.

PowerPoint

PowerPoint is an incredibly powerful interface for connecting an audience with material. They've been at it the longest as well. That being said, all that power, and all those features come with feature bloat, and a whole lot of file size. Chances are, if you use PowerPoint to create your digital field trip, it will exceed the 10mb limit of Google Classroom and OnCourse. Large file sizes means slow load time at best. Being that PowerPoint isn't hosted online without a license, it means that only other people with your version of PowerPoint can download and see your file. To the light, web-based educator, PowerPoint's downfalls far outweigh it's advantages.

I didn't forget to link this icon or the title to the right. PowerPoint is not web-based, and as such there is no website to which I can direct you.

Exemplars of Actual, 100% Human Work

Karpie's Digital Field Trip (that I actually use with students...)

To the right, you can see my own digital field trip! I wanted it to simultaneously be authentic to my "real" job as an 8th grade ELA teacher, but also apply to my work as a college professor. It even helps parents and students get acquainted with the random, well-read quirkiness they can come to expect from spending time in my classroom.

Commentary

Example Presentation

Non-Example Presentation

Stephanie Diacovasilis

In this trip to the Buffalo Zoo [created using Prezi] you'll notice some parallel structure, so it's easy to find and interact with information. You'll notice a healthy mixture of text, images, and embedded videos. Most of all, you'll notice some fun and whimsy, which all field trips need.

Evan Ahearn

Evan's trip to Washington DC was rich in images, links, and information. While there aren't many slides, like Washington DC itself, each location offers a wealth of learning and fun.

Owen Cheeseman

This field trip, created by Owen Cheeseman, is among the most "scalable" resources I've seen in my class. He could keep adding stops and information until he could use just this field trip as a source for an amazing inquiry-based learning opportunity.