Real-Teacher ReasoningToday, 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.
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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
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Part 2: Commentary "Paper" Explaining Your Reasoning
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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.
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How will I be graded?
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Digital Tools and Experience: 33%
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Presentation: 17%
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Overall Quality: 17%
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Commentary Quality: 33%
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Project is worth 20% of overall course score.
Digital Field Trip Software
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SlidesSlides 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.
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PreziPrezi 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.
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PowerPointPowerPoint 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.
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Exemplars of Actual, 100% Human Work
Karpie's Digital Field Trip (that I actually use with students...)
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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.
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Example Presentation |
Non-Example Presentation |
Alea's trip to Puerto Rico was amazing! Her enthusiastic and fun presentation was supported by visually appealing technology tools and an in-depth and thoughtful commentary. This is exactly what I hope a digital field trip turns out to be!
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This group worked well together, and also lived together! It was just great pandemic planning to live with two other people from class. Prezi fought them every step of the way to create this beautiful field trip to St. Augustine, Florida, but they eventually triumphed and created a beautiful field trip, and an excellent presentation.
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Excellent public speaking and beautiful images make this digital field trip to the Georgia Aquarium jump off the screen and come to life! Slides are paced well, and there is the exact balance between information and fun that we're looking for in this project.
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Zoe's trip to Spain was great! She even threw in a little Spanish. Filled with real-life information that kids would actually want to know about a new country, but still fun and engaging to click through, this digital resource, coupled with Zoe's easy confidence as a presenter, made this field trip come to life!
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Stephanie DiacovasilisIn 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.
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Evan AhearnEvan'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.
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Owen CheesemanThis 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.
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