This weekend our son, Bret, came home and said that the recession had officially hit his school. Why he knows about the recession is actually my doing. Any question dealing with money, buying a new cell phone, a new baseball bat, or just going out to eat was met with the same answer: “I’m sorry, it’s the recession, try eating a turkey sandwich or taping your SIMS card to the cell phone.”
The fact that the budget cuts at school were causing him concern was interesting for me. He really wasn’t concerned about the cuts to purchasing or the fact that some teachers might be laid off. His biggest priority was the fact that his field trips were cut from the budget this year. (Imagine the horror!). Instead of going to the Georgia Aquarium, they were going to draw their favorite sea animal and tell a story about it. It doesn’t really give them the same experience, so I wonder “why has the digital age not caught up with his school or teacher?”
Digital field trips have been used by teachers all over the world to give kids real experiences. Kids that have never experienced the beach, snow, or traveled abroad can do it in an instant. Distance learning is nothing more than a video or web cam, internet service, and a lesson plan.
Many education destinations are setting up digital field trips that give students a taste of history, without the price of the trip. By a quick google search of electronic field trips, Colonial Williamsburg is all over the place. With a You Tube video, advertisements on history curriculum pages, and a site dedicated to electronic field trips, they are prepared for classrooms of any size, at any time. Check it out.
Our son may not be as excited to visit the aquarium digitally, but it is a better lesson than Bret thinking the movie Jaws is the ideal depiction of sharks.
