An Introduction to Electronic Field Trips

What I Bring to the Table

When asked what I could contribute to the Live From field trips, I immediately thought of the first-time teachers struggling, as I had, to integrate cyberspace into their classroom environments. My goal here is to produce a document that will assist beginners in handling their first electronic field trip.

Who? - Hello Beginners!

This document is designed for the first-timer, beginner, newbie, never-been-there- nor- done-that participant of an electronic field trip. You are involved in education, down on the ground, in the classroom, whether as a student, parent, teacher, community and/or business volunteer. I speak to educators for mechanical convenience in the production of this document, but everyone is encouraged to come along on a trip of discovery making learning powerful and alive.

Prerequisites

This document will provide hands-on activities and resources that the beginner can order or access right away. The prescribed actions assume ready and easy access to the Internet. People not yet using the Internet can take advantage, now, of this type of educational opportunity. This can be accomplished with ready and easy access to the following resources: phone, VCR, TV, Fax, snail mail and/or Fed X-type carriers.

Of course, a functional and practical understanding of your particular technology tool set is needed. Taking on a new educational technology is not the occasion to be learning many new skills at the same time, unless, of course, you do not also have a life.

Personal Adoption of Technology in Education as a Way of Life

Institutions rhetorically endorse technology in education. But at this time, down in the classroom, the teacher is getting little support. At this point in time most of what I do is done on my own time. The odd stipend finds its way to my checkbook, but that is an exception. To wit, the activity of running an electronic field trip in the classroom is part of a teachers personal adoption of technology in education, a fact of life that defines you as an innovator in your school, district, region, state or country.