Virtual tours replace field trips for students in times of Covid pandemic
NOIDA : Taking a whole group of students on a field trip is a thing of the past since Covid-19 hit the country in 2020. However, the viral infection has failed to break the spirit of some schools, which are coming up with creative ways to give students a feel of the field trips in the virtual classrooms.
From a trip to the planetarium to the zoo, students are now able to visit places of educational interest virtually. “From November 2020, we started organizing virtual trips for students to various places where we usually used to have our annual excursions. In the last one year, virtual trips have been organized to Delhi’s Zoo, Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary and several monuments. We try to make the experience as interactive as possible,” said Jyoti Gupta, Director, DPS Sahibabad, Ghaziabad.
These virtual tours have been possible with the help of new technology. “We had organized a tour for our students to Udaipur’s City Palace and the Rail Museum there. Google Earth’s view feature lets students see the incredible beauty of Rajasthan. Students got an opportunity to enjoy boat ride at Lake Pichola followed by a virtual tour of the famous City Palace Museum,” said Renu Singh, principal of Amity School Noida.
Sunila Athley, principal of Amity International School in Sector 6, Vasundhara added, “Through virtual tours , online route maps , video clips , and animations, our students visited Kumbhalgarh fort, Hastal Minar, Hampi, Nalanda, Tughlakabad Fort and many other historical monuments across the country. Places that are thousands of miles away came closer to the homes of children. It was a learning experience through the digital mode and was resource saving at the same time”.
As part of such tours, students were also able to visit places virtually where they would otherwise may not have been able to go to. Recently, a virtual tour was organized for students of Class 2 of Amity School, Noida, to Sesame Place, USA. “Students got an opportunity to get a glimpse of Sesame Place, the relaxing Water RideGoodman Ship and the popular Count Splash Castle in USA,” added Singh.
Another such tour to France was organized by Shiv Nadar School in Noida in December, where the students got an opportunity to visit the world’s largest Fusion Reactor of ITER and Saint Michel L’observatoire virtually. “Today, education is no more about books and traditional student teacher classrooms. In this digital era, virtual reality seems to be the natural next step for the education sector where it can create experiential learning. The students were absolutely thrilled by the experience, as was evident in their tour reports which were later discussed in the class,” said Shashi Banerjee, director of education, Shiv Nadar School, Noida.