Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Virtual Field Trips - part 3b

Last week Professor Linton posted an entry outlining the various field trips (VFTs) her pre-service teachers had created for my 3rd graders...

... This past Friday we decided to tackle one as a class. None of us, myself included, have ever done a virtual field trip. As I've told my students, this is a learning experience for me as much as it is for them. We looked at a few of the options and decided the "The Sun" was the most intriguing (and admittedly, I steered them that a way bit due to time & technical limitations but more on that later).



We looked at the "The Sun" VFT and out of all of the activities we decided to try the video & KWL chart in Activity #4. As I mentioned there were some limitations of both time & technology that helped guide our decision making as much as the students interest. For example, the initial activity in the "The Sun"involves a BrainPop Jr. video. We do not have a BrainPop account so we were unable to watch that video. As part of this entire Brooklyn, North Carolina process is to see what works and what doesn't it was actually a great learning experience on both sides. For the pre-service teachers it was a good point of reference for knowing what schools/classes/teachers/students have access too before creating assignments. For us it was good to hear about a resource we don't currently use and that there might be great value for us in a BrainPop subscription.

For the activity, we started by going over what a KWL chart is. Students were quite familiar, but it's always great to review.

We then tool a look at the Padlet site. I explained how to add a post to it. We also discussed how to name each post. Firstname-K was the naming format for "Know" with a similar format, ____-W and ____-L, for "Want to know" and "Learned".

We all entered at least one "Know" stickie. Then, we watched the video as a class. Students knew we'd watch it once and then I'd play it repeatedly in the background while they worked. That way they'd get an opportunity to focus on the whole video without worrying about having to remember everything they see or hear in one pass. Once the video was finished I replayed it 3 times (what time permitted).

Since we are dealing with 32 students in a 1:1 lab, with no headphones, watching the video from a single location is the only way to keep sane and truly hear what is being said.

After that first viewing students were free to add & edit as much a they wanted for the next 10 or so minutes. The Padlet got pretty full...

One of my 3rd graders made the astute discovery that if you scrolled down a bit the Padlet would expand and offer unlimited space. Things were getting quite crowded so that discovery was excellent.


As for the time & technical constraints I mentioned earlier? Not having a BrainPop account was a definite technical glitch, but not a big deal, we just did a different activity. As for time, in a single 45 minute period explaining the VFT, demonstrating the Padlet, watching the video a few times, and filling up the KWL Padlet ate up 40 of those 45 minutes. The last few were spent on showing students how to download a PDF of all the entries and some of the other Padlet features & settings. A great activity for a single period. If I were to have this class daily, or multiple times a day, I would definitely try more of the activities and really try to do the entire project from start to finish. This is one of the downside to being a computer teachers, I only get one or two periods a week with each class. No worries, we made the most of our time!

The students had a lot of fun interacting with a KWL chart in a new way. They are excited to hear the feedback from "The Sun" VFT group. We will be compiling our thoughts this week into some feedback documents of our own.

Good times!

57 comments:

  1. I was sick last Friday...(Still a good idea even though I was sick.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think padlet was very cool because you can comment about something and everyone else can see it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think that the padlet was cool also.

      Delete
  3. What does he mean "ate up 40 of those 45 minutes"?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well last week was pretty fun but I wish there was a button that made only your posts visible so you could move It out of the pile. Otherwise It was cool. I hope we do more!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I like writing comments about the sun ps random comments for what I know.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Last Friday we went on 'the Sun' website. It was fun watching the video because it had a lot of facts and it was really detailed. We got to write down some of the facts in the video and see other ones. First, we wrote what we already knew. Then, we wrote what we wanted to learn. Lastly, we watched the video and wrote what we learned.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is an part I forgot to put in: This process is called the KWL. KWL stands for Know, What, Learn. The K stands for what we know, the W stands for What we want to learn, and the L stands for what we learned.

      Delete
    2. nice comment Eshaan

      Delete
  7. I thought the video was very interesting because it has lots of facts. my favorite part was when we got to post lots of comments. When everyone had there comments the screen was super crowded.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think that the screen was super-super-super crowded

      Delete
    2. The only problem about having the screen being crowded with comments is that you can't always see your own comment.

      Delete
  8. The experience that I took at computers last week was pretty cool. But when I heard that we didn't get to use brain pop jr., I was pretty bummed. The video was pretty interesting. I always wanted to learn about the sun. I really like that we could post what we Know, Wonder, and Learn about the sun. ( F.Y.I I LOVE the sun!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was also bummed when we didn't get to use brain pop jr too!

      Delete
    2. I love it too! It's so cool.

      Delete
  9. Well last friday was really fun because I got to see other kids posts and we got to watch a show about the sun.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I liked the video also Olivia.

      Delete
    2. Hey Olivia, how come I didn't see any of your posts

      Delete
    3. thanks for replying phin

      Delete
  10. I liked the idea of KWL it was very fun I also liked the way it was done.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I thought the video was very cool because it showed so many facts that i didn't know about the sun.It also had very cool picture's that I thought were very interesting.I had fun writing or typing fun fact's about the sun.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I like this activity because we can watch a movie about the sun and we can write what we know about the sun, what we want to learn about the sun, and after we watch the movie we write about what we learned about the sun. I mostly like the activity because after we watch the movie we know more things about the sun. I don't like the activity because when we reload the computer we can see everyone's KWL but we cannot see our KWL.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I liked it a lot. I watched the video and loved it. I showed it to my mom because I liked it a lot. A fact I remember is that the sun is 92 million miles from earth.the graphics are wonderful and I liked the way they started the video and ended it. I LOVE THE VIDEO!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. when you wanted to see other people wanted to see your comment they had to press command R to see them. Me and Kate could not figure it out.

    ReplyDelete
  15. It also had a lot of facts but I only got 2 down even though we watched It 3 times but they were long so I couldn't write a lot unless I did a lot of small one's but hopefully they didn't get lost.[again]

    ReplyDelete
  16. I love how the video is pretending it is space school.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I really like what we have ben doing because we have ben studying the sun and went to space school but it was just a video.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I liked the video. It had a lot of interesting facts (except the part of the exploding sun).The video showed how far is it from Earth, when is it going to die, and there was a sun god named Ra.I still think the sun should not explode.KABLOOM!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I liked the exploding sun part!!

      Delete
  19. I liked the site. I loved how you named the video "Space School". I also have a question. Did you look the information from the video up on the internet? (let me guess, yes you probably did.) On the KWL chart, the L is the category where you will always find a thing that you learned. There are 9,000,000,000,000,000 facts in the video!!! ( not literally ) I learned a ton of facts in that video. I think that this sun virtual file trip is awesome!!!

    ReplyDelete
  20. I really liked everything that we did, it was fun. I loved learning new things about the sun, I'm really interested in that kind of stuff! I really want to learn more even though I already know a lot! It's really fun! You should try!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not that interested in that kind of stuff but I also think it's cool.

      Delete
  21. I really enjoyed the sun project because the video was giving facts. One of my favorite words is fact. I also really enjoy learning. For me that activity was really fun. I really enjoyed that activity.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I really liked it because we got to watch a movie. But: IT DIDIN'T ANSER MY QUESTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    BUT who needs THEIR information?!? I already knew the anser anyway so I was just testing it.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I had a Idea for the people who had there post on top to move It off and then the people that were on top to move It down.e.c.t.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Last weak I went to 3rdsunactivity it was pretty cool to post every where ( I can't see my comment) First my whacked a video about the sun. Then we wrote way we learned then we pressed the out of the box button.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I definitely enjoyed space school! There was not a signal thing I dislike about that amazing book! Everybody should watch it!! It can teach you a lot about space. Also it can teach you a lot about space. But the best part is this video is it is your computer or anything you are using to watch this video has became a planetarium!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cool but what do you mean by book??????

      Delete
  26. Last week I had a lot of fun, doing the KWL was a great idea. I learned a lot of new facts about the sun. What was cool was it answered my question the W. Another cool thing is that when ever you do command r you could see what your class mates wrote.

    ReplyDelete
  27. The Sun VFT field trip was very informative, providing information on the gas's of the sun, the expiration date of the sun, and the worshipers and properties of the sun. It would be a good learning experience for people who where interested in the sun. How ever, even if you scroll down, the padlet would not be ideal for any class 20 or over. You should make sure people are listening. I won't name names, but two people messed up: They said the greek sun god is Ra,not helios! Ra is the Egypt Sun god, not the greek sun god! Overall, though, this is a good VFT for anyone interested in science.

    ReplyDelete
  28. It's just really cool how you can actually study the sun. You know, our most important star, it would be cool to study it, even just studying a regular star. A big ball of fiery gas, it would be pretty cool to study! You can't just walk up to a star and go like, "hey, cool!" like you can with a leaf or a bug!

    ReplyDelete
  29. I really liked the VFT because when we watched the video it was nice that we could type while we watch so we did not have to remember a million things.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Reply to KateA's comment : I really don't like Brain Pop Junior, so i'm totally not bummed. P.S I like the way you used the word bummed instead of mad or anything else.

    ReplyDelete
  31. I loved the video we watched. It was very interesting and I learned a few interesting facts like that the sun is made out of oxygen, carbon dioxide, helium and hydrogen.

    ReplyDelete
  32. last friday,we wached the sun video. lots of people made mastakes.ven me. in the video i loved the sun.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I tink it was fun and squishy. I think that it should be more organized. I learned that heat from the suns core takes 100,000 years to reach the suns surface. The solor wind hits the magnetic field, and hits the top of the Earth. This is The Aroraboreals.

    ReplyDelete
  34. I loved theVFT because the video,
    1.the video was awesome
    2.we could type wile the video was going.
    Thanks

    ReplyDelete