Online field trips are very beneficial to an art classroom. Due to this technology students are able to visit art museums they would normally never get to see, they can visit online galleries and museums from around the world. Schools are no longer funding field trips as often as they use to, so using online field trips is also an economical solution to a lack of field trip funding. Along with online museums, using Google Maps to locate museums allows students to visually see where they are in the world. I love Google Maps street view function as well, so students can see the museum as if they were driving by.
The pedagogical strategies that would be employed with online field trips would obviously include distant learning and integrating technology, but I believe that active learning would be a large part of the experience. Just like an actual museum, in most cases students will be able to explore the online gallery or museum at their own pace and order. Students will be able to reflect on what they are learning while it is happening through taking notes, asking questions and creating discussions. One of the great parts of online field trips is if you want to learn more about an art piece or artist, open a new tab on your web browser and type the topic in Google!
Technologies that would be hard to integrate into my classroom would be requiring students to be active on a blog or wiki. I think that as a teacher, having a blog or wiki for students to check is more applicable for me rather than students contributing to one of their own. I teach in a very poor farm community and many students have mentioned to me that they do not have access to the Internet outside of school. If this is true or not,I do not know, but I have to assume they are telling the truth. As participation, I can only require the amount of time I give the students to access the Internet with me in the classroom. I would like to see a blog or wiki being used almost as a tutoring or studying tool for students outside the classroom, so they can learn from their peers.
Student accessibility to the internet continues to be an issue for many teachers who are actively seeking to implement technology at a high level in their classroom. There seems to be an assumption that all students have equal access once they leave school; however, this is not always the reality (as you have experienced). However, if accessibility were not an issue, blogging does have a lot of potential for students to publish work, reflect, and comment on each others work.
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