The Grade 3 Field Trip to Southern France

Image by Pierre Marcel via Flickr

On Wednesday, Arsen and I took his grade three class to Arles, France for a peek at some of the paintings Vincent van Gogh created while living there over 120 years ago. When Arsen stopped his kids at the door after recess and explained we were going on a field trip, the class was quite concerned they didn't have their permission forms. Luckily, none were required, nor visas or plane tickets either - this was to be their first virtual field trip.

We started off with a concept map - a very useful cognitive tool - to help the class place the activity in its right context by classifying information within their "Looking Into the Mirror" unit of inquiry.  Using concept maps in an activity introduction triggers long term memory, or what we commonly refer to as "background knowledge" (Pitler, Hubbel, Kuhn, Malenoski, 2007). I'd used Bubblus many times, but not for a while. This can be risky when it comes to web-based applications as they can, and usually are, augmented on a regular basis. So I guess when I hunkered down over Bubblus the day before the activity, I was both relieved and disappointed that there had been no improvements over the previous six months.  We can only hope their business model is healthy - this would be a big loss to the education world.

After we cleared our heads as to where we were and where we were headed, we showed the class an abbreviated A&E video of van Gogh's life. We stopped regularly to help the kids digest difficult words and concepts, as well as giving them a chance to share their own background knowledge with their peers.

Then it was off to Arles, 1889.  I think it is fair to say the kids were blown away by the whole experience, but at the same time, an avatar in a virtual world was easily comprehensible for them. The auditory and visual nature of an experience creates what cognitive scientists refer to as episodic memory. Wikipedia defines episodic memory as, "the memory of autobiographical events (times, places, associated emotions, and other contextual knowledge)  that can be explicitly stated." After visiting a painting of van Gogh's bedroom "in" his bedroom, we went back to the concept map with plenty of ammunition from the video, student and teacher discussion, and the first part of their trip. With thoughtful discussion, the students added to the Bubblus and then it was time to head back to France.

I'll let the video below explain the rest, but after the Flip Mino ran out of memory, we again visited the concept map to have the students add new knowledge. In this process the learners analyze information so that it can be categorized and connected to what they understand. This can of course lead to new understanding. Both Arsen and I were very pleased to see how much the students had absorbed during the experience - and it was an experience - this was an exercise in how virtual field trips can be as much an episodic memory for our learners as a regular field trip. However, if the school wants to send us to Southern France next time, you won't hear any complaints from me.