Video Technology/Virtual Fieldtrips

I'm becoming increasingly excited about using technology in my classroom, especially with the prospect of taking my students on virtual fields trips and using video technology to expand my classroom beyond the walls of the school. Because I am a social studies major, I think that the possibilities for using technology are endless - in the best way. 

A virtual field trip that I would love to take my (future) secondary social studies students on is to the National WWII Museum. In my experience, kids don't often visit historical museums, and a virtual field trip would be the perfect way to make the past relatable to the them in the present day. With the huge upsurge of the use of technology (and since this will be a virtual field trip!), for a middle- or high school history class studying WWII, I would use: "The War That Changed Your World: Science and Technology of WWII" from the National WWII Museum. Before I did the video conference, I would have the students write a paragraph or make a list of the technology that they think existed and was used during WWII. Then I would use the virtual tour to meet Content Standard 2: All students will understand narratives about major eras of American and world history by identifying the people involved, describing the setting, and sequencing the events. (Comprehending the Past) After taking the virtual field trip, I would have students write a paper comparing and contrasting the technology used in the military today and the technology they learned was used during WWII.

As far as an original video conference, I think it would be awesome for a middle school geography class to skype with a class their age in Africa (who would have to speak English of course!). It would be even better if it could be a video-collaboration with other middle school geography classes in the area. The local classes could research the area in Africa where the other class is from and come up with questions they want to ask them, as well as some kind of skit/performance to let the students in Africa see what students in our area of the United States are like. To further incorporate the physical geography aspect, it would be cool to take videos of the local geography (as a class) to share with the students in Africa - if there are any cool museums or historic sites in the area, that would be even better. The whole unit would really make the students realize that there is a great big world out there, and that kids in other parts of the world are both similar to and different from them.